Taking full advantage of the Internet, Russia keeps trying to frighten the residents of the British Isles with the imminence of a war for the unification of Ireland and Northern Ireland, local media warn.
The US think tank Atlantic Council has dragged to light a series of attempts to fuel the conflict in Northern Ireland by publishing false information about the activities of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), the Times reports.
Russians used social media for this purpose, the Digital Forensic Research Lab, which studies the cases of manipulation and propaganda in the network, states. They created numerous fake accounts and warned against ‘bloody confrontation’ on behalf of people of Irish origin.
Among the materials posted, there was a fake comment by the then defense minister Gavin Williamson on the IRA’s involvement in the attempted murder of former GRU Colonel Sergei Skripal and the false declaration by the head of the Democratic Unionist Party Arlene Foster on their readiness to separate Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom.
They also wrote about IRA’s alleged intention to recruit Daesh fighters who would help them commit terrorist attacks, as well as spread rumours about ‘plans’ to assassinate former UK Foreign Minister Boris Johnson.
Ben Nimmo, a representative of the Atlantic Council, believes that such actions take Russian operators very little effort, and their goal is achieved if any of these messages gets into the field of the public discussion.
The Atlantic Council has not been able to identify a specific Russian organization or group that is responsible for amplifying fabricated stories, but they suggest that the intelligence services might have been behind it.
It is emphasized that the situation bears a close resemblance to Russians’ previous attempts to deepen the panic after the terrorist attacks in the UK by publishing false information about their course or a continuing threat.
It is probably the first time that Ireland has become a target of a disinformation campaign, the daily Irish Times stressed.
belsat.eu, following PAP
