Disinfo: EUvsDisinfo denounces disinformation from Russia on Covid 19 but it is only an opinion and it is way overstated

Summary

The website euvsdisinfo.eu is available in English, French and Russian. It publishes articles. There are several sections. There is one which is anti-Russian, against the Russian disinformation and which has 13 people. A task force of 13 international civil servants is not huge.

There are a few articles every now and then that are opinion pieces. It's nothing shocking, we have every right to write this kind of opinion. The site is surfing the topic of disinformation about Covid-19, indeed right now there is a lot of disinformation, fake news, faked photos, conspiracy theories, about Covid-19 that stimulates the imagination. But among this, the participation of "Russians" or of sites on Russian territory is very, very small, there is really very little, there is certainly more that come from China, where there is the first population world of Internet users. In addition, this site attacks Russian-influencing sites such as Russia Today. It criticises them on the merits, it reproaches them for denouncing European policy and its ineffectiveness in the face of the vaccine.

But French news channels like LCI or BFM TV, also criticise the policy of the European Union or of France on vaccination.

We are dealing with something which is quite small, thirteen people, and something which produces opinions and tries to counter-influence critical opinions that RT or Sputnik produce.

There are a lot of people in France who have nothing to do with Russia who have the same points of view. In addition, when it comes to talking specifically about disinformation around Covid 19, you have to be able to define the truth when it comes to a new coronavirus. There are a lot of dubious opinions, among these opinions, there are indeed some that can go back to IP addresses in Russia or also Iran, Turkey or even France. It is a phenomenon of panic that goes a little in all directions.

Disproof

Disinfo message that aims at discrediting the EUvsDisinfo project and denying any organised disinformation from Russia concerning theCovid-19 pandemic.

The EUvsDisinfo project of the European External Action Service’s East StratCom Task Force was created to identify, address, and respond to the Russian Federation’s ongoing disinformation campaigns affecting the European Union, its Member States, and countries in the shared neighbourhood.

The EUvsDisinfo project is not against Russian culture, not anti-Russian and is not about counter-influencing as regards RT/Sputnik in general.

With media monitoring in 15 languages, EUvsDisinfo identifies, compiles, and exposes concrete and specific disinformation cases originating in pro-Kremlin media spread across the EU and Eastern Partnership countries.

It is not a matter of a few opinion articles published from time to time, but a database of documented disinformation cases increasing daily and a weekly report summarizing the trends of the week. Regular articles and analyses are also published about new developments in disinformation methods and practice, and international research that makes innovative contributions to the field is collated.

It is true that EuVsDisinfo publishes in English, French and Russian, but also in German, Italian, Spanish and Romanian as well as Armenian, Azerbaijani and Belarusian.

It is also wrong to say that every media and country publishes criticism of the EU or EU members' actions against Covid-19 in the same way, or that disinformation coming from Russia is infinitesimal compared to other sources. For instance the report on coronavirus narratives documents many examples.

Read also related stories : Russia has never participated in any campaign against any of the coronavirus vaccines, RT France for the Kremlin is the same as France 24 for the Elysee, No evidence Russia waged disinformation campaign targeting Western coronavirus vaccines

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  • Reported in: Issue 240
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 19/03/2021
  • Article language(s) French
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: EU, Russia
  • Keywords: Information war, vaccination, coronavirus, health
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