Can Mexican Cartel Violence And Widespread Disinformation Happen Here?

I have multiple years of experience directing public information for national and state criminal justice agencies, including law enforcement. The Maryland Emergency Management Agency was part of the Maryland Department of Public Safety when I was their director of public information.

The first thing to understand is that I or anyone can create green screen videos using a very realistic digital television news set, import commercially available videos, and put out disinformation in about twenty minutes. It’s easier to create false audio. Anyone can create AI-generated photos, but the easily accessible commercial tools can do it better. They could be sent to social media from platforms and IP addresses throughout the world via the dark web.

So, to understand misinformation is to acknowledge that it can be created faster and better than anyone can imagine. It’s equally important to understand that if I can do it, what happens if cartels with endless budgets and the dark web start engaging in the same process?

What happens if hundreds of thousands of Phoenix area citizens are told that their water has been purposely contaminated? What happens when the same campaign tells El Paso residents that their food supply has been compromised? All you would have to do is use chemical agents in small areas to create real-world examples that adds credability to the disinformation campaign. 

The cartels have access to a multitude of weaponized drones that they use against each other as well as Mexican law enforcement. It’s not beyond the realm of possibility that they could be used against American cities.  

Yes, AI-generated media makes the government’s job of establishing the validity of any media placed online harder, but every state has the capacity (or should have the capacity) to accurately gauge what’s offered via social media and respond with corrected information.

The primary question is whether law enforcement or government has the capacity to respond to hundreds of false social media reports in a short amount of time.

The issue isn’t AI, although that makes the mission of providing accurate information more challenging.

There have always been obstacles in providing accurate information to the public. Photoshop images, the ability to buy commercially available video footage, and the use of green screen technology have been with us for decades. 

For example, if the issue is the stability of flood waters breaching a dam, sending a video simulating the dam bursting via social media can create immense panic.

I have the tools to create a very realistic video using a news set with footage instantly available from commercial sites. I can create massive panic.

The topic or situation doesn’t matter; if I want to create a disturbance or induce hysteria, I can do it.

The Real Issue Is Rumor Control

Response isn’t principally digital. It requires an immense amount of person-power. How do you ensure that the dam isn’t breaking? Have someone stationed at the dam with the authority to interact with management. That takes a lot of planning and coordination.

This is why the public affairs section of any police, criminal justice, or emergency management agency needs to be prepared. It requires a vast undertaking of public information officers from a variety of agencies to address, validate, or dispel rumors, false videos, audio, or fake photos. It takes experts from a variety of agencies to do this. Every state needs to scramble a multitude of people quickly, doing 12-hour shifts. They have to have the tools to communicate.

As the director of public information for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and the Maryland Emergency Management Agency, we called FEMA to evaluate practice sessions focusing on nuclear power plant meltdowns or chemical weapons drills to make sure that the right information, equipment, and personnel were available.

But the event didn’t matter; the state offered its resources to any requesting agency, and then I called up to 30 experts from a variety of agencies to serve as my rumor control team. This had to operate 24 hours a day until the event passed.

There was one person in charge whose primary job was to insist on verification of any information.

We monitored the news media and social media for any sign of false information or suspicious media being released.

Once verified, I, as the primary spokesperson, would release that information to the public after consultation with the agency involved. There was one spokesperson, me. Multiple spokespeople would inevitably offer misinformation.

We would also send public information officers or agency personnel to the scene of any emergency, so we would have people who could verify information immediately.

Again, there is a process that exists in every state to track down false or misleading information. Yes, AI makes it more challenging, but we had people trained on verifying false images, misleading videos, or audio.

The media becomes your partner. You can’t operate an anti-disinformation team without them. They have to know the harm created by releasing suspicious materials. They must be willing to come to you first before releasing information. Establishing good media relations beforehand is a wise move.

The media MUST have quick access to your spokesperson. There MUST be people assigned to the primary spokesperson to catalog and prioritize incoming media calls. Using the Associated Press as your first response mechanism will instantly get the word out to all others.

Conclusion

Few in the public understand what states do to verify information and the process of getting facts out. We know the reporters and how to reach them through the Associated Press or direct contacts.

Any agency in the country has access to its state emergency management function and the resources available to it.

In Maryland, we trained the team on a twice-a-year basis, and the primary spokespeople were often FEMA-trained. Within my department, we trained our part-time spokespeople to address emergencies within our 12 departments, but we also used our part-time PIOs to assist other agencies.

It’s all part of a very precise plan to put the right people in the right place to make quick judgments that are in the public’s best interest. It’s more than possible to discover false AI-generated products principally through our network of experts or by having people stationed at the scene.

The video or photo of a major dam bursting doesn’t do sustained damage if you have personnel there who can verify that it’s fake.

It’s the same with AI versions of any media.