Newsroom/Journalist training to counter SEO influence

Type: Counter TTP
Name: Newsroom/Journalist training to counter SEO influence
Id: C00188
Summary: August 2014, Russian news agency Rossiya Segodnya commissioned a poll in France with poorly worded questions and a statistically insignificant subsample that RT used to back a story titled “15% of French people back ISIS [Islamic State of Iraq and Syria] militants, poll finds.” The story and summary infographic circulated on the internet, initially appearing primarily on French sites. After a week, the generally respectable digital U.S. news outlet Vox ran the story, now titled “One in Six French People Say They Support ISIS.” Although this effect has now worn off or been overwritten, for a time—despite a later story from The Washington Post debunking the claim—typing “ISIS France” into Google resulted in an autosuggestion of “ISIS France support” (Borthwick, 2015).
Playbooks: nan
Metatechnique: resilience
Resources needed: media,educators
Belongs to tactic stage: TA08

Counters these Tactics

Counters these Techniques

Seen in incidents

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