France uncovers a vast Russian disinformation campaign in Europe

L4sBot@lemmy.worldmod to Technology@lemmy.world – 707 points –
France uncovers a vast Russian disinformation campaign in Europe
economist.com

France uncovers a vast Russian disinformation campaign in Europe::undefined

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All sides are doing it in every war, be wary what you trust

Of course. That's been true since the dawn of humanity.

Russia has a certain flavor of lying that I don't see elsewhere. They make claims that are so utterly ridiculous that everyone knows it is complete bullshit. It's like some weird gaslighting / dominance thing. Lavrov and Putin are pros at this.

Purely by coincidence, you see a similar technique employed by one of the two major US presidential candidates. Only his approach is to repeat the ridiculous lie enough times that some people believe it.

Russia has a certain flavor of lying that I don’t see elsewhere. They make claims that are so utterly ridiculous that everyone knows it is complete bullshit. It’s like some weird gaslighting / dominance thing.

There is one other place I do see this strategy replicated, which is from the IDF.

Turkey and Azerbaijan

China

half the African continent

...

seems to not be some innovation limited to specific countries really.

Missing the obvious.... Trump, The Brexit cronies, any number of populist movements in Europe.

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Sure, but for Russia it's the actual doctrine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_military_deception

How is it worse than, for example, the US military deception doctrine? Would, say, Romania, be somehow above using military deception? What about NATO deception doctrine?

How about instead of linking to documents you do the analysis yourself.

But to spare you the burden: Remember when Bush came clean and said that all those weapons of mass destruction in Iraq were a lie? And how that didn't go down well with the west, and how many western countries already called bullshit before the US even invaded? That kind of stuff is doctrine in Russia, not just in the military but also when it comes to securing regime power internally. It's how Putin won his first election, by blowing up apartment buildings and blaming it on Chechens. Another important thing is to tell so many lies and contradictory things that the very notion of truth gets demolished, that people throw up their hands and say "I'd rather be apolitical than try to figure out what's what".

Western military deception OTOH is more of the "blink right, turn left" kind, it's about anticipating the opponent's analysis of the situation and exploiting that, either by feint or because they have a blind spot. And even then you want to be careful because damaging trust is often worse than taking a hit you could've avoided with deception.

Another important thing is to tell so many lies and contradictory things that the very notion of truth gets demolished, that people throw up their hands and say “I’d rather be apolitical than try to figure out what’s what”.

Yes, that is true, can confirm.

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