Russia affects EU elections through AI and dipphers: what is dangerous for Ukraine
It is reported that on the eve of the EU elections, investigative agencies were created to counteract misinformation, which were dealing with Russia's campaigns. Thus, the American Sentinelone cybersecurity company, together with the EU Disinfolab Research Group, worked on the disclosure of the Russian influence network that has been operating in Europe since 2022 and was called "Doppeligger".
This network has spread misinformation through the websites of famous European media, including Guardian and Bild. According to the publication, within the Doppelganger network, fakes about war in Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East were usually distributed, but according to the European Observatory of Digital Media (EDMO), in 2023 the second most popular was the climatic crisis.
For example, on the fake Bild website appeared a story about a teenage cyclist who was allegedly drained by blood after the street lamps have been disabled to save electricity. The fake material argued that the German authorities turned off the light due to the energy crisis caused by sanctions against the Russian Federation through the war in Ukraine. Many German media have denied this story, but it continued to spread on social networks.
Secretary General Edmo Paul Gor also noted that the Russians are promoting fakes about how citizens of Europe suffer from gas from Russia, and wind turbines cause toxic pollution. The false story is also mentioned that farmers in France and Spain will be "expelled from their lands" to liberate space for solar power plants. According to Paul Gora, protests of the farmers who took place were used by Russia to spread misinformation against EU institutions.
Paula Mountain noted that the Kremlin was profitable to spread misinformation on climate, since the oil and gas sector of the Russian Federation suffered from sanctions. In addition, Russia is promoting fakes about the EU's climate policy to strengthen its relations with the states of the global south, especially Africa and Asia.
Moscow competes with the West for influence in the region and tries to instill it to residents that European climate policy is aimed at exploiting the poorer countries and does not allow them to carry out industrialization. "They are looking for differences and quarrels, as well as any current problems they can take advantage. The goal is to force (people) to fight each other. They are not concerned Wright.
There are several examples in the publication when influential officials referred to fake messages. Yes, politicians in France and Italy have shared false news that, due to policy to reduce pollution from agriculture, EU citizens will have to eat insects. In turn, Croatia, Germany and Poland have published fakes that "climate restrictions" for citizens are introduced in Britain and that such restrictions may appear in their countries.
Morgan Wright noted that artificial intelligence (AI) and dipphers are increasingly used in the creation of fakes. So, during the election in Slovakia on Facebook, a false audio record appeared, created by AI, on which one of the candidates "recognizes" that he will falsify the parliamentary elections. After that, Meta stated that they had expanded their policy on counterfeit content on audio.
However, the publication emphasized that the harm of Slovakia may have already been caused - a pro -Western politician was defeated by a candidate closely related to the Russian Federation. To solve the problem with fakes in the EU, they adopted a law on digital services against illegal content, misleading advertising, and misinformation. Recently, the European Commission has also violated official consideration against Facebook and Instagram regarding misinformation against European elections.