The motion passed Wednesday by the European Parliament indicates that Russian disinformation is finally perceived as a threat that needs to be seriously countered. But also it shows the limits of the countermeasures.
The text certainly pulls no punches. It recognizes the existence of propaganda from countries, such as Russia, and non-state actors, like Daesh and Al-Qaeda, against the European Union. According to the text, “the Russian government is employing a wide range of toolsand instruments, such as think tanks, multilingual TV stations (e.g. Russia Today), pseudo-news agencies and multimedia services (e.g. Sputnik), social media and internet trolls, to challenge democratic values, divide Europe, gather domestic support and create the perception of failed states in the EU’s eastern neighbourhood. The Kremlin is funding political parties and other organisations within the EU and [the European Parliament] deplores Russian backing of anti-EU forces such as extreme-right parties and populist forces”. And Russian media interventions have only become stronger after the annexation of the Crimea and the hybrid war in Donbass.
So far, the picture painted is quite realistic. Neverthless, there’s little reason to cry victory. The text was voted by 304 MEPs, but 179 voted against and 208 abstained. It means that, in one way or another, fully 387 MEPs do not believe it is necessary to take action against Russian propaganda. The majority of the assembly.
Russia and the Islamic state
European MPs made an unpardonable mistake. They lumped Moscow in together with theIslamic State and Al-Qaeda. This not only offers an excellent starting point for criticism, which weakens the whole initiative, but above all it equates two completely different forms of propaganda, with different aims and capacities.
The Russian media arsenal can count on weapons such as RT, formerly Russia Today, the news network broadcasting in English, Spanish and Arabic that can count on three million American viewers, two million Britons and a total of 600 million viewers around the world. Its YouTube channel, with nearly two million members and four billion views, is the most watched on the platform, more than CNN, Al-Jazeera and the BBC put together. Its budget of US$ 300 million a year, set as a mandatory minimum by decree of Putin himself, is only a little less than the annual budget of BBC News.
The news selection follows a clear line: shootings and police violence in the US, the European defeat in facing the migrants crisis, the Islamization of Europe, Western leaders dominated by the LGBT minority, and people terrorized by thugs and rapists with the Koran in their hands.
The technique is simple. Take an event sometimes as small as a snowball and let it roll continuously over the news until it becomes an avalanche – at least in their own show schedules. It plays the game of the xenophobic and anti-European far right movements, the same ones that are against the sanctions on Moscow and have Putin as a model to follow even outside Russia.
Unequal forces
Frankly, Europe has been aware of all this, and not since yesterday. In May, the European leaders asked the High Representative for Foreign Policy, Francesca Mogherini to prepare an action plan on “strategic communication to counter the current Russian disinformation campaign.” That’s why the STRATCOM Task Force was created within the EU External Action, the so-called “European Ministry of Foreign Affairs”. You read the words STRATCOM Task Force and you imagine anything but nine employees without a budget that fill Word tables with Russian media fake news and tweet to 10,000 followers (while RT has 2.5 million).
The paradox of European (counter)information does not end here. Russia’s long arm reaches deep into the European newsroom: among the shareholders of EuroNews, the pan-European channel also funded by the EU, there are the Russian main public broadcaster RTR, which has 7.5% of the shares, and a Ukrainian oligarch who is linked to former President Yanukovych and Russia, Dmytro Firtash. The acquisition was opposed by other public partners, such as French and Italian TV, but it was possible after the Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris paid $ 35 million, obtaining 53% of the shares.
Let’s say that fighting the Russian infowar with the resources deployed by the EU is like trying to put out a forest fire by spitting at it. Sothe initiative of the European Parliament is welcome, despite its limitations.
@daniloeliatweet
The motion passed Wednesday by the European Parliament indicates that Russian disinformation is finally perceived as a threat that needs to be seriously countered. But also it shows the limits of the countermeasures.
