How American hunting organizations conduct information warfare on social media
Safari Club International and other hunting groups spent more than $2 million dollars deceiving social media users about trophy hunting.
Social media is an influential tool that can be exploited by those with funding and a willingness to walk a moral tight rope. There is now clear evidence American hunting organizations are also conducting information warfare on social media to influence politics and conservation practices in North America and Africa.
Who is Running the Show?
The organization carrying out the operations is Inclusive Conservation Group (ICG). The bulk of the ICG’s funding comes from two hunting organizations, Safari Club International Foundation (SCIF) and Shikar-Safari Club International Foundation (Shikar-SCIF). All three organizations are registered as tax-exempt nonprofits in the United States.
SCIF is the sister organization of Safari Club International, one the world’s leading hunting organizations and is dedicated to protecting the “freedom to hunt.” While Safari Club International emphasizes they are also a wildlife conservation organization, this perception is not widely regarded due to their promotion of the motto “First for Hunters.”
There is very little information available for Shikar-SCIF other than their tax documents and a handful of media pieces where their members present awards to wildlife conservation officers. But even less information is available for ICG due to the covert nature of their work.
However, tax records indicate Shikar-SCIF and ICG are related entities and share related personnel. ICG’s president, John Thodos, served as Shikar-SCIF’s president before transitioning into a CFO role after ICG was created in 2016.
Show Me the Money
While it is unfortunate the organizations involved are tax-exempt, there is a benefit in that their tax documents are easily accessible to the public. According to ICG’s tax documents, SCIF and Shikar-SCIF were the largest donors since its inception, accounting for about $1.2 million from 2016-2018. It is likely SCIF and Shikar-SCIF contributions are now closer to $2 million since the ICG looked to increase their annual budget in 2019 from $468,000 to $868,000 (now that forms for 2019 are out, donations to ICG are confirmed to exceed $2 million). There were also contributions of more than $5,000 made by private parties including Christopher Kinsey, John Wilson, Mary Mark Barrett, John Kelsey and T G Steele.
SCIF provided about $525,000 between 2017-2018 and likely another quarter million dollars based on ICG’s 2019 grant request. SCIF contributed more money to ICG than it did to any other group since 2017. SCIF listed the reasons for their donations as communication, social media quick response, and social media response capability.
Shikar-SCIF, meanwhile, contributed about $650,000 from 2016-2018. The only organization that received more funding from Shikar-SCIF was the NRA Foundation, which received $3.06 million in 2018 and $1.1 million in 2015 (making Shikar-SCIF one the NRA’s largest donors in recent history).
The Inclusive Conservation Group’s Sales Pitch
As previously stated, there is hardly any information pertaining to ICG readily available other than what is in tax documents. The only way to truly understand how ICG is operating is to see how they sell their services to potential clients.
Luckily, groups submit grant requests every year to organizations like SCIF asking for project funding and ICG is no different. In 2019, ICG submitted a grant request to SCIF’s Hunter Legacy 100 Fund asking for $264,000 to help fund their Non-branded educational Social Media Capability project.
ICG’s request notes SCIF previously contributed over half a million dollars in 2017 and 2018 that helped create a “first of its kind, non-attributional social media platform, capable of communicating to millions of people” that has been “critical in shaping a positive global narrative around hunting and sustainable use.” Sustainable use being a catchall term for trophy hunting, game breeding, and wildlife trade. They are also using rhetoric to combat “the leftist, anti-guns, anti-hunting, vegan fanatics.”
The cunning in ICG’s use of social media to further their agendas comes in how they purposefully deceive nonhunters into believing the messages they post and promote come from unbiased accounts. ICG notes messages from hunting groups are frequently ineffective because nonhunters worry pro-hunting messages could be biased or misleading. To solve this problem, ICG will go as far as taking “the exact words and facts from the SCI web pages and simply present it through an African’s voice.”
References to educating nonhunters using facts are peppered throughout the grant request but ICG makes it clear what they are doing is intentionally deceptive. The deception is not only obvious in the way they project Safari Club International’s voice on to that of the native African but also plainly spelled out in unambiguous terms. ICG uses the tagline “shape, inform, manipulate, mislead, expose, diminish, promote, deceive, coerce, deter, mobilize, convince.”
They also state “under the banner of irregular warfare Inclusive Conservation Group has been conducting information operations.” Information operations are “about hacking the people on the network by driving ideas viral through a mix of likes, shares, comments.” ICG is not simply educating by disseminating facts, nor are they acting in good faith.
ICG moderates, engages, and develops content for posting on multiple social media pages, the two most popular being Proud American Hunter and Let Africa Live. Proud American Hunter has reached over 122,000,000 people and has a “rabid following of 25-54-year-old United States males who are passionate about hunting, guns and patriotism and very willing to defend our sport against anti-hunting extremist.” Let Africa Live reached almost 18,000,000 people in the prior 12 months and “has a huge international following and speaks to the value of sustainable wildlife conservation in Africa through a native voice.”
