cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/8668881
Russia is deploying disinformation and propaganda campaigns on Canadians to advance its geopolitical and military interests, and Ottawa is not doing enough to combat the problem, warned a Senate report released on Thursday.
The Senate committee on national security studied the impact of Russia’s disinformation on Canada and found that Moscow is deliberately disseminating false information in attempts to push pro-Russian narratives to Western audiences, particularly to justify its war in Ukraine. The committee said Russia’s efforts are an attempt to undermine the NATO alliance and to destabilize Western democracies.
Witnesses, made up of government officials, academics and representatives from civil-society organizations, told the committee that this disinformation campaign has been weakening the Western response to Russian aggression and they linked it to declining support for Ukraine. They also said that Canadian politicians have previously been subject to false narratives coming from Moscow, pointing to cases during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The report points to Russia’s use of artificial intelligence and Western influencers to roll out overwhelming amounts of disinformation and exploit social or political divisions.
“This is part of this very complex strategy that Russia is pushing, to get democracies, to weaken them from within, so that they won’t be able to stand up to the threat that Russia poses to the rest of the world,” [Senator Stan] Kutcher said.
To strengthen Canada’s response, the report notes that the government needs to promote media literacy and critical thinking skills, including through increased collaboration between governments, communities, civil-society organizations and academic institutions.
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The senator said that civil-society organizations have demonstrated they have the capacity to address incoming disinformation, and that Canada should adopt and fund measures similar to those used in Finland and Ukraine.
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Mr. Kutcher called this Canada’s “modern Gouzenko moment.” In 1945, Igor Gouzenko, a cipher clerk at the Soviet embassy in Ottawa, defected and exposed a massive Soviet spy ring in Canada.
“What we really need to do, primarily, is to wake up that this is happening,” the senator added.
So is Trump. What exactly is the issue?
Just wait till you find out how much the US and Israel target Canada with disinformation.
…Danielle Smith and her cohort of traitourous compatriots enter the chat
exactly, they’re basically openly working with the Americans to try and separate from Canada
agreed, and as I have said in other threads…thankfully, Alberta “separatists” appear to be as mean and stupid as the yanks that fund them (posting salted electoral lists online being a salient example)
…and given how badly and divisively ol’ donnie is running things south of the border, Alberta seperation will die along with the yankee funding once the inevitable american collapse happens
That seems like a very likely scenario. Once the US has another major economic crash, which already looks to be in its early stages, there’s going to be little appeal to join that mess.
agreed, except the racism, that will always appeal to some (shitty) people
…which is also part of the Alberta “seperatist” movement
sadly true
Yeah this became obvious when most of the right wing stopped supporting Ukraine overnight a few weeks into the war
This is why Ukraine, through their intensifying counterattacks against Russia, is both defending their homeland and doing the entire world a beneficial service. They are the only country on Earth that is treating Russia they way they should be treated, albeit simply by defensive necessity.
Russia is an openly hostile fascist state and the rest of the world just turns a blind eye and we are all so fucking sick of it.
That’s right, Ukraine is unapologetically defending western values https://nv.ua/ukr/lifestyle/spisok-pidarasiv-u-budanova-pomitili-nezvichniy-bloknot-50603357.html
slava
it’s always good when people out themselves like that
listen, they blurred all those tattoos because they’re nsfw. Boobs and such, can’t show em in the news
Where would you rate them in comparison to the disinformation coming out of the U.S. government?
It’s tempting to think that the Russians are better at propaganda because their government has apparently been more successful in manipulating the minds of the people in recent years, but really I think that’s more a function of their more complete ability to suppress dissenting views.
Neither the Russian nor the American state propaganda seems like it’d be all that convincing to people who have a decent education and routine access to diverse sources of information. But the Russian stuff has caught up in sophistication, and now the Americans are trying to catch up in shutting down the uncooperative elements in their own mass media.
American propaganda getting more blatant and crude (thanks to the Trumpists) is probably one reason why more Canadians are falling for the Russian stuff lately, as people look around for any alternative. All I can think of to counter it is to invest in education and journalism.
Is there a country they aren’t targeting with disinformation?
Because if you have the internet in your country then, Russia and China has their hand down your pants, and their finger up your butt. It’s just kind of what they do. The germans like beer, the Italians love pasta and the Russia, China and the USA like to get up in other people business.
Sir you forgot Israel!
Pretty much, see that shit? It’s being disturbed by Russia. They’re professional shit disturbers, they can’t be successful on their own so doing their best to bring everyone down to their level. Oddly if they didn’t do such crap I imagine they could be brought up to decent level and be liked. But nope, not Russian tactics.
Ya know Russia if you had better leaders, you could be accepted and everyone helps everyone else like a good worldwide society. We could all win as people and grow as a species.
Everyone is targeting everyone with disinformation. It’s the international pastime of the 21st century.
It’s a little less Battle Royale and a little more targeted, but yes.
Traitorous propaganda and malicious fraud against Canadians. Status quo from political and media establishment. People don’t gain from war on Russia, and “feeling Russian misinformation must be cause of” lower polls for US puppetted Ukrainian dictatorship’s evil is simply overplaying the “propaganda greatest hits” US empire boosting lies, that too many Canadians accept as normal behaviour,
