Recent Russian clandestine attempts to use “authentic” U.S. media and social media influencers to corrupt elections are hardly surprising, considering its commitment to “launder” propaganda and spread socially divisive messages. Moreover, they “are more sophisticated than in prior election cycles,” according to an official in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
The U.S. has charged and sanctioned Russian state media executives and restricted Kremlin-linked broadcasters because of Moscow's widespread campaign to interfere with the presidential elections in 2016. That pattern continued in the 2020 election and the latest round of reports indicate it has increased during this election cycle.
In September, the US Justice Department announced charges against two RT (formerly Russia Today) employees for funneling nearly $10 million into a U.S. company," and Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused RT of engaging in "influence operations and military procurement.”
That prompted the September 17 announcement by Meta that it has acted to protect the integrity of its social platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and Threads. "After careful consideration, we expanded our ongoing enforcement against Russian state media outlets. Rossiya Segodnya, RT and other related entities are now banned from our apps globally for foreign interference activity.”
On the same day, Microsoft charged that Russian operatives have in recent weeks mounted online attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign by producing and disseminating videos promoting “outlandish conspiracy theories” aimed at stoking U.S. racial and political divisions.
Other companies are weighing in. The following appeared on NBC News on September 23:
TikTok said Monday [Sept 23] it had removed accounts belonging to the Russian state media outlets RT and Sputnik for engaging in what it called “covert influence operations.”
The social video app said in a statement on its website that it removed accounts associated with TV-Novosti and Rossiya Segodnya, the parent organizations of the RT television network and the Russian news agency Sputnik. TikTok said the accounts had violated its community guidelines, in particular its ban on deceptive behavior.
These recent developments follow the July warnings from U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia planned to “covertly use social media” to try to sway public opinion and undermine support for Ukraine in swing states.
Alliance between U.S. activists and Russia to impact farming and food
Frightening in its implications for food security, anti-biotechnology groups have been identified as amplifying Russian President Vladimir Putin’s disinformation campaigns. Although these groups may believe they are only aligning with RT and other Russian propaganda outlets on this single issue, their cynical alliance is destabilizing the United States on science issues more generally and is impacting global policy. Prime example: Golden Rice.
One of us (Dr. Miller) wrote recently about the deplorable example of genetically engineered Golden Rice, which could ameliorate the scourge of vitamin A deficiency in countries where rice is the population’s primary source of calories. The rice has been widely tested, shown to be safe and effective, and is inexpensive because it has (intentionally) not been patented. Farmers and public health advocates are clamoring for it. No serious concerns have ever been raised about its safety. Human feeding trials in China have shown that Golden Rice can prevent this scourge, but decades after it was developed, Golden Rice is still not available in the countries that need it.
Why are biotechnology rejectionists enjoying some “successes?” The Russia-activist coalition crystallized in 2016, and in a massive review of news coverage in 2018, two Iowa State researchers found that “Distinctive patterns in Russian news provide evidence of a coordinated information campaign that could turn public opinion against genetic engineering.”
One of the omnipresent campaigns over the past decade has been RT’s relentless portrayal of Golden Rice as a capitalist scheme to take over the world food supply — the same theme echoed by anti-biotech activists in North America and Europe.
And who did the Iowa State study identify as the primary propaganda sources targeting genetically modified crops? RT and Sputnik, both state-controlled news media.
“Nearly all articles in which the term GMO [Genetically Modified Organism] appeared as ‘clickbait’ were published by RT,” they found, a pattern similar to the most recent revelations. The research in 2018 and the just-released revelations mimic almost word for word the talking points of U.S. activists who opposed Golden Rice.
RT and Sputnik stories were nearly always negative about GMOs, touching on a variety of issues outlined by Greenpeace and other GM rejectionists: “opposition to multinational firms, skepticism of elected officials and regulatory agencies,” as well as “environmental concerns (cross-pollination, species loss, chemical pollution), health risks (a cause of cancer, Zika), nutritional deficiencies, political corruption, negative consequences for developing countries (suicide of Indian farmers), corporate malfeasance (manipulation of facts by Monsanto), and corruption.”
Useful idiots
Who promoted these deceitful Russian propaganda outbursts? They were common throughout the “protest industry.” Particularly prominent: anti-crop biotechnology organization U.S. Right to Know (USRTK), and its director, Gary Ruskin, a well-funded disinformation organization that emerged a decade ago after failed attempts to pass statewide GMO labeling initiatives.
Russian propaganda intended to sow chaos and divisiveness in the U.S. population and to damage American economic interests and public health goes back decades. In the 1980s during the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union concocted an elaborate disinformation scheme to blame the appearance of the HIV virus and AIDS on U.S. military research. They first planted the story in a sympathetic Indian newspaper and then followed it up with other fake stories that cited the initial report.
