December 18, 2016: How Putins Fake News Machine Spread From Ukraine Across the Globe
https://warisboring.com/how-putins-f...919#.1dlboatji
Outrageous media hoaxes, Internet trolls and repression at home are all key instruments in the Kremlins political tool box
But while the 2016 may be the year that fake news on the Internet became the news, the outbreak of the fighting in Eastern Ukraine in 2014 was the first time it was weaponized in full public view.
It is natural, of course, that Russian media would have its own perspective on a conflict pitting ethnic Russians against Ukrainians. Accurate information is exceedingly difficult to obtain out of any armed conflict, and both loyalists and rebels in Ukraine engaged in information warfare and its fabrications.
What is not natural or at least, naturally-occurring is the concerted state-sponsored effort by the Kremlin to manufacture false news stories and commenters and push them through both official and unofficial outlets under its direction and control in order to enable Russian foreign policy objectives.
The methods pioneered in 2014 were a harbinger of the deluge that struck Europe and the United States in 2016.
Everyone else is more corrupt
When confronted with contrary information, the Kremlins defenders often fall back on two typical replies. The first is Whataboutism otherwise known as changing the subject.
Are Russian warplanes deliberately targeting hospitals and bakeries in Aleppo? Well, America bombed Hanoi during the Vietnam War. Did Putin blatantly lie about Russian troops seizing Crimea? But George W. Bush lied about WMDs.
More bluntly, Putins defenders argue that Russian propaganda is fundamentally no different than the biased and pervasive Western media. In other words, you are no better than we are.
So Western media is no different, right? Theres practically nothing separating them from Russias propaganda except little things like the American or European press being allowed to criticize their own heads of state, governments and their national policies, and those news outlets are generally not shut down or arrested for doing so.
And the article about the Pentagons fake news scheme in Iraq came from The Washington Post.
Which is precisely why Putin sees press freedom and open access to civil society organizations as a weakness and vulnerability. He has done his best to purge domestic and international organization in Russia that could independently report on or challenge his policies, while simultaneously creating a coordinated media apparatus to influence populaces in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America.
https://warisboring.com/how-putins-f...919#.1dlboatji
Outrageous media hoaxes, Internet trolls and repression at home are all key instruments in the Kremlins political tool box
But while the 2016 may be the year that fake news on the Internet became the news, the outbreak of the fighting in Eastern Ukraine in 2014 was the first time it was weaponized in full public view.
It is natural, of course, that Russian media would have its own perspective on a conflict pitting ethnic Russians against Ukrainians. Accurate information is exceedingly difficult to obtain out of any armed conflict, and both loyalists and rebels in Ukraine engaged in information warfare and its fabrications.
What is not natural or at least, naturally-occurring is the concerted state-sponsored effort by the Kremlin to manufacture false news stories and commenters and push them through both official and unofficial outlets under its direction and control in order to enable Russian foreign policy objectives.
The methods pioneered in 2014 were a harbinger of the deluge that struck Europe and the United States in 2016.
Everyone else is more corrupt
When confronted with contrary information, the Kremlins defenders often fall back on two typical replies. The first is Whataboutism otherwise known as changing the subject.
Are Russian warplanes deliberately targeting hospitals and bakeries in Aleppo? Well, America bombed Hanoi during the Vietnam War. Did Putin blatantly lie about Russian troops seizing Crimea? But George W. Bush lied about WMDs.
More bluntly, Putins defenders argue that Russian propaganda is fundamentally no different than the biased and pervasive Western media. In other words, you are no better than we are.
So Western media is no different, right? Theres practically nothing separating them from Russias propaganda except little things like the American or European press being allowed to criticize their own heads of state, governments and their national policies, and those news outlets are generally not shut down or arrested for doing so.
And the article about the Pentagons fake news scheme in Iraq came from The Washington Post.
Which is precisely why Putin sees press freedom and open access to civil society organizations as a weakness and vulnerability. He has done his best to purge domestic and international organization in Russia that could independently report on or challenge his policies, while simultaneously creating a coordinated media apparatus to influence populaces in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America.