JRL NEWSWATCH: “Russian disinformation on Ukraine has grown in scale and skill, warns Berlin” – Financial Times
“German diplomat says Moscow’s messaging combines greater subtlety and plausibility with automation”
“Russian disinformation campaigns to undermine support for Ukraine in Europe have grown significantly in scale, skill and stealth, [Ralf Beste of Germany’s Federal Foreign Office] has warned. ‘It is absolutely a threat we have to take seriously’ … ‘Overall, [there] is an increase in sophistication and impact ….’ Russia is combining greater subtlety and plausibility in its messaging with automation to make its disruptive attacks more effective and harder to combat …. ‘There is probably a lot going on we can’t even see. More and more conversations are happening in private . . . channels on Telegram and WhatsApp. It is very difficult to understand what is happening there.’ … Trying to rebut such campaigns is hard because the basic elements are often unfalsifiable, and engaging can often counterproductively lend credibility to claims. …”
There also is serious concern over the related use of artificial intelligence tools, which can imitate human behavior.