 Trading up the chain: planting a story with a small or local news outlet, from where it can then be amplified.91 It is here that disinformation can become misinformation, as unwitting recipients, themselves, can act as propagators simply by interacting with or sharing unverified, virulent content.92 5) Distraction: All actors within the system work together to prevent objective sense-making within the target zone of operations. This can be achieved through saturating or flooding the information environment with “noise,” by disrupting telecommunications infrastructure, or banning the use of certain social media platforms. Impacts and implications The Syrian Civil Defense, the official name of the White Helmets, is a Nobel-prize nominated humanitarian organization made up of 3,400 volunteers who are credited with saving thousands of lives in Syria. They’ve also documented and shared thousands of hours of first-hand video footage of alleged war crimes and other atrocities, which has been used by UN war crimes investigators for advocacy and legal accountability work. Graphika, the University of Washington, the Digital Forensics Research Lab (DRFL) and The Guardian have detailed how the Russian government has made systematic use of information operations to amplify manufactured claims and false accusations against the White Helmets in the context of armed conflict in Syria, labeling them a terrorist organization with links to al-Qaeda and ISIS. So far, Graphika estimates that “bots and trolls linked to other Russian disinformation campaigns have reached an estimated 56 million people on Twitter with posts related to the White Helmets during ten key news moments of 2016 and 2017.” These online defamation campaigns attempt to delegitimize the White Helmets’ status as a neutral and impartial humanitarian actor in an attempt to make them a legitimate target for kinetic attacks.93 Over 210 white helmet volunteers have been killed since 2013. Their centers “have been hit by missiles, barrel bombs and artillery bombardment 238 times between June 2016 and December 2017.”94 “This propaganda … paints a wrong image of the White Helmets, an image that is the opposite of what we really are…this gave the air forces an alleged reason to attack our centers and target us while on rescue missions. We have lost so many colleagues because of this.”95 “False accusations, abusive language and violent threats [also] chip away at the volunteers’ morale,” and “are designed to undermine the evidence they collect,” according to Graphika. As a consequence, the operational capacities of the White Helmets and their partners are eroded, as they navigate a sustained defamation campaign that cripples morale, diverts attention away from live-saving activities, intimidates affiliates of the organization and puts affected populations in harm’s way. The 91 According to Marwick and Lewis, “media manipulators are able to trade stories “up the chain” of media outlets…by planting a story with a small or local news outlet who may be too understaffed or financially strained to sufficiently fact-check it. If the story performs well enough…it gets amplified beyond its current scope.” (Marwick and Lewis, 38-39). 92 Bertolin, 18-19; Oh and Adkins, 11. 93 For example, “KARMA IS A BITCH -> #WhiteHelmets killed. That will teach you to kill innocent children to fake #syriachemicalattack!! #Syriahoax #MFAnews.” (@BinsakSB). Furthermore “Those at the heart of these conspiracy theories, such as Vanessa Beeley, call for the White Helmets to be killed as legitimate military targets.” See Graphika, “Killing the Truth: How Russia is Fuelling a Disinformation Campaign to Cover up War Crimes in Syria (The Syria Campaign:2017), 13. 94 Graphika., 2017. 95 Graphika., 2017. MERCY CORPS The Weaponization of Social Media: How social media can spark violence and what can be done about it 44