Ctrl+Alt+Defeat playbook: platform-intelligence collaboration against Russian disinformation in the Russia- Ukraine war

Abstract

On February 24, 2022, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine triggered an unprecedented surge in state-aligned disinformation campaigns targeting Euro-Atlantic audiences. This dissertation investigates how NATO-affiliated intelligence agencies and the social media platforms Meta and Twitter collaborated to counter these operations during the 2022-2024 escalation. A central and original contribution is the development of a five-level collaboration typology, ranging from symbolic alignment to integrated response, to systematically assess the depth and institutionalisation of public-private security partnerships. Through comparative case studies of Twitter’s handling of the Ghostwriter campaign and Meta’s disruption of Operation Doppelgänger, this research applies securitization theory and networked governance to processtraced, open-source evidence, including transparency reports, NATO documentation, and investigative journalism. Findings show Meta achieved Level 4 (Integrated Response), characterized by synchronized takedowns, co-produced attribution, and embedded institutional linkages, while Twitter’s Level 3 (Strategic Partnership) reflected informal, reactive coordination amid governance instability. The study advances understanding of digital governance in hybrid warfare, offering a transferable framework for evaluating intelligence-technology collaboration and interrogating the democratic tensions that emerge when counter-disinformation efforts blur the boundaries between state and corporate authority.