According to an internal report by the External Action Service of the European Union, some media outlets and social media profiles linked to the Kremlin are carrying out a disinformation campaign on the COVID-19 epidemic in order to slow down and compromise the effectiveness of the reaction in Europe and in the USA.
The nine-page report was leaked to CNN, the Financial Times and Reuters. According to these three sources, Russian trolls are spreading false and contradictory news on main social networks about the spread of the virus in order to undermine the trust of readers in the health and political authorities of their countries. The disinformation contents are produced in English, Spanish, Italian, German, French, Russian and Arabic.
Just an easy check on the web is enough to verify that many articles by Russia Today on conspiracy theories, for example, never take a clear stand against the hypothesis that the virus was built in a laboratory in the USA or China. Articles like this, on the hypothesis that the virus entered Wuhan during the 2019 Military World Games, conclude by saying that there is no unanimity of thought on the origin of the virus, leaving the reader with the impression that the conspiracy theory is as legitimate as the one maintained by the scientific community according to which the virus has natural origin. In this other article by Russia Today, theories according to which the virus was intentionally spread by the USA in China and Iran are described as less orthodox theories, suggesting that those according to which the virus was unintentionally spread by American athletes in China are more orthodox.
Among the cases cited by the report there is the report of an American soldier who tested positive for the virus in Lithuania; according to the Lithuanian newspaper that published the news, it was posted online on their site by Russian hackers, the page was withdrawn within a half hour. In commenting on this event, The Baltic Times newspaper added that the most serious threat to information in Lithuania comes from Russian secret services and intelligence.
Furthermore, Russian media and trolls are spreading fake news according to which measures taken in European countries are not effective and are not giving the expected results, while the numbers at least in Italy confirm the opposite, in order to increase the distrust of the readers in their governments. Also according to the report by the European Union, Russian trolls have spread the unfounded rumor according to which Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini tested positive after a hospitalization in late February and had infected other high level politicians from other European countries during international meetings: the whole story was completely false.
It's not the first time Russia carries out disinformation campaigns, now more than ever they can do enormous damage and it is therefore appropriate not to believe news read on the web unless there are solid confirmations and evidence to avoid worsening the effects of the epidemic because of a dictatorship.
The nine-page report was leaked to CNN, the Financial Times and Reuters. According to these three sources, Russian trolls are spreading false and contradictory news on main social networks about the spread of the virus in order to undermine the trust of readers in the health and political authorities of their countries. The disinformation contents are produced in English, Spanish, Italian, German, French, Russian and Arabic.
Just an easy check on the web is enough to verify that many articles by Russia Today on conspiracy theories, for example, never take a clear stand against the hypothesis that the virus was built in a laboratory in the USA or China. Articles like this, on the hypothesis that the virus entered Wuhan during the 2019 Military World Games, conclude by saying that there is no unanimity of thought on the origin of the virus, leaving the reader with the impression that the conspiracy theory is as legitimate as the one maintained by the scientific community according to which the virus has natural origin. In this other article by Russia Today, theories according to which the virus was intentionally spread by the USA in China and Iran are described as less orthodox theories, suggesting that those according to which the virus was unintentionally spread by American athletes in China are more orthodox.
Among the cases cited by the report there is the report of an American soldier who tested positive for the virus in Lithuania; according to the Lithuanian newspaper that published the news, it was posted online on their site by Russian hackers, the page was withdrawn within a half hour. In commenting on this event, The Baltic Times newspaper added that the most serious threat to information in Lithuania comes from Russian secret services and intelligence.
Furthermore, Russian media and trolls are spreading fake news according to which measures taken in European countries are not effective and are not giving the expected results, while the numbers at least in Italy confirm the opposite, in order to increase the distrust of the readers in their governments. Also according to the report by the European Union, Russian trolls have spread the unfounded rumor according to which Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini tested positive after a hospitalization in late February and had infected other high level politicians from other European countries during international meetings: the whole story was completely false.
It's not the first time Russia carries out disinformation campaigns, now more than ever they can do enormous damage and it is therefore appropriate not to believe news read on the web unless there are solid confirmations and evidence to avoid worsening the effects of the epidemic because of a dictatorship.
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