France uncovers a vast Russian disinformation campaign in Europe::undefined

  • Greyghoster@aussie.zone
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    8 months ago

    Disinformation or more accurately, lying, is Russian doctrine. Everything that they say seems to be a lie and designed to delay appropriate action.

      • agent_flounder@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        8 months ago

        Of course. That’s been true since the dawn of humanity.

        Russia has a certain flavor of lying that I don’t see elsewhere. They make claims that are so utterly ridiculous that everyone knows it is complete bullshit. It’s like some weird gaslighting / dominance thing. Lavrov and Putin are pros at this.

        Purely by coincidence, you see a similar technique employed by one of the two major US presidential candidates. Only his approach is to repeat the ridiculous lie enough times that some people believe it.

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      8 months ago

      I think every literate soul in Afghanistan would agree that this isn’t really limited to Russia.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      lying, is Russian doctrine

      Its true. The entire Russian language is just a series of elaborate lies with grammar and syntax. It is impossible to say three consecutive true statements in a Slavic tongue.

  • arc@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    8 months ago

    Well yes and obviously. Russia is a bad actor and obviously wants to sow division & doubt over the war in Ukraine, to sow division in general, and to slander political enemies. They have a special interest in interfering with US and European politics.

    They’re not the only bad actor of course. If you see memes & misinfo trend about immigration, Ukraine, drugs, vaccines, climate change, abortion, gas & oil, politics, NATO, EVs, MAGA, Palestine / Israel, dissidents etc. then invariably there is a bad actor driving that crap. They’ll use their clusters of bots on Twitter to amplify the info until it gets picked up by useful idiots looking to retweet around.

  • realitista@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    8 months ago

    Uncovering these rings, publicizing them, and shutting them down needs to be a top priority. I think a lot, if not most, of the bad decisions made by voters stem from these kind of bad actors. We’ve let it go on for long enough.

    • DacoTaco@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      8 months ago

      Not only voters, also politicians. Everyone can be influenced, even those in power :)

  • cygon@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    8 months ago

    I’m expecting a really nasty autumn this year. A big chunk of Russia’s campaign against Europe is held up by Ukraine and they badly need a stooge US president again.

    Musk also opened Twitter’s doors wide for state-sponsored manipulation and agitation campaigns. All protections are offline and the teams are gone, under the guise of free speech.

    • angstylittlecatboy@reddthat.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      If you’re in a country that shares a border with Russia, or are Canadian or British and understand the end goal of this, you’ve been sick of it for a while.

    • TengoDosVacas@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      8 months ago

      It sure would be nice if NATO and the EU would just steamroll them back into place.

      Wait until springtime though.

    • RedFox@infosec.pub
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      tired of Russia’s BS

      I think Ukraine is.

      And most of western Europe.

      And US.

      And…

    • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      DISinformation. The difference is that misinformation might or might not be intentional, whereas disinformation is organised intentional misinformation with specific goals in mind.

      Not that I blame you for getting it wrong, mind you, since most media outlets consistently do.

      • Tristaniopsis@aussie.zone
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        8 months ago

        Apologies. Late night sloppiness. I support your correction. After I posted it I thought the same thing but couldn’t be arsed changing it.

        • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          8 months ago

          No worries, I’ve made worse late night sloppiness mistakes myself. Just last night, I accidentally called Janet Yellen Secretary of State in stead of Secretary of the Treasury.

          To make matters worse, I actually looked up whether Yo Yo Ma is a cellist or violinist for the same comment, but neglected to double check Yellen’s title while I was on Wikipedia anyway 😄

  • GodlessCommie@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    8 months ago

    So we are doing the Russian thing again? An easy scapegoat to blame for everything. Western propaganda like this is more dangerous to society than fictional the Boogeyman

    • photonic_sorcerer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      8 months ago

      Yes, we’re doing this Russia thing again, because, like last time (though it’s never truly stopped) we are confronted with evidence of a wide-reaching disinformation campaign. Yes, it’s an easy scapegoat because Russia is actually the one at fault here. Crazy, right?

      Try to make sure not to make yourself look like a complete idiot the next time you sit down to write a comment.

    • Spazz@lemmynsfw.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      8 months ago

      JFC, choose to be better.

      Here you are, presented with facts and you just ignore them and start spouting more right wing garbage, truly worthless

  • recapitated@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    8 months ago

    Why even fund uncovering these. Just build your systems with this as a consideration. If it’s not Russia it will be someone else.

  • index@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    8 months ago

    Out of curiosity can anyone point out to me some of this russian disinformation? There’s so much western propaganda around that i really can’t find any

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      8 months ago

      Right now, France is gripped by a large labor revolt in the agricultural sector being driven by the state’s effort to increase agricultural imports from North Africa and Eastern Europe while reducing state price-supports for down-year crops. This threatens to lead to large scale real estate consolidation and foreign real estate purchase. Nationalists, agricultural owner-operators, and farmers exposed to rising interest rates (basically all of them) don’t like this very much.

      However, claiming the heartland farmers of rural France are angry at Macron for selling out the agg sector to financial interests in Brussels and Zurich isn’t going to be too popular as we approach the 2024 EU Parliamentary elections. So we’re getting an earful about how all these local yokels are hoodwinked by anti-EU Russian Propaganda.

      If you’re not in favor of truckloads of exported Ukranian agricultural salvage ending up competing with fresh French produce on store shelves, then you’re a secret spy for Putin and a traitor.

      • cygon@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        A perfect demonstration of how Russian indoctrination works right here.

        Original reporting: A major disinfo attack against Europe being prepared by Russia is uncovered through diligent investigation and published and reported on.

        The response:

          1. divert to farmer’s dissatisfaction with several policies
          1. cast disinfo reports as underhanded attempts (by politician Russia wants gone) to arrogantly brush off farmer’s concerns (which the report never even related to)
          1. claim Macron is selling out to EU (here, have a serving of anti-EU sentiment, too)
          1. vaccinate reader against the disinfo being countered (“everyone who tells you otherwise belittles you and hates you, join us in our righteous anger”)

        Emotional framing:

        Nationalists, agricultural owner-operators, and farmers exposed to rising interest rates

        “truckloads of exported Ukranian agricultural salvage” vs. “fresh French produce”

        we’re getting an earful about how all these local yokels are hoodwinked by anti-EU Russian Propaganda

        Macron for selling out the agg sector to financial interests in Brussels

        “If you’re not in favor of (insert supposed evil acts described in lurid way), then you’re a secret spy for Putin and a traitor.”

        Result: The reader comes out the other end an angry person, outraged about the plight of farmers, outraged again at disinfo reports supposedly serving to silence them, outraged once more at a France politician selling them out to the EU, EU painted as high-and-mighty villain, automatic anger against anyone who tells them a different viewpoint ready to trigger.

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          8 months ago

          A major disinfo attack

          The question was “What disinformation is being circulated?”

          And the answer is “By answering this you are doing Russian propaganda”

          Result: The reader comes out the other end an angry person

          Isn’t that the same result as the original “Russia is doing an evil propaganda” headline?