Evidence of Inter-state Coordination amongst State-backed Information Operations

TL;DR

This paper analyzes Twitter data to uncover evidence of strategic inter-state coordination in information operations, revealing that such coordinated efforts are more engaging and serve specific political aims, with case studies on Cuba-Venezuela and Russia-Iran.

Contribution

It provides the first evidence of inter-state coordination in information operations using publicly available Twitter data, highlighting strategic interactions among multiple states.

Findings

Inter-state coordination is intentional and strategic.

Coordinated operations attract more engagement.

Case studies demonstrate specific country collaborations.

Abstract

Since 2018, Twitter has steadily released into the public domain content discovered on the platform and believed to be associated with information operations originating from more than a dozen state-backed organizations. Leveraging this dataset, we explore inter-state coordination amongst state-backed information operations and find evidence of intentional, strategic interaction amongst thirteen different states, separate and distinct from within-state operations. We find that coordinated, inter-state information operations attract greater engagement than baseline information operations and appear to come online in service to specific aims. We explore these ideas in depth through two case studies on the coordination between Cuba and Venezuela, and between Russia and Iran.