Covid19 and Malign Influence Efforts

Key points by Ioanna Georgia Eskiadi

In this webinar we discussed the transformation throughout the pandemic to an “infodemic” of misinformation, malign influences and conspiracy theories.

• “Infodemic” of misinformation undermining science.
• Era of an information competition among states.
• In USA fake news from Russia has spread online.
• Disinformation about the origin of COVID-19.
• Cooperation of states.
• Increasing number of people who find access to disinformation.
• Private companies should protect the rights of citizens.
• China was ready for the “infodemic”.
• Russia and China exchanged their knowledge.
• Need of fact-checking, journalists who work with NGOs, investigative journalists.
• Governments need to increase their digital capacity.

The Coronavirus pandemic is an era of competition between states to win the disinformation warfare. Russia and China use ways of cyber-attacks and cyber processes. “Chinese spokesman on foreign affairs posted on Twitter on March that “US Army might have brought Covid-19 to the Chinese city Wuhan as part of sports games”, in this way they used disinformation to relate it with military staff, visiting the Wuhan and bringing the virus, this is a part of a big competition of spreading fake news”, says Seth Jones. Cooperation is important but competition is inevitable since many of these countries have different political and economic systems.

“Coronavirus is an instrument of warfare on disinformation”, says Bob Pearson. The number of people online has been increased, the way we consume content has changed, as people are moving to messaging platforms, these tend to lead people easier access of disinformation. People usually don’t use more than four channels consistently; this leads them to become information biased and think of words from other channels as potentially untrue.. It’s important to acquire a new form of corporate responsibility, bad actors are impacting our communities, our citizens. “It’s not only about state actors but we should equally see it as a general issue of how private companies protect the rights of citizens, of consumers”, says Bob Pearson.

China built an empire in the digital space by creating botnets which are more efficient, faster, and cleverly hidden. Disinformation from China and Russia during the Covid-19 period is not centralized, it’s very chaotic and the disinformation narratives are spread simultaneously on all possible platforms to fill out all possible missions. “Since 2018, the major propaganda creators and disinformation sources they moved from powerful channels to the strategy of employing small and many. Information distortion during COVID-19 has been done from noise and narratives posted from major media outlets are flexible enough to be interpreted”, says Franak Viacorka. China and Russia are exchanging their knowledge, China is learning from Russia how to use social networks, and Russia is learning from China how to use technology, big data and AI. Narratives of China and Russia are similar but also different on the same time, China tends to play a long game, but for Russia it is a more tactical game, attempting to disorientthe west, with more sources and political impact. Governments need to build their capacities to tackle disinformation and increase their digital capacity.

Moderator: Ass. Professor Nikos Panagiotou │Aristotle University, Journalism/Mass Communication│Thessaloniki

Speakers:

Bob Pearson │Author, advisor and entrepreneur; USA

Seth Jones│ Harold Brown Chair; Director, Transnational Threats Project; and Senior Adviser, International Security Program│ USA

Franak Viacorka | Digital Communication Network | Belarus

This event is co-organized by the Digital Communication Network SouthEast Europe Hub (DCN SEE) and World Learning and is part of DCNSEE’s Ideas in Action — Digital Engagement, a series of virtual events launched in the context of the COVID-19 crisis. The series aims to engage digital communities globally, to promote accurate information, combat distortions, encourage responsible behavior, and discourage panic, support mitigation of a global pandemic, and avoid major societal disruptions. DCNSEE is supported by the U.S. Department of State Office of Citizen Exchanges.

DCN SOUTHEAST EUROPE HUB is a consortium of Aristotle University, Digital Communication Network, nonprofits, public and private organizations and companies involved in the fields of digital communication, social impact campaigns, technology, and innovation. It is a unique, interdisciplinary coalition tapping into the best talent and resources across Europe.

The webinar is produced by Digital Communication Network, a diverse professional coalition in the digital space.