NAFO, or the North Atlantic Fella Organization, just commemorated its second , anniversary , as a group dedicated to supporting Ukraine’s efforts to defend itself in the midst of Russia’s total- level war.
This , decentralized , group of individuals from around the globe, often unorganized, you naturally arrange with great interest to make a mockery of those spreading Russian propaganda when needed.
The organization has shown no signs of relenting in its campaign against pro-Russian advertising and stories on the internet. Elbridge Colby, a former member of the Trump administration, was its most recent destination.
According to the , Department of Defense, Colby was the” Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Force Development, in which power he was accountable for security plan, pressure development, and geopolitical analysis for OSD Policy”.
He is also the nephew of William Colby, who served as the CIA under Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon. As a CIA lieutenant in Vietnam under Lyndon Johnson, he was  , responsible , for the , Phoenix Program.
Colby’s major debate centers around the idea that help may be reduced to , Ukraine, in favor of shifting America’s emphasis to the Asia- Pacific. However, this did not serve as the main motivation for the NAFO snobs to use jokes and counterarguments against Colby.
As Ed Scarce , wrote , in ,” Crooks &, Liars”, Colby took issue with a , video , from next month of the mind of NATO’s defense commission, Bob Bauer, giving praise to the work of NAFO as a group in helping combat Russian disinformation. Colby ‘s , reply , to the video already has over 260, 000 impressions on X.
Colby then began making complaints about the “NAFO accounts” that were flooded with his posts and account timeline. Seeking a defensive alliance, he tried to engage Elon Musk and , pro- Kremlin commentator David Sacks.
However, disinformation expert and , founder , of Vatnik Soup,  , Pekka Kallioniemi, pointed out that the treatment Colby was getting was” the exact treatment that people talking against the Kremlin have been receiving for the last 10 years”.
A former Trump official was sitting behind a screen and fiercely engaging with random people with profile pictures of cartoon dogs, which was quite the sight to watch on X.
The funny thing about Mr. Elbridge Colby is that he thinks of himself as a serious person who deserves to be respected, but he is engaged farming by arguing with cartoon dogs, according to a person on X using the hashtag osint_69 . His grandfather would surely be ashamed”.
Even former US House representative , Adam Kinzinger,  , who is a fella himself, joined in on the , mockery. Kinzinger, responding to Colby,  , commented , “you do n’t get to feign seriousness now that you tried pretending NAFO was CIA, got schooled, and for months refused serious convos”.
Colby joins a long list of government officials who have been harmed by a random group of online cartoon dogs. First, in 2022, the notorious Mikhail Ulyanov got into a fight with NAFO schema.
He made the mistake of replying to a cartoon dog, with the words heard around Twitter:” You pronounced this nonsense, not me”. Ulyanov was humiliated, and he deleted his social media accounts for some time. As , Vice News , put it,” Shitposting Shiba Inu Accounts Chased a Russian Diplomat Offline”.
Russian state media watched as the momentum started to wane as Russian troll farms finally faced a worthy foe who was fighting back against Russian information warfare.
RT, the official Russian state media, made an attempt to discredit NAFO by , labeling , it as” a vast pro- Ukrainian’ bot army ‘ designed to influence Western policymakers”.
Russia uses , troll factories , to try and spread disinformation across the internet. For years, the West lacked an effective response. In a democratic society, governments ca n’t restrict the open flow of information, which makes it easier for authoritarian governments to influence Western societies. There is a reason China has never allowed , TikTok , to be available domestically but supports its functioning in the West.
It is difficult to doubt the viability of NAFO. There is n’t a better alternative to the Russian information offensive on the internet as a counterweight in a democratic society.
Before NAFO’s existence, a well-known official or pro-Kremlin commenter like David Sacks could spread deceit without ridicule, and the general public who read the comments and posts was more likely to accept it as fact. It was  , estimated , that around 126 million Americans saw Russian- backed content on Facebook during the 2016 presidential campaign.
If someone is reading a post spreading Russian disinformation and they see the comments full of memes mocking the posted statements, NAFO’s intervention might give the reader pause and the motivation to research what is being discussed.
As , Kallioniemi , puts it: By ridiculing Russian propaganda, NAFO disarms it since the disinformation is so unbelievable and poorly executed.
The enemy has a chance of having an impact on the battlefield itself if it is n’t fighting Russian disinformation. While the US Congress was splintered and debating aid for Ukraine, Russian disinformation played an , important role , in helping delay aid.
US Senator Thom Tillis  stated in December 2023 that discussions over Ukraine aid were stalled because some lawmakers feared that “people will buy yachts with this money.” This disinformation was widely disseminated by Russian intelligence services, which had been shared on the internet and even received by US House Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Colby has now joined the elite group. Republican Senator , Mike Lee , also found himself in a feud with NAFO fellas in 2023. Lee appeared to have lost his mind with NAFO fellas crashing his , Twitter polls , surveying whether the US should send aid to Ukraine.
In his , attacks  , against NAFO, he linked a pro- Kremlin website to try and support his point. In the end, his feud with the fellas caused him to have a very unhealthy obsession with NAFO for Lee, which led to him systematically blocking NAFO accounts from allowing users to view posts on his @BasedMikeLee account.
NAFO, as a random group of individuals, has shown how information warfare is becoming decentralized, with the average person playing an important role as a member of a larger group supporting similar objectives.
It’s the organic formation of a response from the democratic world to fight Russia’s troll farms on the internet with , memes , to help influence perceptions. The fellas fight back against the Russian trolls as well as those who are actively disseminating Russian disinformation.
As Senator Mike Lee has demonstrated, NAFO’s mocking of their peddling of Russian propaganda drives those officials to frustration when confronted by such a “menacing” force on the internet.
Ukraine requires a lot of help. Awareness of Ukraine’s plight connects back directly to support on the battlefield. A crucial part of Russia’s war plan is to undermine Ukraine’s foreign support.
Serhii Kuzan, chair of the , Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Center , think tank and a former adviser to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, told me in a recent , interview , that Russia’s information war is focused on destabilizing Ukraine and also working to undermine support for Ukraine internationally.
No matter what the scale, the organization is vital in supporting Ukraine, despite the fact that some may look at NAFO and laugh at their work. President , Volodymyr Zelensky , himself stated:” Attention equals help. No assistance will be provided by little attention. We fight for every bit of attention”.
Every computer user who logs in each day and posts memes disparaging Russian propaganda and disinformation is acting much more important than they realize.
The cause of Ukraine and its fight for freedom is the cause of the NAFO fellas, who come from all political parties and from around the world. Colby, Lee, and the fan-favorite Ulyanov must be wondering why they ever thought to respond to a large number of unrelated cartoon dogs online.
Freelance journalist David Kirichenko covering Eastern Europe. Follow him on X at @DVKirichenko.
This op-ed first appeared on Kyiv Post, and it is republished with permission. Read the original here.