They detail the effectiveness of their narrative-changing campaigns when discussing their response to the backlash trophy hunter Britt Longoria received after a photo of her posing with a dead leopard was posted on social media. Ricardo Longoria, Britt’s husband and influential hunting figure, contacted ICG Vice President Rick Steiner to ask for help with the negative media attention.
After being contacted, ICG “immediately went on the offensive.” Proud American Hunter rallied their core base of “hunters, 2A, MAGA and Let Africa Live.” ICG’s references to 2nd amendment right and Make America Great Again supporters further demonstrate the political nature of their operation. Let Africa Live then “initiated a social media attack directed at the source of the original Facebook Post.”
In only hours, the slogan “An Attack on One Hunter is an Attack on All Hunters” reached hundreds of thousands of “rabid pro hunting social media warriors” willing to defend on Britt Longoria. The slogan was effective in garnering support from the hunting community and was even used to compare the situation to the persecution of Jewish people in Nazi Germany.
ICG displays the influence of their social media operations on an international and political level by showcasing their work fighting to reverse a 2014 elephant hunting ban in Botswana. ICG states they reached millions of Botswana’s citizens beginning in January 2019 and “deployed a dual track communications strategy to educate Botswanans, NGO, hunting and grassroots communities with a top down bottom up narrative designed to educate the elites and decision makers, while simultaneously reinforcing that education with an organic grassroots echo.”
It is not surprising Botswana’s President, Mokgweetsi Masisi, lifted the elephant hunting moratorium in May 2019 and was subsequently invited to accept the International Legislator of the Year Award at the 2020 Safari Club International Convention in Reno, Nevada.
Proud American Hunter aka The Pro-Hunting, Anti-Liberal Propaganda Machine
Proud American Hunter is a social media profile committed to promoting pro-hunting and anti-liberal ideologies. This profile is particularly popular with about 120,000 followers between a Facebook page and an Instagram account. Proud American Hunter also has its own website where followers can buy merchandise and have a portion of their sales “donated to a non-profit which focuses on educating the non-hunting public through unbranded, clear, accurate, and persuasive pro-hunting and sustainable-use conservation content.” What nonprofit could that possibly be?
This post summarizes the political propaganda on Proud American Hunter best. The image includes a snarling wolf, meatless burger, person with “vegan” spelled out on their hat, liberal politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, climate change action and anti-violence protesters, and what appears to be a migrant climbing a border wall. The text reads “THE REAL INVASIVE SPECIES.” The caption states these “invasive species” are “hurting us and the future of our land and wildlife.” This political propaganda is a far cry from the wildlife conservation education services the hunting industry wants the public to think they are funding.
Along with appearing to be anti-liberal, anti-climate change, anti-immigration, and anti-vegan, Proud American Hunter seems to be anti-abortion. This post features an image of a young girl in hunting gear with the text “VIRGINIA: ILLEGAL TO HUNT WITHOUT PARENT SUPERVISION” next to an image of another young girl with the text “VIRGINIA: LEGAL TO ABORT A BABY WITHOUT EVER TELLING A PARENT.” The caption notes Virginia is more concerned about animal lives than human lives. Who knew wildlife conservation and abortion were so intertwined?
Proud American Hunter also came to the rescue of Safari Club International after Humane Society of the United States released a story with video of hunting vendors selling canned lion hunts at the 2020 Safari Club International Convention. This post, an image of a lion is overlaid with the text “WARNING FAKE NEWS ALERT,” says it all. The caption tells followers not to donate to the “lying propagandists.” Apparently, video proof of hunting vendors selling canned lion hunts is propaganda but images of lions stamped with “FAKE NEWS” are not.
Let Africa Live aka Let American Elites Pillage Africa’s Wildlife
Let Africa Live is a social media profile dedicated to promoting sustainable use policies in African conservation. The profile has about 40,000 followers across a fairly successful Facebook page, growing Instagram account, and abandoned Twitter account. Let Africa Live describes itself as “a movement committed to ending the oppression of the African people by governments, NGO’s and corporations in Western Europe and America.” How ironic.
Let Africa Live’s standard procedure is to post images of African wildlife or people overlaid with text describing the importance of hunting and sustainable use. The profile typically adds captions that, in some form or another, state global elites and animal rights extremists are forcing African people to live in poverty while their wildlife wastes away.
Take, for example, this post depicting a mother and child overlaid with a family of elephants and text asking “WHY ARE AFRICAN COUNTRIES THAT SUCCESSFULLY MANAGE WILDLIFE BEING PUNISHED BY CITES?” The post’s caption adds CITES has been taken hostage by nonprofits pushing their own agendas and wonders when the world will finally open its eyes to the corruption.
The corruption they reference is CITES, a trade organization, rejecting many African nations’ bids to legally trade elephant ivory internationally. But rejecting legal international ivory trade is not about corruption, it is about conservation. Research shows the 1989 international ban on ivory trade helped slow elephant poaching while the legal sale of ivory in 2008 fueled elephant poaching to crisis levels. If only people knew this post was funded by wealthy American nonprofits pushing their pro-hunting and pro-sustainable use agendas.
