A report by the EU’s External Action Service analyzes 100 fake news about the war in Ukraine, 83 percent of which were generated by “actors in the Russian ecosystem.” They have supplanted media such as the Spanish magazine
“Disinformation is one more weapon in the Kremlin’s war arsenal.” He explains it General Ballesterosboss of Department of Homeland Security, commenting on a report by the European Union that analyzes one hundred “incidents” of disinformation that occurred between October and December 2022, in a meeting held at the La Moncloa Complex attended by CASO ABIERTO, the investigation and events channel of Prensa Ibérica.
Most of these incidents, which are much more complex than just hoaxes, have to do with the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the European Union’s response. In it 83 percent of them, according to the data in the report, “actors of the russian ecosystem“, either “creating or amplifying” those narratives that they fly by social networks.
In another 13 percent of cases, those who participate are “Chinese Actors”, according to the FIMI report (acronym in English for Foreign Interference and Manipulation).
Zelensky, Borrell…
The victims of those hundred incidents of misinformation with “false”, “harmful” content and coordinated with the aim of intoxicating public opinion, were above all Ukraine (33 misinformation incidents), the European Union and its sanctions for the war (15 incidents) and the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security, Josep Borrell (eleven).
Intelligence services
To spread these poisonings massively, they used 616 channels diffusion, in 30 languages different, 16 of them official languages of the European Union.
40 percent of the disinformation incidents analyzed are “attributable to Chinese Russian media ecosystem“; that is, they were disseminated by means financed or openly participated in by the Russian and Chinese governments, their intelligence services or several official accounts.
humor and hate
Sometimes misinformation contains falsified and manipulated narratives, lies that they encourage hatred against politicians or parts of the world. For example, point out that there are no grains for Africa and Latin America due to the EU sanctions imposed on Russia for the war. In reality, cereals are excluded from sanctions.
On other occasions, misinformation tries to condition the audience using humor in a manipulative way. It was the case of six episodes of “impersonation” collected in the EU report. Three satirical magazines were supplanted and their covers were falsified with content that was highly critical of Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine. One of the victims was Spanish satirical magazine Thursday.
The report of the EU’s External Action Service includes how a fake cover of Thursday in November 2022. It shows a drawing of several sailors in New York throwing up under a sign announcing Zelensky as the boy from the Ukraine, with the nickname of “Black Hole” (Black Hole) used in homosexual environments with a derogatory tone.
Russian Facebook
The title of Thursday faked was “You’re heavier than dikpik” (cock photo). The lie was spread and amplified by vk, the russian facebookwho wrote that “a Spanish magazine has made a cover that refers to Zelenski”, whom he calls Zelibobo, as “the black hole that appeared last week in New York”.
It is not the first intoxication that tries to link the president of Ukraine with gay environments. In September, a photo of a supposed Zelenski participating with very little clothing and a black wig in an old gay pride parade In New York. The image was false.
In addition to Thursdaythe French satirical magazine charlie hebdo and the English titanic They suffered similar episodes. In the case of charlie hebdothe Russian government’s disinformation apparatus created a cover of an alleged Christmas special featuring the cartoon of Zelensky fleeing from the portal of Bethlehem after stealing several objects from the baby Jesus’ manger.
The EU report on disinformation also includes two incidents of impersonation of the chains Euronews and Al Jazeera. In one of the videos attributed to these channels, there was talk of Ukrainian followers, supposedly naziswho had been arrested in Doha during the soccer World Cup.
Investigations into these incidents of media impersonation allowed the attribution of a russian channel as the one who first spread the false information from Euronews. In the rest of the cases, they were published by means not officially linked to Russia, but the content was “quickly picked up and amplified” through channels attributed to “Russian state structures”.
Beatriz Marindata analyst EU External Action Servicenoted that Russian embassies around the world created Telegram channels where false and manipulated information was also disseminated.
General Ballesteros, head of the Department of Homeland Security, warns that Russia “has an interest” in whoever wins the elections in Spain, “as it did with Brexit and the elections in the United States”
Both this expert and General Ballesteros warned that the war against disinformation campaigns is complex: “False or manipulated information is transmitted faster in networks than the real one and goes further,” said the first. “Russia reaches the heart of our societies with misinformation,” added the second.
The general also left a notice: “with two electoral processes in Spain, this is a tempting year for misinformation & rdquor; in which there will be, again, a leading actor: “Russia is interested who wins the elections in Spain, as he did in the United States or in the Brexit referendum”.