# Book Review: Active Measures — Disinformation, Trust, and Cooperation
How can information be used to divide communities, shape beliefs, and undermine trust? What can people building cooperative organizations learn from the history of organized deception?
Join Austin Software Cooperatives for a review and discussion of Active Measures: The Secret History of Disinformation and Political Warfare by Thomas Rid.
The book traces a century of disinformation, from early Soviet operations and Cold War campaigns involving the KGB and CIA to hacking, leaks, and online influence operations. Through historical cases, Rid examines how deception is organized, how it spreads, and how it exploits existing political and social tensions.
We’ll review the book’s central ideas, examine its evidence, and bring the discussion back to the communities we build: software cooperatives, open-source projects, and organizations that depend on shared trust and collective decision-making.
Questions we’ll explore:
- How does a misleading story gain credibility as it moves through people and institutions we trust?
- How have software platforms changed the reach and speed of influence campaigns?
- How can we recognize deliberate manipulation while remaining open to honest disagreement?
- What practices could help cooperatives make informed decisions and resist efforts to divide or mislead them?
- Where are Rid’s arguments strongest, and where should we question his conclusions?
You don’t need to have read the book to participate. Developers, cooperative members, organizers, and anyone interested in technology, power, and the politics of information are welcome.
Bring your questions, observations, and a willingness to examine how we decide what—and whom—to trust.