They're still at it. This appeared in the New York Times only last week:
As a vehicle for promulgating various kinds of disinformation, Russia has extended the program to avail itself of what Lenin a century ago dubbed "useful idiots" — in this case, anti-biotechnology non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Many environmental NGOs, most prominently Greenpeace, regard any genetic engineering success as a kind of Trojan Horse that could sway public opinion in favor of this “destructive technology.” The two most notorious domestic “hit groups” are the Environmental Working Group and the infamous USRTK, which pretends to be part of a grassroots movement but is mostly funded by the Organic Consumers Association. OCA is not a mainstream organic trade group but a rump organization of science deniers known for their rejection of medical vaccines (They cause autism!), support for homeopathy, and the belief that Zika virus outbreaks are a conspiracy perpetrated by the world’s chemical companies. Ronnie Cummins, head of the OCA, which is USRTK’s main financial benefactor, has appeared on RT to spread his perfidious anti-genetic engineering and anti-vaccine messages.
How NGO activists work
According to University of Florida plant biologist Kevin Folta, who has been attacked repeatedly by OCA and USRTK for supposedly being a Monsanto “sock puppet,” the activists “develop a narrative that suggests industry collusion or undue influence, especially with any attempt to connect the faculty member to Monsanto, a company that became the bogeyman favorite of activists.”
Co-author of this article Henry Miller has been on the USRTK hit list since he emerged as a prominent opponent of an unscientific, unwise, and probably unconstitutional 2012 California referendum issue that would have required labeling of genetically engineered food.
Biotechnology supporters Neal de Grasse Tyson, Bill Nye and Bill Gates also have been victimized with misleading hatchet-job “profiles” by USRTK. Other eminent academics, journalists and public figures, such as University of Illinois Professor (Emeritus) Bruce Chassy, University of Oklahoma Law Professor (Emeritus) Drew Kershen and investigative science writer and Genetic Literacy Project founder Jon Entine, co-author of this piece, have also been targeted.
The University of Florida’s Kevin Folta has characterized the activists’ goal as leaving “these trusted professors, dietitians and physicians ‘Google Dead’ — a state where their online reputation will always drag the anchor of activist derision.”
Folta, Tyson, Nye and Gates have been accused of being dupes of ‘globalist capitalists’ and even had the distinction of being featured as one of the “10 Most Evil People in the World who lie about Science, Pharmaceuticals and GMOs” by Mike Adams’ Natural News — a site that regurgitates Russian propaganda almost verbatim. (Natural News has since been banned from many social media platforms.)
What next?
Persuasive and disturbing evidence suggests that the alliance of U.S. and European-based NGOs with Vladimir Putin has succeeded in muddying the media and scientific waters on crop biotechnology.
What’s the benefit for Russia? Moscow is trying to position itself as a major non-genetic engineering agricultural supplier, so demonizing U.S.-dominated biotechnology advances in agriculture serves their interests — and undermines American farming and farmers.
Putin also believes that large-scale organic farming might provide Russia with economic advantages in trade with Europe and other countries where GMO-derived food (but not GMO animal feed) is banned. The alliance with credulous and easily manipulated pro-organic, anti-biotechnology useful idiots in the West is a natural.
The fake-news-based disinformation campaigns, many with Russian links, on issues ranging from agricultural chemicals and genetic engineering to nuclear energy, fracking, and the reliability of U.S.-made vaccines, erode the ability of the public to judge what is true and what is not concerning arcane public policy issues. They damage our economy and Americans’ health. This falls into the category of what the military calls “psyops,” or psychological operations, an element of warfare. We need to fight back aggressively.
Earlier versions of this article have run in The Daily Caller and the Genetic Literacy Project.
Henry I. Miller, a physician and molecular biologist, is the Glenn Swogger Distinguished Fellow at the American Council on Science and Health. He was the founding director of the FDA’s Office of Biotechnology. Find Henry on X @HenryIMiller
Jon Entine, founder and executive director of the Genetic Literacy Project, is an Emmy-winning investigative TV News producer and author of seven books, including three on genetics. Please follow him on X at @JonEntine
Henry I. Miller, MS, MD
Henry I. Miller, MS, MD, is the Glenn Swogger Distinguished Fellow at the American Council on Science and Health. His research focuses on public policy toward science, technology, and medicine, encompassing a number of areas, including pharmaceutical development, genetic engineering, models for regulatory reform, precision medicine, and the emergence of new viral diseases. Dr. Miller served for fifteen years at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in a number of posts, including as the founding director of the Office of Biotechnology.
