\u201cDC Comics won\u2019t be adding these taxpayer-funded comic books \u2026 to their repertoire anytime soon,\u201d cracked Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul\u2019s annual report on government waste<\/a> released in December. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The comics read like well-meaning (if corny) attempts to grapple with efforts by foreign governments to influence American public opinion, as articulated in intelligence community assessments<\/a>. But there is a risk that the federal government\u2019s fight against foreign disinformation positions it as an arbiter of the truth, which raises civil liberties concerns. The efficacy of the DHS \u201cResilience Series\u201d of comic books is also far from obvious.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The members of Congress might be comforted to know that few people ever noticed the comics. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency urges users to \u201cshare\u201d their \u201cResilience Series\u201d comics, but a search of the webpage\u2019s address on X shows that it is linked to<\/a> fewer than a dozen times. CISA also produced glossy-looking YouTube trailers for its two graphic novels that garnered just 4,000<\/a> and 6,000<\/a> views respectively \u2014 a far cry from the hundreds of thousands of views trailers<\/a> for other graphic novels attract. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For CISA, disinformation is no laughing matter. \u201cDisinformation is an existential threat to the United States,\u201d declares CISA\u2019s webpage detailing its \u201cResilience Series<\/a>\u201d of comic books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Third in sales by genre, only behind general fiction and romance novels, graphic novels are particularly popular among the youngest readers. One industry observer notes<\/a> that in Japan, more paper is used for manga books than for toilet paper. School Library Journal concluded<\/a> in their graphic novels survey last year that popularity increased over 90 percent year over year in school libraries. The survey also found that nearly 60 percent of school librarians reported opposition to graphic novels from teachers, parents, and others who didn\u2019t consider them \u201creal books.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Though first released in 2020 in anticipation<\/a> of the Trump\u2013Biden presidential election, the comics were intended to be an evergreen resource in the war on disinformation. \u201cLearn the dangers & risks associated with dis- & misinformation through fictional stories that are inspired by real-world events in @CISAgov’s Resilience Series,\u201d the U.S. Attorney for Nevada posted<\/a> on X last April. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n CISA produced two graphic novels, \u201cReal Fake\u201d and \u201cBug Bytes.\u201d \u201cReal Fake\u201d tells the story of Rachel O\u2019Sullivan, a \u201cgamer\u201d and a \u201cpatriot\u201d who infiltrates a troll farm circulating false narratives about elections to American voters. \u201cBug Bytes\u201d addresses disinformation around Covid-19, following Ava Williams, a journalism student who realizes that a malicious cyber campaign spreading conspiracy theories about 5G technology is inspiring attacks on 5G towers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFellow comic geeks, assemble!\u201d CISA said<\/a> when the comic books were initially released. \u201cLet’s band together to take on disinformation and misinformation.\u201d The CISA post quotes another X post<\/a> by the FBI\u2019s Washington field office recommending the graphic novels and exhorting the importance of \u201cfinding trusted information.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe resilience series products were released in 2020 and 2021 to raise awareness on tactics of foreign influence and disinformation,\u201d a spokesperson for CISA told The Intercept, noting that despite continued reference by members of Congress and critics, that this series of comic books has now been discontinued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe problem is not that panels about African troll farms (Real Fake<\/em>) or homegrown antivaxxers (Bug Bytes<\/em>) might make readers feel insecure\u2014it\u2019s that they don\u2019t make readers feel insecure enough,\u201d writes<\/a> Russ Castronovo, director of University of Wisconsin-Madison\u2019s Center for the Humanities and professor of American studies and English, in Public Books magazine. \u201cOr, more precisely, these comics might be judged aesthetic failures because\u2014due to their proximity to propaganda\u2014they leave little space for the vulnerabilities inherent in the act of reading. So, while readers learn that meddling by foreign powers \u2018is scary, especially in an election year,\u2019 the graphic fictions commissioned by US cybersecurity assume reading itself to be a process whereby information (as opposed to disinformation) is obtained, questions are answered, and doubts are resolved.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Writing<\/a> in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Thomas Gaulkin said that \u201cthe Resilience Series \u2026 conjures a certain jingoism peculiar to government publications that can mimic the very threat being addressed.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n All of which raises the question as to what role the Department of Homeland Security should play in adjudicating \u201cmedia literacy,\u201d as the series webpage<\/a> says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n Both \u201cReal Fake\u201d and \u201cBug Bytes\u201d were written<\/a> by Clint Watts, a former FBI special agent who works as a contributor to MSNBC and is affiliated with Microsoft\u2019s Threat Analysis Center, and Farid Haque, an education technology entrepreneur who is CEO of London-based Erly Stage Studios and was previously<\/a> CEO of StartUp Britain, a campaign launched by then-U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Watts, who writes and speaks about Russian influence campaigns, has testified<\/a> to Congress on the matter and has been affiliated with a number of think tanks, including the Alliance for Securing Democracy, the German Marshall Fund, and the Foreign Policy Research Institute. Clearly knowledgeable, his own writings can sometimes veer into hyperbole \u2014 a potent reminder that even experts on disinformation are not infallible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOver the past three years, Russia has implemented and run the most effective and efficient influence campaign in world history,\u201d Watts said<\/a> in testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2017. While Russia\u2019s propaganda regarding its first invasion of Ukraine and Crimea was no doubt effective, that employed in 2016 against the U.S. presidential election was \u201cneither well organized nor especially well resourced\u201d according to a detailed study<\/a> by the Pentagon-backed Rand Corporation. The think tank later concluded that \u201cthe impact of Russian efforts in the West has been uncertain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Co-author Haque, according to an interview<\/a> in Forbes, became involved in the Resilience Series after a chance meeting at a bookstore with actor Mel Brooks\u2019s son, Max Brooks, who would later join Erly Stage\u2019s advisory board and introduce Haque to his Americans contacts, which included Watts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere is now a real need for schools and public authorities to educate young people on how much fake news there is across all forms of media,\u201d Haque told Forbes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/AP23067650764088-odni-disinformation.jpg\")