How did the United States and the West "rumor" Russia?

Recently, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has become the focus of attention, and I believe many people have seen this scene circulating on the Internet - a Ukrainian father and daughter said goodbye to tears, because he was going to the front line to fight the Russian army, and he had to send his wife and daughter away.

The video went viral on multinational social platforms, but then took a surprising reversal.

It turned out that this was a man from the Donbass region who had sent his family to Russia, and it was the Ukrainian army that he had left behind to fight.

The opening picture, the content is all dependent on the editor? Similar reversals, there are many more.

Rumors are buzzing

The Russian-Ukrainian conflict is not only a clash of guns and artillery, but also a vigorous "information war" between Russia and Ukraine and the Western countries behind them in cyberspace. The competition between all parties for the field of public opinion, the right to speak, and the information channel is no less fierce than that of the actual battlefield.

In the real battlefield, the Russian side announced for the first time on March 2 the casualties since the start of the military operation, saying that 498 Russian troops had been killed in Ukraine and 1597 wounded.

But this is a huge difference from the figure announced by the Ukrainian side of 5,300 Russian soldiers casualties.

The two sides insist on each other's opinions and release contradictory information, who should they believe?

Don't worry, let's take a look at other news first:

Hundreds of dense parachutes fell from the sky, was that the Russian army parachuted into Ukraine?

Multiple videos of huge explosions were filmed, some of them were in flames, some were mushroom clouds rising, was that the Russian army using prohibited weapons?

Nicknamed the "Kiev Ghost", the pilot single-handedly shot down six Russian fighters in one day?

When the Russian army captured the Black Hazemaine Island (Snake Island) near Odessa, the "thirteen warriors" of the Ukrainian army on the island refused to be captured and died in a collective battle.

Seeing this, you may understand that the so-called news that these contents are vigorous and vigorously rendered, and can provoke strong emotions of viewers more than ordinary news, are all fake.

The routine is full

At present, there are three kinds of false information about the situation in Russia and Ukraine:

The first is the mixing of true and false.

As mentioned earlier, the paratrooper airborne is an old picture of the Russian military exercise, and the mushroom cloud rising is the scene of the big explosion in the port of Beirut in Lebanon in 2020.

Through the combination of real pictures and false words, the producers create the illusion that things "happen in the present and locally", and even describe some game screens as real events to fool the audience.

The second is a fictional story.

Many investigations have found that the heroic pilot "Kiev Ghost" has no such person, and the "Thirteen Warriors" who died in the battle of Snake Island are also illusory.

In order to dispel the rumors, the Russian Defense Ministry released a video of the Ukrainian defenders on Snake Island. All 82 Ukrainian troops, none of whom suffered casualties, voluntarily laid down their arms and surrendered to the Russian side and will return to their hometown after completing the legal procedures.

Earlier, Ukrainian President Zelenskiy said that 13 "Ukrainian defenders" on Snake Island were "killed" by the Russian army and would be posthumously awarded their heroic titles. However, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry later denied the relevant information.

The third is to transfer flowers and elderly trees.

This routine, like the father-daughter farewell story above, exists in the event itself, but its details are adapted, reversed or distorted.

Similarly, the victims of the Syrian bombings are described as victims of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

Who's concocting it?

According to the Russian Federal Social Institute, there have been 1.3 million false reports on the Internet about the situation in Ukraine recently, and the situation in the Donbass region is even more prominent.

Mizurinna, a member of the committee, said the number of disinformation has been on the rise, with production speeds so fast that about 100 new fake messages appear every 20 minutes.

Who is concocting a massive amount of disinformation?

The United States is the number one suspect. With the exposure of "WikiLeaks" founder Assange, former CIA employee Snowden and others, the United States has used the Internet to carry out large-scale surveillance and infiltration of the world, which has long been revealed to the world.

Not to mention the actions of the mainstream US media Bloomberg and Fox News , the former had to apologize for falsely reporting That Russia's war in Ukraine ; the latter reported on the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in 2021 and was attacked.

However, the West, especially the United States, has put the "Matrix" hat on Russia. In recent years, it has continued to accuse Moscow of using hackers for political purposes and stealing intelligence, such as accusing Russia of manipulating the 2016 US election and believing that then-President Trump "communicated with Russia".

After three years of investigation, not only did it not find evidence that the Trump team "communicated with Russia", but it was found that its competitor, the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's campaign team, single-handedly concocted the matter.

Hillary clinton herself once caught up in a storm because of "not paying attention to network security", using a private mailbox to send and receive secret-related emails, and finally lost the election. She is well aware of the importance of the Internet, and in this Russian-Ukrainian conflict, she called on hackers to launch cyber attacks against Russia and suggested that the United States launch an information war.

Hillary even admitted directly: We did this during the 'Arab Spring', when I was still secretary of state, Putin has a hard time plugging all the loopholes in the.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov pointed out that the West has carried out "mixed wars" against Russia and other countries through unilateral sanctions, interference in internal affairs, spreading rumors, network attacks and other means.

