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| Lessons Learned • Disinformation is Ineffective Against a Well-Educated Citi- zenry: By essentially inoculating the population against fake news, education efforts have the greatest long-term potential to neutralize the effects of the Kremlin’s disinformation operations, especially when combined with an all of the above approach that includes monitoring and reporting fake news, promoting alternative positive narratives, and supporting independent media and investigative journalism. Furthermore, this approach tackles the problem at the root Kremlin-backed disinformation stories are just an outgrowth of the rise of false stories on the internet—even if the Kremlin were to order an end to all of its disinformation operations tomorrow, the problem of fake news stories would still exist. The Kremlin’s internet trolls did not invent fake news, but they recognized and exploited it, using new technologies to have far greater reach than past efforts. VerDate Mar 15 2010 04:06 Jan 09, 2018 Jkt PO 00000 Frm 00118 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6601 S:\FULL COMMITTEE\HEARING FILES\COMMITTEE PRINT 2018\HENRY\JAN. 9 REPORT FOREI-42327 with DISTILLER 113 Netherlands Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, General Intelligence Security Service, Annual Report 2016, at 7. Netherlands Military Intelligence and Security Service, Annual Report 2016 (translated from Dutch. Andrew Higgins, Fake News, Fake Ukrainians How a Group of Russians Tilted a Dutch Vote The New York Times, Feb. 16, 2017. 634 Ibid. 635 Dutch News, Support for Government Parties Slips in New Poll of Polls, FvD Rises Dutch News, Nov. 8, 2017; Andrew Higgins, Fake News, Fake Ukrainians How a Group of Russians Tilted a Dutch Vote The New York Times, Feb. 16, 2017. Andrew Higgins, Fake News, Fake Ukrainians How a Group of Russians Tilted a Dutch Vote The New York Times, Feb. 16, 2017. 637 Ibid. 638 Anne Applebaum, The Dutch Just Showed the World How Russia Influences Western European Elections The Washington Post, ’’ Apr. 8, 2016. THE NETHERLANDS The Kremlin has launched multiple disinformation campaigns in the Netherlands and made attempts to interfere in its elections, and the Dutch government has taken several steps to build both national and regional resilience. As with the Baltics, the Dutch government has adopted a very visible and public approach to exposing Russian government interference efforts, with the security services producing annual reports which describe both the broad scope and specific activities of those efforts. The Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service noted in 2016 that the Russian intelligence services have their sights firmly set on the Netherlands and that ‘‘Russia’s espionage activities seek to influence decision-making processes, perceptions and public opinion ... and the dissemination of disinformation and propaganda plays an important role.’’ 631 The Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service reports that the Kremlin’s propaganda portrays Russia’s engagement in various theaters as humanitarian and deescalating, while Western actions are depicted as anti-Rus- sian, hysterical, hypocritical, and escalating. 632 In April 2016, the Netherlands held a referendum on whether to approve a trade agreement between the EU and Ukraine. A left- wing member of the Dutch parliament, Harry von Bommel, recruited a Ukrainian team to campaign against the agreement. The team used public meetings, television appearances, and social media to portray the Ukrainian government as a bloodthirsty kleptocracy.’’ 633 Notably, the most active members of the team were from Russia or separatist areas of Ukraine. 634 Other campaigners, including one from the Forum for Democracy (a research group turned political party that won two seats in its first election in 2017 and often promotes the Kremlin’s narrative on issues, retweeted a false report that Ukrainian soldiers crucified a three year-old Russian-speaking boy. 635 That piece of propaganda got its start on Russia’s primary state-controlled TV station and was based on an interview with a Russian actress posing as a Ukrainian witness. 636 And a false video created by the Internet Research Agency, the troll factory in St. Petersburg, purported to show a group of Ukrainian volunteer soldiers burning a Dutch flag and threatening to launch terrorist attacks against the Netherlands if they voted against the referendum. 637 In addition, many of the themes, headlines, and photographs used by the no campaign were reportedly borrowed from RT and Sputnik. 638 VerDate Mar 15 2010 04:06 Jan 09, 2018 Jkt PO 00000 Frm 00119 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6601 S:\FULL COMMITTEE\HEARING FILES\COMMITTEE PRINT 2018\HENRY\JAN. 9 REPORT FOREI-42327 with DISTILLER |