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Russia, China and Iran were the state actors that grappled with disinformation, disinformation campaigns and the promotion of conspiracy theories regarding Covid-19, NATO Undersecretary Mircea Geoana said in an interview with Digi24. Geoana says that it is important for people to choose and find credible sources of information so as not to fall into the trap of misinformation.
Claudiu Pîndaru: I listened to you carefully and you were saying one thing at a time, you were talking about a capacity that NATO has in the field of information and counter-information. Fight and a war or an attempt to manipulate because it is manipulation. Do you feel that during this period there was a threat at the state level or coordination at the state level to try to bring the manipulations in the Covid-19 crisis to market?
Mircea Geoana: We find, both our specialists and those of the EU, on the other side of the city, here in Brussels, with whom we work very closely, our teams, the EU teams, the G7 teams, the group of 7 industrialized countries, we work together with all professionals because, in fact, we have witnessed an incredibly massive development of disinformation, conspiracy theories, cyberattacks and hybrid attacks, and obviously this worries us. Where do these attacks come from? Of state and non-state agents. Because there are state actors that are trying to take advantage of this turning point and amplify fractures, some pre-existing in our societies, others simply imaginary, to try to devise a counter-narrative in which they say: “Authoritarian states are more effective in the fight against crisis. . I was the first to find the vaccine! “
All this kind of intoxication, disinformation method, which has only one purpose, to take advantage of a delicate moment to continue the campaign to divide the West, to weaken the Alliance, to weaken the European Union, and that is what I say, And it must be us, especially Romanians, who are on the front line, who must understand that not everything that flies is eaten and that we must seek information from trusted professional journalists, as I do not go and I take information from anywhere doubtful overnight and start to think it’s true, I prefer to go to Digi to get good information, I prefer to go to a serious news agency that I trust and that I know are Professional journalists. Professional journalists, the independent press, the authentic press are our main ally in this fight. Because the fight is extremely hard and many times we also have vulnerabilities and the desire to consume disinformation that is there and that needs to be countered.
Claudiu Pîndaru: Which state actors are you referring to?
Mircea Geoana: He had explicit things from Russia. China went with a message like that. Iran presented such a message. Non-state actors, we spoke before about terrorist groups, players like that. And I said his first and last name and that’s what we do. Oh, that one country or another is trying to advertise, to make positive publicity for the fact that they sent aid to one country or another, that is something else, that is the competition that, in the end, is legitimate. You try to sell your country brand, to say: “look, I am generous, supportive and full of compassion for another country in difficult times.” Perfect OK! But if we look at the volume of support that has come from the West, from NATO, from the EU, to us and our partners, it is a colossal difference. Just yesterday I had a meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Moldova and even of the Republic of Moldova, which is a small country, a partner of NATO, there were gestures from Romania, Germany, America, Great Britain. of solidarity.
The truth is the best defense against this type of attack that is dangerous because it destroys trust in our societies, being open societies we are practically exposed to freedom of expression and low freedom of expression, very often, especially on the networks. can spread with relative ease a virus of disinformation that is not as sinful and criminal as the virus we are fighting, but which is part of a new generation of risks, relatively inexpensive methods of fueling tension and creating difficulties for the democratic part of this planet and, I repeat, I trust that, in the end, the whole democratic part, open societies, free people, those who can think with their heads and are not afraid to express their opinion, more resistant, stronger. I believe that NATO has an important role to play here.
