Book Review: This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War against Reality

This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War against Reality

Written by: Peter Pomerantsev

Faber, 2019,

ISBN: 9780571338634, 300pp

Reviewed by: Major Lee Hayward

This is Not Propaganda is by no means an easy read. This is not because it is not well written but because Pomerantsev takes the reader on a difficult and confronting journey through a subject that has not really established itself in the Western consciousness. The subject is information warfare, and how effectively authoritarian figures are able to use information to manipulate and control entire populations. Pomerantsev explores societies where information has become the most potent, misunderstood and underrated weapon of warfare. He has interviewed disinformation experts in countries including the Philippines, the former Yugoslavia, Syria, Mexico and Russia, and he uses their knowledge and insights to illustrate the alarming effects disinformation can have on a population.

The book blends biography and investigative journalism into six sections, interspersed with family memoirs. While the personal touches make the book more relatable, the one criticism of this book is that as it moves between memoir and interview it can be confusing to follow. However, it is worth persevering. The book raises many important, disturbing questions about information and technology, challenging any argument that ‘the internet has set us free’.

This first part of the book introduces the reader to the phenomenon of ‘troll farms’, with a focus on the Philippines and Russia. The author provides first-hand accounts of the level of coordination and analysis that goes into the operations of these farms, interviewing those who work in the farms as well as their victims. Part two explores how powerful authoritarian regimes from Russia to the former Yugoslavia were able to harness the power of information to undermine and threaten the very freedoms information and technology were supposed to bring. Pomerantsev’s interviews with pro-democracy revolutionaries provide valuable lessons on the way disinformation is used to distort truths or undermine messages, causing confusion and chaos.

Parts three and four explore the reality of what is commonly understood to be a ‘post-truth world’. The author not only relates just how easily truth and fact can be distorted but also highlights how little value is placed on truth in the international arena. In doing so, Pomerantsev invites the reader to contemplate the uncomfortable question of why it is that videos and live footage of Russians in Ukraine or atrocities and human rights violations in Syria do not result in global outrage on a massive scale.

Online populism is the focus of part five, reminding the reader that it is not only autocratic nations and their populations that are exploiting or exploitable by disinformation. Pomerantsev relays stories from the United Kingdom to show how religious extremism, and even polarisation between those on either side of the Brexit debate, can be attributed, in part, to online disinformation campaigns. In the final part of the book, the author offers solutions as to how interested individuals can do more to cope with or fight against the problems of disinformation.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in developing a deeper understanding of how disinformation can undermine societies from within and from outside, rewrite history and be used to control countries more effectively than physical force. This is not, however, a light read or a book for those who are not yet ready to understand that information is not just propaganda.