From 6-9 June, the next elections to the European Parliament(opens in a new tab) will take place across EU Member States in the largest European democratic exercise for hundreds of millions of people. These elections will give a mandate to the European Parliament for the next five years. In this series of articles, we show examples of key tactics, techniques, and procedures employed by pro-Kremlin manipulators and disinformers targeting the European Parliament elections. We examine attempts to smear leaders; sow distrust, doubt, and division; flood social media with falsehoods; turn the public against Ukraine; and project Russia’s own shortcomings onto the EU to distract from the reality of Putin’s Russia. We will also follow how the election results are portrayed by the pro-Kremlin disinformation ecosystem. Stay tuned! In the first article, we analysed the technique of smearing prominent political leaders by inventing scandals, twisting or taking things out of context, or posing as ‘doppelgangers’ to clone or hijack their online identities to lure target audiences. A second technique is closely associated with the first: sowing discontent, doubt, and division. The second article looked at attempts to foment discontent inside EU Member States, exploit existing political issues, and erode the credibility of the EU system. We have documented increasing attempts by Russian state-sponsored and pro-Kremlin outlets targeting the EU to influence(opens in a new tab) public discussions. Technique no. 3: flood information spaces with falsehoods to turn the public against Ukraine The tactic of flooding the information space seeks to push aside quality content and illustrates how Russian authorities try to manipulate and influence the public agenda across the EU. This technique is also sometimes described as a ‘firehose of falsehoods(opens in a new tab)’ because it seeks to dominate the information environment with an overabundance of misleading, false, and manipulative narratives. The Kremlin uses this tool quite often.
via EUvsdisinfo: Elections are battlefields for the Kremlin: Flooding the information space