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U.S. raising alarm over Russian disinformation on coronavirus

The report says thousands of Russian-linked social media accounts pushed and amplified unfounded conspiracy theories .

The U.S. State Department is raising the alarm that Russia has mobilized an “ecosystem” of humans and online bots to push conspiracy theories about the coronavirus.

But critics say those allegations come from a single, unpublished report and that its conclusions don’t fully support public statements by U.S. officials, The Hill reports.

The confusion has created a rift, with the federal government on one side and independent experts and social media companies on the other.

It also underscores U.S. challenges to guarding against information manipulation by adversaries seeking to undermine democratic institutions and free speech.

The Global Engagement Center (GEC), a division of the State Department charged with combating propaganda online, revealed last month an analysis of what it called a Russian campaign of disinformation around coronavirus.

In a report citing nearly 2 million tweets in multiple languages, the GEC said thousands of Russian-linked social media accounts pushed and amplified unfounded conspiracy theories of the U.S. and prominent American philanthropists manufacturing the outbreak as part of a racist and profit-making campaign against China.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said the outbreak that originated in China late last year is linked to animal-to-human transmission and then human-to-human transmission.

Social media companies are on the front line of combating disinformation against coronavirus, which the World Health Organization declared a pandemic on Wednesday.

Graham Brookie, director of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, argued in favor of more transparency over efforts to track disinformation campaigns, saying it helps the public to better identify authentic information.

“One of the distinct advantages of monitoring the information ecosystem across social media for false or misleading narratives is that the vast majority of content is accessible to everyone,” he said. “Assessments can be transparent and replicable for a wider research community, which helps to build back public trust and avoid hyperbole.”

(c) Unian

9 comments

  1. Russia love to spread conspiracy theories, usually when they want to hide something. How about this for a conspiracy theory, Muscovy created this virus, and set it off in China, then Europe, to take the media attention away from the MH17 trial. Maybe it’s all just a massive coincidence these two events happened simulataneously, but when Russia start to spread the BS, it’s time to dig deeper.

    Reply

    • It is genetically closely related to the SARS-CoV-1 virus. SARS emerged at the end of 2002 in China. The natural habitat for these viruses are bats. It got into the human population because the chicoms are degenerates who like eating disgusting things and keeping verminous livestock in the same places as ‘normal’ : ie for human consumption livestock.
      This diabolical virus is obviously a putler supporter, since it is achieving destabilization in the west that the little shitweasel can only dream about. There is nothing that putler would not do in that regard if he can get away with it. Who is to say that he would not find ways to deploy this virus to forward his repulsive agenda?

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    • The origin of the virus is not much disputed, but the spreading. How comes that shitholes are way less affected than industrialized countries with an excellent healthcare system? The KGB isolated it and smuggled it out of China, to spread it in Western and Nato countries. My nickel about COVID-19.

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      • Way less affected? In China, thousands of people died.

        And also: it is China, so probably the numbers are much higher than the government is willing to admit. Probably the same is happening in Iran.

        I think because of the shithole countries, Western countries have underestimated the severity of the disease, as they made it seem less worse than it was. I think this, because even in countries in Europe, the death toll is quite high. Although I do think not all that have died that were infected, died because of Corona. Those people that were severely ill already, may have died because of something else, but were infected.

        Btw, I am not so confident the virus derived from bats or snakes. I have no clue, but I wouldn’t surprise me as it leaked from some laboratory or such. The Chinese would never acknowledge that, if such a thing has happened. I am not saying it is impossible that these were bats, but we should take everything from China with a grain of salt.

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  2. I think that we can disregard all the conspiracy theories . The world is so interconnected today that a pandemic such as this will affect
    everyone and be most devastating to countries with weak economies.
    As for shithole countries, satellite photos show Iran digging mass graves and North Korea is trying to hide the devastation. Just follow human travel patterns and you can plainly see where this virus is going.

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  3. Yesterday Dutch government ordered the closure of all cafes and restaurants and coffeeshops because of the conoravirus,
    Within half an HOUR!!!!

    Today just at 5 its ordered to reopen the coffeeshops (where they sell hasj and Dutch weed and more grass)……… because as take away its allright. Whole Amsterdam smiles!

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