What does malign information influence seek to achieve?

There are three commonly occurring strategic narratives in malign information influence by antagonistic foreign powers – constructive narratives, destructive narratives and evasive narratives.

Constructive narratives: This is the truth!

The constructive narrative is about highlighting certain parts of a story in order to convey a positive image, much like advertising or marketing. The difference is that it contains a misleading element. An example is when an antagonistic foreign power tries to make itself appear better than it really is, by only showing selected facts or by skewing the information to its advantage.

Destructive narrative: This is a lie!

The destructive narrative is about preventing the emergence of coherent narratives, or suppressing other narratives. Russia, for example, is trying to show that the West and Sweden are societies in decline and that nothing works here. They use real events but compile them into a context that is misleading.

Evasive narratives: Look over here!

The evasive narrative aims to divert attention from a particular issue through distraction. To achieve this, humour, memes or conspiracy theories are often used.

One example can be found in the German election campaign in 2021. It has been possible to show retroactively that state-controlled or state-affiliated Russian media set the narrative. The German Green Party pursued a policy that criticised Germany’s dependence on Russian gas. This stance was not appreciated by Russia and a narrative was therefore pursued indicating the Greens wanted to ban pets in Germany to reduce climate impact. They also attempted to smear the party leader Anna-Lena Baerbock by releasing a large volume of fake pornographic images of her. This resulted in the Greens being forced to debate pets and pornography instead of Russian gas dependence and foreign policy issues.

One way to understand how malign information influence works is to analyse which narratives are being spread, and why. However, it is just as important to look at who they are targeting. Are the narratives targeting the entire population, or particular groups or individuals more specifically?

Large-scale data analysis can be used to create targeted actions. This means that someone can gather information from social media, surveys or other sources to identify people with similar personality traits and opinions. The information can then be used to customise messages to make them more effective. If the analysis shows that a certain group is worried about the economy, messages can be designed to amplify these fears or steer their perception in a certain direction.

If you know who a narrative is aimed at, it will be easier to understand the purpose behind it and how malign information influence is intended to work in that particular case. Here are three common ways of directing messages.

Society level – wide audience

Malign information influence is aimed at broad groups in society, or society as a whole, by using extensive, common narratives.

Sociodemographic focus – specific groups

Specific target groups are identified based on demographic factors such as age, income, education or ethnicity. That way, messages can be created adapted to appeal to the members of the group.

Psychographic focus – individuals

Data about individuals is used to identify specific personality traits such as political preferences or behavioural patterns, which may form the basis for individually tailored communication.