The Los Angeles riots that took place at the beginning of June in protest of the Trump administration’s immigration policies have now disappeared from the headlines as other major international news takes over by the day. Although now largely forgotten by the media, the Los Angeles riots serve as a hallmark case study on the tactics of foreign adversaries aiming to undermine the United States through foreign malign influence.
Foreign malign influence (FMI) can be defined as “subversive, undeclared, coercive, or criminal activities by foreign governments, non-state actors, or their proxies to affect another nation’s popular or political attitudes, perceptions, or behaviors to advance their interests.” FMI involves various influence tactics from spreading propaganda and disinformation, flooding social media sites with distracting or deceptive content, or artificially amplifying bad news, such as the Los Angeles riots, through media outlets to provoke hysteria, sow division, and even promote violence.
Just last month, Russia, China, and Iran capitalized on the recent Los Angeles riots over immigration raids, publishing an estimated 10,000 posts and articles combined across social media platforms to further stoke political division and hysteria and undermine U.S. global leadership. The Los Angeles riots were further exacerbated by foreign disinformation campaigns, highlighting that public safety is not guaranteed, and the rule of law can be undermined when Americans remain unaware of the tactics of FMI to erode American security from within.
Propaganda and Disinformation
Russia and China manipulate public perceptions in the U.S. through posting blatantly false content online through various mechanisms, including AI-generated images or posting real photos and videos taken out of context and supplemented with deceptive captions. One of the most well-known examples of this tactic is the brick pallet image that circulated across social media platforms during the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, which made a resurgence during the Los Angeles riots just last month. Sputnik, a Russian-controlled media outlet, circulated a photo of the pallet of bricks that was then reposted by seemingly fake Chinese accounts, leading viewers to believe that bricks from a construction site in New Jersey were planted at protest sites by “Democratic militants.”
Russian media outlets also capitalize on divisive political posts, using American influencers and media personalities to perpetuate their own narratives. While Russian media outlets aim to promote any content that undermines the U.S. reputation, their influence often targets pro-Trump influencers who speak out about left-wing groups involved in protests to increase the division between Republicans and Democrats, and to weaken American national unity. Russian media outlets also promote conspiracy theories and flood social media networks with content to manipulate public attention and make it nearly impossible to verify the truth, often amplifying the stories that gain the most traction.
Artificial Promotion
Artificial promotion—“when accurate but negative information is amplified to maintain its presence in the news cycle and visibility overall”—is another tactic used by Russian, Chinese, and Iranian media to discredit the United States and undermine public faith in American national security. Russian, Chinese, and Iranian media demonstrated higher levels of coordination during the Los Angeles riots, amplifying both real and fake content highlighting the unrest, especially capitalizing on the deployment of marines to make the United States look like an authoritarian country and to distract from their own domestic turmoil.
This subversive information warfare tactic is also waged against American commerce to promote distrust in American products. Amplifying company failures or creating false narratives about products to undermine public support for companies involved in foreign policy—like producing weapons for Ukraine—can bolster the geopolitical interests of U.S. adversaries. It has been reported that Russian-sourced media accounts pushed authentic negative news about Boeing and amplified it with conspiracy theories about the safety of Boeing planes, even claiming that the company had hired a hitman at one point. Not only does this tactic impede profits for American companies, but it also discredits the excellence of American brands and sows domestic and foreign mistrust in American-made products.
Infiltrating Education
The final target of foreign malign influence in the U.S. is the education system, which began as the source of many recent protests, especially over the Israel-Hamas War. According to the White House, “$60 billion in foreign gifts and contracts have been funneled into American colleges and universities over the past several decades, but only about 300 of the approximately 6,000 U.S. institutions self-report foreign money each year.” These are concerning metrics that highlight the severity of foreign influence in American universities, and the rise of antisemitism on college campuses is one example of the detrimental effect of allowing ethnic hatred to be imported into the U.S. education system and in the media.
Conclusion
When the U.S. education system and media platforms are flooded with anti-American narratives and ideologies through foreign malign influence, it erodes national unity and security. Recent protests in support of Hamas and accounts of rising antisemitism at Columbia and Harvard—among America’s most prestigious universities—highlight that even the greatest American institutions and individuals can be deceived by foreign malign influence. The fallout from the Los Angeles riots should serve as a reminder that American values must continually be defended against foreign influence, and it begins with a strong national identity, unbiased education systems that prioritize truth above ideology, and most of all, a commitment by Americans to uphold the rule of law.