Kremlin bots began to spread a large number of fakes in the information space of the EU countries not only to mislead European citizens, but also to overload the system of combating disinformation.
Points of attention
- Russia spreads covert propaganda in EU countries through pro-Russian bots and agents to overload the system of combating disinformation.
- EU countries like the Baltic States, Poland, and the Czech Republic are concerned about Russia's hybrid attacks, labeling them as a serious threat.
- NATO lacks a clear strategy for responding to Russia's hybrid threats, complicating the situation in the region.
- Detecting and countering Russia's hybrid attacks is challenging due to the lack of clear response rules and difficulty in proving Russia's involvement in specific incidents.
- An in-depth study reveals how Russia's 'Operation Overload' bombards European journalists with fake news to exhaust fact-checking resources, affecting over 800 news organizations in Europe.
How Russia is trying to weaken the EU countries' fight against disinformation
According to a new study conducted by the Finnish company Check First, pro-Russian bots and propagandists are deliberately bombarding European journalists and the information space with fake news in an attempt to exhaust and overwhelm fact-checking resources.
In particular, in this scheme, the Kremlin uses anonymous agents who, as part of a coordinated campaign, contact European journalists and ask them to check fake news.
The main purpose of such appeals is to force journalists to publish a refutation of a fake, which in itself will become an advertisement for this fake.
The flow of such appeals creates a false sense of urgency among journalists, which leads to the success of the scheme, - explained in the Euronews material.
It is emphasized that the vast majority of requests are aimed at checking fake news about Ukraine, France and Germany.
"Operation Overload" affected more than 800 news organizations in Europe and beyond, which were attacked with approximately 2,400 tweets and more than 200 emails of this nature.
According to Check First, more than 250 "fact-checked" news stories have been published in the past few months citing false narratives created for "Operation Overload."
Is NATO ready for Russia's hybrid war?
According to The Hill journalists, NATO has still not decided how to respond to numerous hybrid attacks from Russia.
The Baltic states, Poland and the Czech Republic have expressed concern about sabotage and attacks on people involving Russian special services.
In all seriousness, we have to respond because if we don't, it will escalate. And Russia will feel that there are no limits to what it can do in our countries, and, obviously, there is also a discussion between the allies about what would be the best response, - Estonia's ambassador to NATO Juri Luik emphasized to journalists.
It is noted that only in the past few weeks, several incidents have occurred on the territory of EU countries in which Russia is blamed - the jamming of GPS signals and the disruption of commercial air traffic in Estonia, the killing of a Polish border guard, an attack on a Russian political dissident in Lithuania, a hacker attack on major hospitals in London , several episodes with arson in various NATO countries
According to Elizabeth Brau, an expert on hybrid warfare, such provocations are difficult to detect and predict in advance, and there are simply no clear rules for responding to them.
The reason there is no punishment is that this is not a military attack, so we don't have a rule book on how to respond, the analyst explains.
According to the expert, a serious problem also lies in the fact that it is extremely difficult to prove the aggressor's involvement in a specific incident.
For example, it took seven years for Czech authorities to directly accuse Russia of setting fire to a military arsenal in 2014.
We cannot respond in kind, and public condemnation does not frighten the perpetrator at all, - emphasizes Brou.
