NATO TESTED SOCIAL MEDIA MANIPULATION ON SOLDIERS. THEN CALLED IT DEFENSE NATO’s recruitment video presents soldiers heading to war as “the future” and calls the alliance a defender of freedom and democracy. But if it is meant to portray the future, why does it feature only white European soldiers? In an era when nearly every major campaign emphasizes diversity, that choice stands out. Is this how NATO shapes the information environment around itself? NATO’s Strategic Communications Center of Excellence, StratCom, says it helps allies defend against online disinformation. It produces research, training, and guidance on digital threats. But in 2019, StratCom ran social-media experiments using fake Facebook pages and profiles to target military personnel. Researchers used public information to identify about 150 soldiers, learn details about their lives, draw them into a fake network through targeted ads, and test whether they could influence real-world behavior. According to the results, they could. Wired reported the researchers tracked troop movements and influenced participants to act against orders, all for about $60. NATO called it a red-team exercise designed to identify vulnerabilities and improve defenses. Later that year, StratCom bought fake engagement: comments, likes, views, and followers. For roughly 300 euros, it received more than 3,500 comments, 25,000 likes, 20,000 views, and 5,000 followers. Researchers identified over 18,000 accounts used to deliver it. Four weeks later, 80 percent of the fake engagement was still online. The purpose was to measure how cheaply online influence could be bought, and how poorly platforms detected it. This does not prove NATO directed every troll campaign or anonymous attack that followed. The evidence does not establish that. But it does show NATO was studying the tools: fake accounts, bot networks, targeted messaging, bought engagement, and social engineering. So when independent journalists report doxxing, coordinated attacks, and anonymous accounts targeting them, the question is not whether these methods are real. They are. The question is who is using them, and who is coordinating them. Independent journalist Elizabeth Lane says an online network targeted independent creators by circulating personal information, coordinating attacks, and amplifying them across X. After the Ukraine war began in 2022, social media flooded with viral stories, including the “Ghost of Kyiv” and the 13 heroes of Snake Island. The Snake Island story claimed Ukrainian defenders refused to surrender and were killed by a Russian warship. It went viral. But the soldiers survived and were later reported in Russian custody. That does not prove NATO created or spread the story. But it underscores what NATO and Western governments already understood: information warfare works. NATO StratCom materials identify Ukrainian social-media analytics company Singularex as a collaborator on studies involving manipulation tools and services. The documented record shows a network studying fake accounts, bot networks, targeted messaging, purchased engagement, social engineering, and online influence. @imelizabethlane joins me to break it down.