EU fights Russian propaganda on Ukraine ahead of European Parliament elections
On the eve of the European Parliament elections to be held in June, the EU is fighting anti-Ukrainian propaganda
This was reported by Censor.NET with reference to The Guardian.
Experts warn that pro-Russian actors are flooding social media with false claims about the war in Ukraine to increase support for far-right and nationalist parties, AFP reports.
In particular, pro-Russian accounts on Facebook, X and TikTok have been pumping out posts that portray Ukrainian refugees as violent criminals or claim that Kyiv government officials are embezzling Western financial aid to buy themselves luxury yachts and villas. Another theme that is particularly strong in countries close to conflict is that refugees receive higher state benefits than locals.
Jakub Kalenski, an analyst at the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats (Hybrid CoE) in Helsinki, Finland, believes that the purpose of such propaganda is to weaken the EU's resolve and benefit anti-immigrant parties such as Germany's AfD, France's National Rally or the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands.
According to him, such disinformation will "definitely play a role" during the 6-9 June vote, when more than 400 million Europeans will elect a new five-year parliament.
"When you exaggerate the risk of Ukrainian immigrants, you support anti-immigrant parties," Kalensky said.
