Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies (BIPSS) organised a policy circle on “Influence Operations: An Emerging Threat” at The Westin Dhaka today, Sunday. Shameem Ara Sheuli, Country Representative, Internews, Tanvir Habib, lecturer, Department of International Relations, University of Dhaka and Marjuka Binte Afzal, lecturer, Department of Peace, Conflict and Human Rights, Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP), shared their perspectives on the issue.
Shafqat Munir, Senior Research Fellow, BIPSS, in his opening remarks stated that influence operations are emerging as a key security and political challenge in many countries. He highlighted how influence operations undermine democracy and societies. “Over the last ten years, we have seen in various countries of Europe, Asia and other continents how various actors have used influence operations to divide societies and spread disinformation,” he said. He also mentioned that even elections have been undermined as a result of influence operations.
Moderator of the event, Major General ANM Muniruzzaman, ndc, psc, (retd), president, BIPSS, was in conversation with the panelists and started the discussion by highlighting how we are now increasingly living in the information space. “The utmost importance of information has become critical not only to our individual lives but also to our social lives, our national lives and our international thinking,” he stated. He also mentioned that it is important for us to understand all the connotations of this new space of influence operations so that we are not misguided. Major General Muniruzzaman particularly referred to Artificial Intelligence (AI) for elucidating how it can complicate the whole issue and magnify the problems that we are already facing.
“The advent of AI has made the situation far more complex,” he noted. He also pointed out the necessity of establishing more efficient fact-checking mechanism and forensic labs in Bangladesh. “The threat associated with influence operations is evolving everyday and in a rapid manner,” he added.
Shamim Ara Sheuli depicted that before 1990s, the authorities, influential groups, political parties and others used to rely on traditional media platforms like radio, television to influence the targeted groups. But with the emergence of some new information technologies, a new dimension to the influence operations has been added. “Influence operations are nothing new, it has always been there,” she said while differentiating the tools that facilitate these types of operations. She also identified that AI has become a new tool of influence operations and that it can be threatening to some extent.
Tanvir Habib talked about how influence operations are initiated with the intentions to create some certain outcomes and how these can create particular reactions among the targeted group of people. He identified some key features of the current world’s influence operations such as the aggregation or the abundance of data, the question of algorithm, anonymity etc. among others. “There are mainly two types of influence operations; one is longer term exposure and the other one is shorter term,” he said. He described that the longer term operations may sustain for four to five years while the shorter ones may exist for few months. “There is a gradual formation of alignment of actors in terms of influence operations which indicates that actors are coordinating their influence operations across multiple domains and multiple narratives,” he added.
Marjuka Binte Afzal expressed her eagerness to explore how Russian influence operations function. “You are more likely to discuss those things which are shown as significant ones to you,” she said while elaborating how influence operations can have impacts on peoples’ minds. Further, she stressed on the importance of understanding the true goals of different influence operations. She also mentioned some terms like gatekeeping information, agenda setting, deepfake etc. to analyze the relation of those attribute to modern-day influence operations. “We as young people need to practice patience,” she said while urging the need of shaping the reactions of people after receiving certain information. She also expressed concern regarding the lack of well-established fact-checking mechanisms in the news outlets of Bangladesh.
During the interactive session how influence operations can be deployed in a positive way, role of non-state actors, how to cope with the threats, impacts of geopolitical rivalries on influence operations, need of diversifying research etc. issues were raised and discussed. When questioned about the gullibility of people towards any information, Marjuka Binte Afzal mentioned that people tend to be more gullible when he or she is ignorant; one can be influenced more when there is lack of understanding regarding a certain topic. So awareness must be built. Social resiliency can be a key tool against influence operations.
Ambassadors and delegates from different embassies, former Bangladeshi ambassadors, journalists, academicians, representatives from different organisations and students attended the event.