Interestingly, Let Africa Live does make it clear they are trying to align conservation practices in Africa with those in the United States through posts like this one. Images of a deer and an impala are placed side by side with the text “ARFICA WANTS THE SAME REGULATION AS AMERICA.” The unsuspecting viewer might feel compelled to agree because of the clean and professional layout of the post. However, the idea Africa wants the same regulation as the United States is purely an opinion put out by ICG to expand the hunting industry’s reach across the globe.
Presenting opinions as facts is key to Let Africa Live’s effectiveness. This post of a lion overlaid with a quote from Amy Dickman, Director of Ruaha Carnivore Project, makes unsuspecting people question not allowing wealthy foreigners to hunt lions. The quote states “People here don’t care if they never see a lion again – they are worried about where their next meal is coming from; lions are just another threat.” While Dickman is a scientist, the quote represents an opinion, not a fact.
Indeed, Dickman is even listed on a study showing many community members in Kenya, where trophy hunting is banned, have an overwhelmingly positive view of lions and even want their numbers to increase. Posts with opinions about African communities’ indifference to wildlife are a disservice to the many African communities caring for and working hard to protect their native wildlife.
The most egregious example of ICG’s use of the native African voice to deceive nonhunters comes from this post showing a group of rural Africans with the text “THIS IS WHERE I LIVE. I’VE BEEN TOLD NOT TO MANAGE OUR NATION’S RESOURCES” above a photo of westerners (presumably) in a cityscape with the text “BY PEOPLE WHO LIVE HERE.” The caption asks how someone who lives thousands of miles away can know what is best for Africa’s wildlife and people. That is a great question to ask. How can a wealthy orthodontist in Florida know what is best for rural Africans? The caption finishes by stating it is time to put an end to the colonialist nonprofits that wish to control Africa and its resources. Colonialist nonprofits are a problem, they just happen to be the pro-hunting organizations in this case.
Spam Accounts Manipulating Social Media
In order to increase the effectiveness of social media posts, more than well-designed images and powerful quotes are needed. Organizations conducting information warfare utilize fake social media accounts to amplify messages and exponentially grow their reach by catering to many platforms’ algorithms for trending topics. The more people commenting and liking a post, the bigger the audience becomes on social media. ICG knows this, which is why they describe their operation as “driving ideas viral through a mix of likes, shares, comments.”
Research of Proud American Hunter and Let Africa Live comment sections reveals there are more than 80 suspicious social media accounts across Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram appearing to spam pro-hunting and anti-liberal comments. The accounts rarely do more than comment on Proud American Hunter and Let Africa Live posts on Facebook and Instagram. On twitter, where Proud American Hunter and Let Africa Live lack a substantial presence, the accounts supply pro-hunting comments on high profile tweets regarding wildlife conservation topics.
The accounts are seemingly devoid of original posts and ideas, and most have very few follower numbers. Many profile and background photos associated with the accounts are generic and nondescript pictures. Additionally, the accounts were created after ICG was formed in 2016.
Social media profiles like “Joel Masterson” (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) exhibit the typical suspicious behavior. All that can be deduced from their social media accounts is that they are a University of Alabama fan and rabid hunting supporter. While they do not have many digital followers or friends, their comments are surrounded by other suspicious accounts sharing similar messages.
But these accounts do not just stick to promoting hunting. They join right in with the political rhetoric, commenting on Proud American Hunter’s anti-abortion post calling animal rights extremists hypocrites and describing abortion as murder and genocide.
It is wishful thinking to hope social media users would see through or ignore the accounts, but they would not exist if they did not work. For example, Kruger National Park’s official Twitter account, retweeted three sets of comments by suspicious accounts applauding South Africa’s pro-hunting conservation practices in this thread.
Twitter users scrolling through Kruger National Park’s account would normally see pictures of the park’s wildlife and stories from visitors. These retweeted comments are abnormal for Kruger National Park, and it is concerning they can reach a large unsuspecting audience. ICG admits to targeting Botswana’s elites and decision makers, it would be extremely worrying if they are also targeting South Africa’s national parks.
There is Only Attack and Attack and Attack Some More
There is little left to infer about these organizations’ conduct as most of the details are clearly spelled out in ICG’s sales pitch to SCIF.
However, there is a possibility the scope of this operation could be much larger with many more parties involved. There may even be people breathing a sigh of relief that more details were not exposed.
But the question remains as to how the involved parties will respond. Will they attempt to defend their actions? Will they choose to ignore the negative attention and wait for it all to blow over?
If ICG stays true to its roots, I suppose they can be expected to “attack and attack and attack some more.” No matter the response, I have the utmost confidence Safari Club International Foundation and Shikar-Safari Club International Foundation will ensure Inclusive Conservation Group earns every last penny of funding.