How I Almost Fell Down The Russian Disinformation Hole

February 14, 2013 - a date I will always remember.

It was on February 14, 2013 that I had a sleep study done under the advice of my doctor. But I vividly remember that day for a different reason. 

On the other side of the planet, it was already February 15, 2013, and over Chelyabinsk, Russia, an 18-meter, 9,100 metric-ton asteroid exploded at 29,700 meters with the equivalent force of a 500-kiloton nuclear bomb.

How are these two interconnected?

If you've never had a sleep study done in a clinical setting, the room the study is done in is similar to a hotel room. If you've ever been hospitalized, even in a private room, sleep is a challenge. For a sleep study, they want you in as natural a setting as possible.

The room I was in had a king-size bed, nightstand, bathroom, and a large TV. As I was doing my nighttime routine, I was surfing through the cable channels (digital devices weren't allowed), and I watched RT (Russia Today) for the first time. It was wall-to-wall coverage of the Chelyabinsk meteor. I'm fascinated by earth sciences and astronomy, and the continued flow of Russian dashcam videos that captured the blast was riveting. Around 23:00 hours the staff came in and told me enough news, it was time to go to sleep.

After my study was done, I wanted more information about the meteor. How much damage was done? Had they recovered any fragments? I went to more conventional news sources, and the coverage was light, so I went back to RT.

While watching, RT did a story about Room 641A in San Francisco. If you're not familiar, the story about Room 641A was first reported in 2007 by the United States PBS show Frontline, and shortly after, Keith Olbermann on MSNBC did a segment. 

Room 641A was connected to multiple fiber optic trunk lines in the AT&T communications network that provided warrantless surveillance of electronic communications - phone - cellular - SMS text - e-mail - Internet - to the National Security Agency (NSA). It was questionably legal under the Patriot Act. Room 641A was added to the AT&T network in 2003, and it was one of several similar monitoring locations in the United States. 

I knew about Room 641A, so the RT story about it and other programs used by the U.S. government for internal electronic communications monitoring was not surprising to me. After that story, I got my dose of meteor news. I was impressed by the coverage about Room 641A and thought to myself, "This is the kind of story I wish news agencies in the United States would cover."

There you go. At that moment, I was in the "funnel." I added RT to my list of "things to watch for news," but I will add by 2013, I wasn't watching much broadcast news anymore. Mostly, it would be on Saturday or Sunday morning as background noise while waking up or tracking a major news event when it happened.

I can't remember what story RT was presenting that had me realize I was being manipulated. I also can't recall if it was due to manipulative language or if the story was misinformation or disinformation wrapped in an attractive package. I do remember it was like hitting a brick wall, and I never watched RT again.

It was that easy to enter the funnel, but I hadn't reached a place where I was so unaccepting of the other answers available that I was seeking an alternative reality. A key pillar of hybrid warfare is to destroy the credibility of existing sources of information.

The best disinformation is wrapped in the truth, as it makes it harder to spot and disprove. It also makes the smaller lies easier to accept. As a person becomes more radicalized, the more they accept an alternative reality. The easiest example of this in the United States is QAnon and Sovereign Citizens.

It's very easy to fall down a rabbit hole. It's harder to realize you are sliding down, and the deeper you go, the harder it gets to climb back out.