Jonas Lund - Operation Earnest Voice: Brexit Division

Operation Earnest Voice is an online influencing agency and during the 10th – 13th of January, its Brexit Division office will be hosted on the third floor of The Photographers’ Gallery in central London. The office will be accessible to both Gallery visitors and a live online audience. The mission of the Brexit Division office is to reverse Brexit.

The installation/performance is taking its name and inspiration from Operation Earnest Voice, the US-sponsored campaign, whose purpose is to spread pro-American propaganda on social networking sites. The campaign relies on sockpuppets to comment and derail online conversations, with the goal of influencing and swaying the public opinion in any particular topic or theme. China has a similar operation called The 50th Party and Russia’s is called The Internet Research Agency. Operation Earnest Voice’s office uses similar tools and strategies to influence and sway the public.

The team consists of 12 core employees, that have a wide range of expertise, from copy writers, image/meme makers, to programmers and social media strategists. During the 10th to the 13th of January, the 12 employees will come together to work with one political goal in mind, to collaboratively develop a media narrative / campaign to reverse Brexit by using a wide range of tactics to manipulate the public opinion, and create new narratives that aim to disrupt the current political debate.

Operation Earnest Voice is a project by Jonas Lund commissioned by The Photographers’ Gallery, London, with support from the Mondriaan Foundation, Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie and Goethe-Institut London.