According to an EU report, Russian war propaganda is spreading, among other things, fake covers of well-known European satirical magazines.
According to the report published on Tuesday, the German “Titanic” was also affected last year.
According to this, a manipulated "Titanic" cover was distributed (here is an archived version), which showed a face with various war implements and money flying into its mouth.
The headline “Eternal appetite” was written in the Ukrainian national colors (Here is the original cover of the October issue).
According to the European External Action Service (EEAS), the fake cover was intended to denigrate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
For the report, analysts examined a sample of 100 disinformation sources of Russian and Chinese origin online between October and December 2022.
According to the information, in addition to the false "Titanic" cover, manipulated covers of the French satirical magazine "Charlie Hebdo" and the Spanish "El Jueves" were also distributed on the Internet.
Borrell: "Fight disinformation more actively"
According to the report, one aim of the disinformation is to cast doubt on who the aggressor in the Ukraine war is.
Therefore, the focus is on narratives in which the US in particular is accused of using Ukraine to encircle and contain Russia, the authors said.
Similar narratives related to the US have also been observed in China.
According to the report, Russia is also spreading disinformation on social media through accounts held by diplomatic services such as embassies.
Accordingly, official Russian representatives were involved in 88 of the analyzed disinformation.
According to the EEAS, disinformation is verifiably false or misleading information.
Accordingly, they are created and distributed to deceive people or to gain economic advantage.
Among other things, they can influence political decisions.
"We need to focus on foreign actors who are intentionally trying to manipulate our information environment in a coordinated manner," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said about the study.
To do this, democratic countries would have to work together to fight the disinformation of authoritarian regimes more actively.
feb/dpa