- More ‘Water, water everywhere…’ (Copyright ST Coleridge) part two - 23rd November 2024
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- Not Wynning ways - 21st November 2024
As more worrying details emerge that Russia’s covert measures have reached a “level previously unseen” once again we look at how we on The Eye are also being targeted.
“We’ve seen arson, sabotage and more: dangerous actions conducted with increasing recklessness”.
That comes from Ken McCallum, the head of MI5, the domestic security and counter-intelligence agency, of the threat posed by Russia.
To this shocking list can be added targeting websites like The Eye.
Russia has been at the forefront of internet disinformation techniques at least since 2014, when it pioneered the use of bot farms to spread fake news about its invasion of Crimea.
Viginum (a French foreign-disinformation watchdog) said it had uncovered a Russian network of 193 websites which it codenamed ‘Portal Kombat’.
Most of these sites, such as topnews.uz.ua, were created years ago and many were left dormant.
But over 50 of them, such as news-odessa.ru and pravda-en.com, have been created since 2022.
French authorities think they are ready to be activated aggressively as part of what one official calls a “massive” wave of Russian disinformation.
Viginum says it monitored the sites over three months, and concluded that they do not themselves generate news stories, but are designed to spread “deceptive or false” content about the war in Ukraine, both on websites and via social media.
The underlying objective it would seem, is to undermine support for Ukraine in Europe, and according to the French authorities, the network is controlled by a single Russian organisation.
We on The Eye endorse this fine work in exposing the truth, which is particularly pertinent after what our journalists have experienced.
Our site always used to get a couple of ‘allow requests’ from e-mail addresses with the .ru (Russia) ending, but recently this has increased massively, and at one point there were four or five A DAY!
On the one hand it seems to show that an independent media in largely free democratic countries is getting under the skin of Vladimir Putin, which is a good thing.
On the other it reveals just how vigilant we all need to be.
Sadly Mr McCallum must extend his warning to what is happening now with websites like The Eye…
The memories of our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry’s, astonishing decades-long award-winning career in journalism (during which foreign interference was rare) as he was gripped by the incurable disabling condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order it now!
From Russia without love again part three comes soon, where Phil looks at the extraordinary number of those in the media as well as others who have been locked up and tortured, as Mr Putin tightens his grip on the country.
Tomorrow – as we prepare for Halloween, Phil watches with interest as the celebrations take on a life (or death!) all of their own.
