Have you heard about Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky's yachts? There are at least two of them, apparently, and they both cost billions . . . all paid for with Western aid.
This sophisticated disinformation machine is currently working in overdrive in the UK to disrupt Thursday's General Election. Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden warned at the weekend that this industry of lies poses a real threat to our democracy. He was responding to reports by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that Russian propagandists were covertly exerting their influence via a series of Facebook pages to boost support for Nigel Farage's Reform party. The pages have a combined following of 190,000 people.Five pages on Facebook are merely the tip of the iceberg. Russia employs thousands of computer operators to flood our social media networks with distortions, doctored reports and outrageous fabrications.
Some people will need no proof. They will accept the claim without question and probably repeat it. Others might be sceptical at first. But when the lie is endlessly repeated, it begins to look true just because it's been said so often. During the Cold War, disseminating propaganda was slow work. One KGB method was to steal documents from a Western state, reproduce them with a few lies inserted and leak them to newspapers.
He was responding to reports by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that Russian propagandists were covertly exerting their influence via a series of Facebook pages to boost support for Nigel Farage 's Reform party