Growing disinformation, Georgia: Russia is exploiting societal weaknesses in Romania and the Balkans

Romania, like many other countries in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, faces a constant wave of false narratives and well-organized manipulations, which are present every day, says Calin Georgia, an expert in the field and a Doctor of Philosophy in Romania.

In an interview with The Geopost, Georgia says that these narratives, often spread by Russian influence networks, but increasingly by domestic actors, aim to create divisions in society by exploiting nationalist, religious and cultural sentiments.

It also discusses what steps can be taken to combat this phenomenon in a digital environment.

Full interview:

Thank you for this interview with The Geopost. What is the situation with disinformation in Romania in general?

Georgia: We have found that the disinformation we encounter is not only during election time or just before elections. It is happening every day. And while the narratives themselves are very present in the literature and case studies, the same narratives that we have in Romania are also widespread in the Balkans and the former communist space in general. For example, there are narratives that deal with the idealization of the past, with strong nationalist sentiments expressed through xenophobic messages, with the resurgence of the far right, with the use of religion to divide and create more distance between people. While these stories are present in Russian distribution and influence networks, they have also been adopted by domestic actors. So these narratives are also being spread by domestic actors, who are either sympathetic to Russian influencers or, I think, this is the most common case.

There are simply people who have certain vulnerabilities and these vulnerabilities are being exploited in very insidious ways by foreign intervention and by these actors. One such situation is the exploitation of religion and traditional values, traditional Christian values, to incite hatred against the LGBTQ community, to incite hatred against women, so to speak, anti-feminism. These phenomena are omnipresent and we have seen an increase in these narratives, including anti-Semitic narratives, in recent months, a huge increase. I mean, the phenomenon is very complex. There are these information bubbles and these echo chambers. We don't know the extent of their presence because we don't have access to the data at the moment. Since August of last year, CrowdTangle has stopped working, so we don't have data from the platforms. The platforms are becoming more and more opaque. There is less transparency now because the moderation of the platform depends entirely on the community.

We have seen this used as a weapon before and there are concerns that it could happen again. And we have electoral processes that will take place in May. And we are doing everything to be prepared. And what I would like to say to our partners and colleagues in the Balkans is that we have to address this phenomenon, which is global, that we are all vulnerable, that we all have vulnerable groups that are now being targeted, and that as long as we can pool our resources and learn from each other's experiences, we can address this phenomenon, and as long as we can put pressure on the social media platform to monitor this collective space, these are ancient places where educated people would transmit information to the uneducated masses.

And that's what's happening now with influencers who are spreading information, whether it's false or true, to the masses who simply don't have time to check it because you spend eight hours at work, then you spend time with your kids, you don't have time to triple-check the information. So it's up to civil society, you and us together, to ensure that the truth remains a public good and remains so in the years to come, in the difficult years that lie ahead.

/The Geopost