Language:

See all Disinfo Cases - Detail

Disinfo: White Helmets’ objective is to discredit Damascus

Summary

The White Helmets are part of a media campaign that targets the reputation of the Syrian authorities, they were also blamed for the provocation that led to the West accusing Damascus of using chemical weapons which directed the bombarding of governmental targets.

Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin narrative targeting the White Helmets with many disinformation and propagandist claims.

White Helmets activists have documented the use of chemical weapons in Syria, later confirmed by The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). Thus, OPCW said it found reasonable grounds to believe that chlorine was used as a weapon in the Douma district of Eastern Ghouta, Syria in April 2018. Because of its activities, the organization has become the target of an extensive Russian disinformation campaign.

Read previous disinformation claims alleging that evidence confirms chemical attacks in Syria were falsified by the White Helmets, and that the chemical attacks in Syria have been staged and filmed by the media of the Western countries.

 

 

Go to search

publication/media

Sputnik Arabic (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 175
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 25/11/2019
  • Language/target audience: Arabic
  • Country: Syria
  • Keywords: White Helmets, Chemical weapons/attack

Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

see more

The EU wants to destroy the link between Russia and Belarus

The decision by Sweden’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to drop the term “Vitryssland” in exchange for “Belarus” demonstrates that the EU bureaucracy and affiliated global elites seek to put Belarus on Ukraine’s track. To achieve this goal, they need to set conditions for geopolitical aggression in the region. One of the current goals is to cut off the associative link between Russia and Belarus (the White Russia) in the public media sphere. Another point of pressure is attempts to fuel the local anti-Russian nationalism in Belarus.

November 27, 2019
Disproof

This is a recurring pro-Kremlin narrative about Western attempts to disrupt Belarusian-Russian relations and Western aggressiveness towards Belarus and Russia, specifically alleging Western activities to compromise Belarusian identity.

The decision of the Swedish MFA to change the name standard for Belarus is the result of a public debate that has been ongoing for several years.

The IMF has violated its own principles by granting loans to Ukraine

The IMF has violated its own principles by granting loans to a country that has a military conflict on its territory.

November 26, 2019
Disproof

The IMF does not have a principle that obstructs it from lending money to a country that is currently involved in a military conflict. In fact, other countries have received IMF loans during periods of conflict. For example, in 2016 Iraq received a $5.34 billion IMF Loan to Support Economic Stability.

Ukraine's comprehensive programme of economic reforms, backed by IMF loans, aims to restore macroeconomic stability, promote sustainable growth, and strengthen economic governance and transparency.  It also includes a new social protection program which aims at providing social assistance for low-income families.

Amnesty International is an ideological tool of the US security services

Amnesty International’s report claims Google and Facebook’s business models are a threat to human rights. The organisation has always been an ideological tool of the US security services and a US soft power, just as Greenpeace, WWF, and other human rights and ecological NGOs. Hence, Amnesty International’s report is a position of the US’s establishment and part of the US’s political war against Facebook. The US has, for a long time, effectively controlled central media, which promote LGBT, global warming, Greta Thunberg, inflow of migrants to Europe, so called chemical attacks in Syria, Russian hackers, Hillary Clinton, protests in Hong-Kong, harassment of Harvey Weinstein, and anything else which is necessary for the political agenda. Yet the Western world, and the US as its flagship, are concerned with uncontrolled freedom of speech on social media, including for their ideological opponents – be it Russians, Turks, North Koreans, or Venezuelans.

Against the background of increasing erosion of ‘soft power’ and collapse of liberal ideology the West starts to introduce rather strict censorship to protect its ideological machine. Given that you cannot name censorship using its own words, various euphemisms are used instead, fake news in the first place. The Western media are themselves the main producers of fakes, lies are a part of their metabolism. Fake news is just a label to tag everything that does not suit a certain ideological model. Under the pretext of fighting fake news and Russian hackers, the West introduces censorship and open manual controls over the media sphere. Earlier, an instrument of pressure on Facebook and other corporations was the alleged meddling of Russians in the US elections and fake news. Now, Amnesty International’s report puts forward “information manipulation” and “abuse of privacy” as new buzz words and a pretext for attacking Facebook and Google.

November 26, 2019
Disproof

This conspiracy theory is consistent with a recurring pro-Kremlin narrative about Western media outlets and NGOs as subservient to Western political elites, while Russia protects freedom of speech and the press. In addition, it represents a continuation of the pro-Kremlin disinformation strategy to undermine and delegitimise civil society initiatives and the work of NGOs.

Western media are not controlled by the government and do not run coordinated (dis)information campaigns on government orders, as this case alleges. A high degree of media freedom in Western countries is reflected in the top ranks these countries occupy in respective world rankings including the World Press Freedom Index by Reporters without Borders. According to the 2019 World Press Freedom Index, Russia is in 149th place out of 180 countries. There is extensive evidence documenting the Kremlin's efforts to use disinformation as a weapon. Russia's attempts at interfering in democratic processes in the US and Europe have been thoroughly documented.