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Several thousand online accounts are posting similar messages about the coronavirus, according to a report prepared for the US State Department’s Global Engagement Centre. Photo: Shutterstock

Coronavirus: Russia pushing fake news about US using outbreak to ‘wage economic war’ on China, officials say

  • Thousands of Russia-linked social media accounts allegedly spreading alarm and disrupting global efforts to fight epidemic
  • Campaign promotes unfounded conspiracy theories that US is behind Covid-19 outbreak

Thousands of Russian-linked social media accounts have launched a coordinated effort to spread alarm about the new coronavirus, disrupting global efforts to fight the epidemic, US officials say.

The disinformation campaign promotes unfounded conspiracy theories that the United States is behind the Covid-19 outbreak, in an apparent bid to damage the US image around the world by seizing on health concerns.

US State Department officials tasked with combating Russian disinformation said that false personas are being used on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to advance Russian talking points in multiple languages.

“Russia’s intent is to sow discord and undermine US institutions and alliances from within, including through covert and coercive malign influence campaigns,” said Philip Reeker, the acting Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia.

“By spreading disinformation about coronavirus, Russian malign actors are once again choosing to threaten public safety by distracting from the global health response,” he said.

The claims that have been circulating in recent weeks include allegations that the virus is a US effort to “wage economic war on China”, that it is a biological weapon manufactured by the CIA or part of a Western-led effort “to push anti-China messages”.

US individuals including Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, a philanthropist who has spent billions on global health programmes, have also been falsely accused of involvement in the virus.

The disinformation campaign was identified by US monitors in mid-January after Chinese officials announced a third death from the new coronavirus in Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak.

More than 2,360 people have since died, mostly in China, and the number of cases exceeds 77,000, most of them in China.

Several thousand online accounts – previously identified for airing Russian-backed messages on major events such as the war in Syria, the Yellow Vest protests in France and Chile’s mass demonstrations – are posting “almost near identical” messages about the coronavirus, according to a report prepared for the State Department’s Global Engagement Centre and seen by Agence France-Presse.

The accounts – run by humans, not bots – post at similar times in English, Spanish, Italian, German and French and can be linked back to Russian proxies, or carry similar messages to Russian-backed outlets such as RT and Sputnik, it said.

Russian state-funded media started pushing anti-Western messages about the cause of the epidemic on January 20, with operators of the social media accounts beginning to post globally the following day, US officials say.

“In this case, we were able to see their full disinformation ecosystem in effect, including state TV, proxy websites and thousands of false social media personas all pushing the same themes,” said Special Envoy Lea Gabrielle, the head of the State Department’s Global Engagement Centre, which is tasked with tracking and exposing propaganda and disinformation.

US faces ‘tremendous public health threat’ as imported virus cases grow

During many past news events, the accounts would post actively for up to 72 hours. But messages about the new coronavirus have been uploaded every day over the past month – a sign, US officials said, of Russia’s investment in a story unlikely to disappear soon from the headlines.

“In the Russian doctrine of information confrontation, this is classic,” said another official from the Global Engagement Centre.

“The number of coronavirus cases globally hasn’t reached its apex, so the Russian strategy is to very cheaply but very effectively take advantage of the information environment to sow discord between us and China, or for economic purposes.”

Experts saw parallels with previous conspiracy theories traced to Moscow, including a KGB disinformation campaign in the 1980s that convinced many around the world that US scientists created the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes Aids.

US intelligence has also said that Russia interfered through social media manipulation in the 2016 election and seeks to do so again in 2020. The Kremlin has denied the charges and US President Donald Trump has scoffed at suggestions of Russian help.

The US believes the latest Russian disinformation campaign is making it harder to respond to the epidemic, particularly in Africa and Asia, with some of the public becoming suspicious of the Western response.

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A State Department official said that Russian operatives appeared to have been given “carte blanche” to attack the US reputation.

“Whether a particular theme is being directed at the highest levels does not matter. It’s the fact that they have freelance ability to operate in this space to do whatever damage they can, which could have seismic implications.”

Russia’s foreign ministry denied the claim by US officials on Saturday, branding the accusation intentionally misleading.

“This is a deliberately false story,” spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the TASS state news agency in Russia’s first official reaction to the claims.

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