The Russia thread.
Out of context: Reply #621
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There is a classic information war going on, but Putin can only count on the trolls
At the private conference on the Russian-Ukrainian war in Budapest, at which the Ambassador of Ukraine in Budapest addressed the Hungarians in harsh words, the invited experts also spoke in detail about the information war that is taking place in parallel with the armed conflicts.
“Every war is full of fake news, it has always been so. The Russians are especially adept at this. ”
- András Rácz, security policy analyst and expert of the Strategic Defense Research Institute of the National University of Public Administration, introduced the topic. He says spammers don’t take any risks right now, it needs to be made to change that - and anyone can help.
“Everyone can take individual action against the spread of false news and even against the spread of false news. It should be ensured that the distributors of false news also risk something. If nothing else, at least prestige. That no one will ever shake hands with them again. That no one will ever contract them again. That they are not called to civilized places, ”he said.
Péter pKrekó, director of the Political Capital Institute, which organized the conference, spoke in detail about the changing strategy of the information war. He said that while Russia's leadership is trying in many ways to restrict the public's access to credible information, the West has also expressed an intention to reduce access to clear Russian disinformation sites. In the European Union, for example, access to Russia Today and Sputnik has been restricted, and Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are also cracking down on their ads. As a result, Russia's official disinformation infrastructure has been severely weakened.
Moreover, Russia said that Russia had already given up on convincing the Western public that this was a just war.
“He didn’t really find an excuse to intervene and pulled out of his hat the oldest, oldest disinformation narratives, such as those about the Nazi, genocidal Ukrainian government planning to use nuclear weapons,” Krekó said. Meanwhile, however, the Western press is traversed by a series of images of civilian casualties, a rocket crashing into Kharkiv’s main square, and the collapse of houses - Creko says it is defenseless.
The troll army is activated
In this situation, if the official disinformation infrastructure weakens, Russia could strengthen the troll army and inauthentic online behavior.
“An amazing troll army has been built in Hungary as well. There are also people who copy the same opinion into 65 places in five minutes and do so in, say, 24 hours, ”said Krekó, who says their analysts’ Facebook posts also act as “troll magnets”:
"It's a very bizarre situation for us to put out an analysis of Russian trolls covering the media, and for that, Russian trolls are covering our posts."
However, according to Kreko, the impact of such activity is also limited and it mainly serves to confuse Western public opinion. It can be really effective if you get support from mainstream politics. "In Hungary, on the other hand, the immune system, to put it mildly, is not enough," Krekó said, adding that he said social media companies would have a greater responsibility to filter out and stop coordinated propaganda behavior.
According to Krekó, it can be seen that anti-Western, pro-Russian narratives have an audience in Hungary, but being pro-Russian is becoming more and more unpleasant in the current situation. “Anti-Westernism, relativization remains: the West is doing the same, America is doing the same, and Ukraine was at fault. However, we also see that the majority of Western and Hungarian public opinion clearly condemns this war, ”said Krekó.