A half century ago, two computers at UCLA and Stanford were linked into the first computer network. It was called ARPANET, after the military research lab that funded it. In the years since then, the network of networks that grew out of that lab has developed into the Internet, the nervous system of modern commerce and communication.
With the rise of social media, the Internet allows all of us to become collectors and sharers of information. The online world is just as indispensable to governments, militaries, activists and spies as it is to advertisers and shoppers. And whether the goal is to win an election or a battle, or just to sell an album, everyone uses the same tactics.
This new world takes many forms and the best place to start is with the past. In the 19th century we began to build the first long-distance telegraph wires and thereafter radio and television. Each new technology was used to wage information wars. During the Second World War one of the most popular radio stations in the UK was an English-language station produced by the Nazis – because the British loved to laugh at it. In the 1960s and 1970s, alongside the millions of tonnes of bombs the US dropped on North Vietnam were tens of millions of leaflets, which the North Vietnamese promptly used as toilet paper.
The Internet has changed all that. In the space of a decade, social media has turned everyone into a collector and distributor of information. With a smartphone anyone can attack an adversary’s centre of gravity, the minds and spirits of its people.
Social networks create ways to reach out and attack, even from thousands of miles away. Propagandists can identify a few dozen sympathisers out of a faraway population of millions and then groom them to attack their fellow citizens. Voices from around the globe can stir hatred between rival peoples. They can even divide and conquer a country’s politics from afar without firing a shot.
Our world today has transformed how fast information spreads, how far it travels, and how easy it is to access it. This has reshaped everything including the news business and political campaigns. Yet although the truth is more widely available than ever before, it can be buried in a sea of lies. Today Russia is reaping the rewards of being ahead of the game, using its online strength to substitute for declining military power.
The Internet has granted governments not just new ways to control their own people but also a global reach through the power of disinformation. As everything is out in the open, more and more countries and groups are learning how to wage this new form of digital warfare.
On networks of billions of people, a tiny number of individuals can instantly turn the tide of an information war one way or another. What Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey allow (or ban) in their digital kingdoms can make or break entire companies and change the course of the world.
Those who can direct the flow of this swirling tide can accomplish incredible good. They can free people, expose crimes, save lives, and prompt far-reaching reforms. But they can also accomplish astonishing evil. They can foment violence, stoke hate, spread lies, spark wars, and even erode democracy itself.
* Gordon is the former president and chief executive of BMMI. He can be reached at gordonboyle@hotmail.com