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Author’s note: Foreign exploitation by autocratic countries of domestic strife in democratic nations is de rigeur but does not have to be, argues Bette member David M in this guest op-ed. David M has a background in science and technology, and he writes periodic guest op-eds for Bette Dangerous.—hsc
Preventing Foreign Interference in Protests
By David M
The protests in France this past week have been enormously destructive, not just materially, but in morale. Another visible chip has been taken out of the world’s faith in democracy.
It’s unfortunate, because it’s not as though we couldn’t see this coming. Documented foreign disinformation campaigns have been employed in the lead up to every election in Europe in recent memory. The exploitation by foreign actors of existing cultural and political divisions within our democratic societies is now perfectly de rigour.
Don’t get me wrong. Protest is a crucial part of any healthy democracy. More than that, protest is the reason for democracy. The right to harangue your fellow citizens and try to sway their opinions your way is the very fulcrum on which democracy pivots. If it’s not happening, then you should worry.
Looting is not. When a protest degenerates into mass theft and even violence it ceases to be a protest. That is not only injurious to democracy, it is injurious to public support for the protests themselves. If the voting public comes to equate protest with rioting and criminality then protest itself becomes the victim.
My belief is that the recent protests in France sprung from legitimate grievance and healthy debate, and were led by people of good faith. But very early on foreign actors became aware of the upcoming protest and injected their social media campaigns to move the protesting demographic younger and more hot headed. That was all they needed to do.
The operation cost almost nothing, did enormous damage to democracy and fueled the European right. The return on investment for these operations is enviable. And we let them do it, over and over.
These foreign influence operations are ostensibly covert, but only barely. Bog stock OSINT hobbyists report on these activities every day. Sweden even has a small national agency to track these activities. I came across this article only a couple days ago...
https://theconversation.com/what-andy-burnham-can-learn-from-sweden-about-defending-against-russian-disinformation-293609
The article reports that Sweden has a “psychological defense” agency, but it appears that it doesn’t have any teeth. For example they don’t have the power to cancel a protest when they detect foreign interference. But we could change that.
What if every EU nation had one of these agencies? And what if every EU nation created a legal framework that essentially outlaws an upcoming protest if their domestic psychological defense agency registers that protest as the victim of foreign interference.
If the protest proceeds unlawfully the police would then have considerably greater latitude for detention, arrest or even the investigation of the organizers than is appropriate in a democratic country for an ordinary protest. At the very least, cities could call up police reserves in advance so they are prepared.
But this is not the true goal of this new legal framework. What we really want is to incentivize the organizers of protests to resist foreign interference. By having a public record of such interference we begin to require organizers to consider their reputations. These are the people who are true stakeholders in preventing the decay of protest culture and these are the people most capable of doing something about it. We need to make them care.
Obviously it would require a change in the law and there is certain to be considerable debate on any law that curtails freedom of expression. But these are exactly the debates that every democracy on Earth should be having these days. Otherwise, in 10 years we won’t exist.—David M for Bette Dangerous
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