Following in the example of WEF Chairman Klaus Schwab’s ‘Global Risk Report’, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen used her address in Davos on Tuesday to highlight the supposed risks of allowing the free flow of information in light of the alleged threat of “disinformation and disinformation”.

“These risks are serious because they limit our ability to tackle the big global challenges we are facing: changes in our climate – and our geopolitical climate; shifts in our demography and in our technology; spiralling regional conflicts and intensified geopolitical competition and their impacts on supply chains,” she said.

The EU chief therefore called for governments and private firms to form a “new connective tissue” to “deliver the solutions we need, to fight threats like climate change or industrial-scale disinformation.”

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2024/01/17/wef-eu-chief-von-der-leyen-demands-censorship-of-industrial-scale-disinformation-at-davos/

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The launch comes several days after Moscow threatened retaliation if Sweden and its Nordic neighbor Finland become full members of NATO, with which Russia is having a standoff, having demanded the military alliance provide the Kremlin guarantees it will not expand to Ukraine and other eastern European nations.

Sweden’s new agency is headed by Henrik Landerholm, a Lieutenant Colonel in the reserve, member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Military Sciences, and Sweden’s former ambassador to Latvia and the United Arab Emirates. Landerholm also chairs the Riksdag’s Defense Committee.

Following his appointment, The Telegraph reported, Landerholm named Russia, China, and Iran as three countries known for carrying out disinformation campaigns against Sweden. He told that the propaganda often only aimed at sowing division in society and undermining confidence in the authorities:

“If we look at how the stories about how Sweden works or does not work are shaped, much of it aims to destabilize or undermine trust in government agencies,” he told Swedish Radio in an interview, adding that the tactic was effictive in the USA, where Russia sowed discord before the presidential election.

The Agency, which will work during peacetime and in war, is located is in Karlstad and Solna. According to its official website, its main mission is “the coordination and development of agencies’ and other actors’ activities within Sweden’s psychological defense. We offer support to agencies, municipalities, regions, companies, and organizations and contribute to strengthening resilience within our population.”

It views the purpose of psychological defense as safeguarding an open and democratic society, the free formation of opinion, and Sweden’s freedom and independence:

“Psychological defense must be able to identify, analyze, meet and prevent undue information influence and other misleading information that is directed at Sweden or Swedish interests both nationally and internationally. It can be disinformation aimed at weakening the country’s resilience and the population’s will to defend itself or unduly influencing people’s perceptions, behaviors, and decision-making.

Psychological defence must also strengthen the population’s ability to detect and resist influence campaigns and disinformation. Psychological defense contributes to creating resistance and willingness to defend among our population and in society as a whole.”

The institution will be divided into three departments:

Administrative Department;

Operations Department, which will work to “identify, analyze, and respond to the impact of undue information influence and other misleading information directed at Sweden or Swedish interests” through situational analyses and reports on actors and activities that may pose a threat to vulnerabilities in society and proposing relevant countermeasures;

Capacity Building Department, which will develop and strengthen society’s capacity for psychological defense through providing support to the population, agencies, municipalities, the media, voluntary defense organizations, and civil society in general, as well as working for increased coordination between these actors.

Talks about creating a government agency to protect Sweden from Russian and other propaganda commenced in 2018, as the country was facing an election it sought to safeguard against foreign influence. Then, Swedish prime minister Stefan Loefven said that the primary threat to Sweden’s election came from Russia, but added he “cannot rule out that there may be others.”

The same year, Dr. Björn von Sydow, Chairman of the Swedish Defence Commission and Head of the Swedish delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly penned an article outlining the Swedish concept of “Total Defense.” In his words, it begins with

“the willingness of the population to participate in the defense of the country. Awareness of crisis and war is necessary to withstand the initial shock and to resist an attack. Residents and decision-makers alike must be aware of what wartime conditions may require of them. Moreover, it is increasingly important to actively protect open society, the rule of law, and our sovereignty. The government has already pushed forward with one of the Commission’s proposals for a new agency with the general responsibility to develop and coordinate the country’s psychological defenses. This entails, for instance, combatting disinformation and ensuring the transmission of public information.”

The launch of the agency for 2022 was announced in 2020, in the Government bill “Total Defense 2021-2025.” Inter alia, it noted that

“the deterioration of the security situation creates a need for psychological defense that is adapted to current societal conditions and contributes to the preservation of the free exchange of knowledge and information.”

The new institution has its roots in the 1940s and 1950s, since when Sweden saw the operation of the Swedish Information Agency and National Preparedness Commission for Psychological Defence, and the later Swedish Board for Psychological Defence, the Swedish Emergency Management Agency, and Swedish National Board of Psychological Defence, which were merged in 2009, forming the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency.

