| | Chaos via disinformation | Russia has doubled down on efforts to influence global public opinion utilising a spectrum of tools from trolls and high-volume spam, to counterfeit documents, chatbots and deepfake technologies. In addition, Moscow has cultivated a network of proxy influencers in target audiences to infiltrate information channels and influence public opinion worldwide. Russia-linked actors masquerade as fact checking platforms, spoof existing news sites (e.g. Guardian, Bild, RBC Ukraine) as well as government websites (including NATO). The false narratives have focused on undermining the integrity of elections, weakening Western support for Ukraine, depicting Ukraine as a failed and corrupt neo-Nazi state, spreading Kremlin propaganda about the war, and targeting citizens in Germany, Italy, France, Latvia and the UK threatening that sanctions against Russia will ruin their lives. While states have sanctioned these actors, Russia’s disinformation continues and Moscow has not taken any steps to prevent these operations from proliferating. Despite sanctions and takedowns, Russia is a sophisticated disinformation actor whose networks and methods continuously adapt. Allies need to be similarly agile and innovative, using technology defence strategy in partnership with industry. Failure to do so risks ceding the information advantage to adversaries. |
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