Information "Witch Hunt"

Compared with the half-concealed fake news attacks, in recent days, Russia's large-scale corporate websites and networks in many industries such as energy, finance, telecommunications, manufacturing, and media have suffered large-scale attacks and resistances from the West.

Networks of natural gas, oil companies and bank ATMs have been targeted by hackers. On social networks, groups such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram boycotted and flagged Russian media, and all Russian media outlets were cut off from advertising and revenue channels. All kinds of false news released in the name of the Russian media have remained.

The hacking group Anonymous declared war on Russian Internet resources; Google decided to block Russian media's European YouTube channels; and Russian media branches in 30 countries were all subjected to distributed denial-of-service attacks. Russia's satellite news agency has denounced U.S. social media as a "witch hunt" and a direct persecution of journalists, which is infuriating.

What is even more frightening is that the Russian side also found that some people on the dark web have called for terrorist attacks against the Russian state power agencies and other departments.

According to the analysis of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, these calls were issued from foreign call centers, and the police speculated that these centers may have engaged in telephone fraud and other criminal acts against Russian citizens.

Strike back across the board

As the information war intensified, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs called on Russian citizens not to respond to provocative remarks on the Internet. Russian police warn that participation in online terrorist activities and other illegal acts will be held criminally responsible.

On March 2, the Russian side released three important news.

First, the Russian army carried out a precision strike against the 72nd Information and Psychological Warfare Center of the Ukrainian Army in Kiev. The Russian government has also launched the portal "Explain.RF" to protect the interests of the state and the mental health of citizens.

The second is to announce the repulsion of the hackers' attack on the Russian Aerospace Flight Control Center.

Rogozin, president of the Russian State Space Corporation, pointed out that there is news that the hacking organization is trying to block the communication between the Russian space agency and the satellite, so that the satellite is missing, but the information is untrue. The group's security system masked and repelled these attacks.

He warned that attacking satellites in any country would constitute a "ground for war" and that the perpetrators would be criminally prosecuted.

The website of the Anonymous hacking group, which declared war on Russia, was allegedly destroyed.

The hacking group Killnet announced that it had destroyed the websites of the Anonymous hacking group. In its occupation manifesto, the group noted: "These information bombs carry only words and do no more harm." Don't be affected by online disinformation."

Three revelations

From the war between Russia and the West, which "does not see the smoke of gunfire", we may be able to get three enlightenments.

First, it is crucial to grasp the commanding heights of public opinion.

In the information age, whoever grasps the commanding heights of public opinion will be able to get more support.

This is a "cognitive war" that has already begun. The United States has taken the lead in vigorously publicizing Russia's "invasion" theory, published a large number of false news related to Russia, and "denounced" Russia everywhere with the Ukrainian side to form a public opinion field that should be cooperated with the outside world. Judging from the rare escalation of sanctions against Russia by many European countries, the US strategy has succeeded.

From the perspective of the Russian side, Putin's 10,000-word speech stating the reasons for sending troops was widely disseminated through the Internet, which is also an important part of winning the support of public opinion. After the Russian offensive began, the Russian side also spread the news of the Russian army's victory through the media to dampen the morale of the other side.

Subsequently, the release channel of the Russian public opinion mouthpiece was cut off, which was a Western tactic. At present, the West has a strong ability to set issues and construct narratives, and the opponent camp is in a weak position.

Second, it is inevitable to fight an information war.

The Internet has profoundly changed the shape of modern warfare, increasingly moving towards a hybrid war of both reality and virtuality. Human activities are becoming more and more dependent on the Internet. Once the network is hacked or disconnected, the loss is immeasurable.

Compared with the traditional war of transporting troops for thousands of miles and making big moves, the network only needs to spread information to confuse the line of sight, interfere with ideas, demoralize, and leverage the big situation at a small cost. The West will not abandon this means, and it is inevitable that it will fight an information war instead of it.

Through this sanction, countries have once again deeply felt the importance of ensuring network security, and presumably everyone needs to study how to win in the information war.

Third, at any time, do not trust the internet rumors.

"Words on the Internet cannot be gullible", the event is reversed, and then reversed, which is perhaps the most felt point for ordinary people.

The Internet has become a "double-edged sword", with the rapid development of social media, on the one hand, the audience can more quickly and directly intervene in global events and experience the scene; but on the other hand, the experience site is not equal to the scene, information asymmetry, information cocoons and other phenomena, so that the authenticity of the information obtained by people is greatly reduced.

In addition, the Network can affect and change human emotions, psychology, and way of thinking, and credulously believe Online rumors or be blinded, which may lead to deviations and even extremizations in thinking in the long run. In the Current Russian-Ukrainian Conflict, there have been endless remarks that incite hatred between the two countries.

In short, don't jump to conclusions about one thing, just take a look and let the bullets of information fly a little longer.

Source: China News Network (reporter Meng Xiangjun)

Column Editor-in-Chief: Gu Wanquan Text Editor: Song Yanlin Title Image Source: Figure Worm Image Editor: Su Wei

Source: Author: China News Network