Related:
–“So many Swedish investors opened start-ups in Ukraine” – Sweden’s ambassador on business climate and reforms
–This really is armed aggression and Ukrainian soldiers are dying – Sweden’s ambassador to Ukraine
–What the UK, Sweden & Baltics did to be “full-scale defenders” against Kremlin subversion
–“Prove your commitment to European values”: Ukraine – Sweden foreign policy audit
–How Sweden’s support for reforms can help Ukraine on the way to the EU
–Denmark and Sweden to cooperate on combating Russian fake news
–25 ways of combatting propaganda without doing counter-propaganda

Source: https://euromaidanpress.com/2022/01/05/sweden-creates-psychological-defense-agency-to-counter-disinformation-from-russia-china-and-iran/

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Facebook has identified and banned hundreds of accounts, groups and pages engaged in misleading political behavior, a far larger discovery than a “sophisticated” effort it reported three weeks ago with great fanfare.

The social network said Tuesday that it had removed 652 pages, groups, and accounts linked to Russia and, unexpectedly, Iran, for “coordinated inauthentic behavior” that included the sharing of political material.

Facebook has significantly stepped up policing of its platform since last year, when it acknowledged that Russian agents successfully ran political influence operations on its platform that were aimed at swaying the 2016 presidential election. Other social media networks have done likewise, and continue to turn up fresh evidence of political disinformation campaigns.

Facebook’s action in late July against 32 accounts possibly linked to Russia generally involved U.S. political activity ahead of the midterm elections in November. By contrast, the latest group of apparently fake accounts appeared more intent on influencing U.S. foreign policy and regional politics in the Middle East.

Shortly after Facebook’s announcement, Twitter revealed that it had also suspended 284 accounts for “coordinated manipulation,” many of them apparently originating from Iran. A day earlier, Microsoft also reported a new Russian effort to impersonate conservative U.S. websites , potentially as part of an espionage campaign.

The social network said it had not concluded its review of the material and declined to say how or why the state-backed actors were behaving the way they did. But it said it has informed the U.S. and U.K. governments as well as the U.S. Treasury and State departments because of ongoing sanctions against Iran.

“There’s a lot we don’t know yet,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on a hastily called conference call with reporters Tuesday afternoon.

“You’re going to see people try to abuse the services in every way possible … including now nation states,” he said. He described the deception campaigns as “sophisticated and well-funded efforts that aren’t going to stop.”

FireEye, a cybersecurity firm that alerted Facebook to some of this activity, noted that it “does not appear to have been specifically designed to influence the 2018 U.S. midterm elections, as it extends well beyond U.S. audiences and U.S. politics.”

Facebook said its latest action on Tuesday morning resulted from four investigations — three involving Iran, one involving Russia.

The first focused on a group called “Liberty Front Press” that set up multiple accounts on Facebook and Instagram that were followed by 155,000 other accounts. The group was linked to Iranian state media based on website registrations, IP addresses and administrator accounts, Facebook said. The first accounts were created in 2013 and posted political content about the Middle East, the U.K., and the U.S., although the focus on the West increased starting last year, Facebook said.

“The Iranians are now following the Kremlin’s playbook,” said Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee. On Sept. 5, leaders of Facebook, Google and Twitter are scheduled to testify before the intelligence committee about their efforts to combat political disinformation on their social media networks.

FireEye called the Liberty Front Press group an influence operation apparently aimed at promoting Iranian political interests “including anti-Saudi, anti-Israeli, and pro-Palestinian themes” and support for the U.S.-Iran nuclear deal.

President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from that agreement earlier this year.

While that group did not appear to be attempting to influence the U.S. midterms, FireEye said its analysis “does not preclude such attempts being made.” Several social media personas it found related to the group masqueraded as liberal U.S. activists who supported Sen. Bernie Sanders. One persona also used the Twitter handle “@berniecratss” and listed its location as the United States even though the phone number associated with it began with Iran’s country code, +98.

The group’s activity included “significant anti-Trump messaging,” but FireEye said in a detailed report “the activity extends well beyond U.S. audiences and U.S. politics.”

The second group also had multiple accounts and 15,000 followers. The group was linked to “Liberty Front Press” and attempted to hack people’s accounts to spread malware. Facebook said it disrupted those attempts.

A third group also operated out of Iran had as many as 813,000 followers, and also shared political content about the Middle East, the U.K. and U.S.

In all the Iranian-linked groups spent some $12,000 in advertising and hosted 28 different events.

A fourth group that attempted to influence politics in Syria and the Ukraine was connected to sources that Facebook said the U.S. had linked to Russian military intelligence.

“We’re working closely with U.S. law enforcement on this investigation,” Facebook said in a blog post .

In late July, Facebook also removed 32 apparently fake accounts on Facebook and Instagram that collectively had nearly 300,000 followers, including thousands that expressed interest in events they promoted.

Source: https://www.foxbusiness.com/features/facebook-uncovers-new-global-misinformation-operations

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Today, the Commission is proposing measures to tackle disinformation online, including an EU-wide Code of Practice on Disinformation, support for an independent network of fact-checkers, and a series of actions to stimulate quality journalism and promote media literacy.

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