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The Media Medicine Social Networks

Fake News Hoax in Russia Tries Blaming the US For Coronavirus (ibtimes.com) 86

Posted by EditorDavid from the spreading-like-a-virus dept.
"Russia's intelligence services are apparently behind a well-coordinated social media campaign to blame the U.S. for creating and unleashing the Wuhan coronavirus on the world," reports the International Business Times.

That conclusion comes from the Atlantic Council think tank (founded in 1961), which established its Digital Forensic Research Lab in 2016. Eto Buziashvili, an analyst at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab, published a report detailing how Russia's state propaganda units are disseminating different versions of conspiracies alleging the coronavirus is a U.S. creation. Western intelligence sources quoted by media said posts blaming the U.S. for attacking China with 2019-nCoV first began appearing on pro-Russia social media outlets such as VK (VKontakte) and Topcor.ru. The fake news has now spread to traditional Russian news media organizations such as Pravda and Izvestia and state propaganda platforms. State-controlled outlets are accusing the U.S. of using bioweapons against China...

A Russian website called Katushya.org says the People's Liberation Army (PLA), China's armed forces, is claiming the coronavirus was artificially produced in U.S. laboratories with the goal of destroying China from within.
"So far, their efforts have gained very little traction," Eto Buziashvili wrote on January 30, while adding that it still "serves as a reminder of Russia's long history of employing anti-U.S. influence operations during public health crises."

But the progressive political magazine Mother Jones argues that pro-Kremlin websites "are just one example of the kinds of outlets trying to capitalize on coronavirus fears. Some YouTube creators have been doing their best to get views and hawk money-making products and services on the backs of coronavirus fears; high-profile right-wing conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones are doing the same. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have tried to step up their efforts to curb misinformation linked to the virus, but hoaxes and conspiracies continue to seep through."
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Fake News Hoax in Russia Tries Blaming the US For Coronavirus More

Fake News Hoax in Russia Tries Blaming the US For Coronavirus

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    • Question first! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Okian Warrior ( 537106 ) on Sunday February 09, 2020 @02:53PM (#59708210) Homepage Journal

      The first thing we should be doing with all these news reports is question their authenticity.

      Digging down through the links to the links to the base report, the report writer summarizes the work thusly:

      "Multiple narratives begin to emerge on fringe Russian outlets and social media, following a familiar playbook"

      ...and a quote from the report shows little to be concerned about:

      Amplification on social platforms making little progress

      In addition to news outlets, small Russian YouTube channels are beginning to share videos which narrators discuss the coronavirus outbreak and link its appearance in China to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency as well as U.S. bioweapons research. So far the spread on YouTube appears to be limited to relatively unknown Russian channels with little to no audience.

      This is not at all "Russian Intelligence Services Tries Blaming the US for Coronavirus".

      It appears to be little-known Russian youtub'ers trying to get clicks, and getting little traction in the mainstream narrative.

      The first thing we should be doing with all these news reports is question their authenticity.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by budkin ( 1685516 )
        this news episode was shown in prime time on the main channel of russian television

        • The fake news has now spread to traditional Russian news media organizations such as Pravda and Izvestia and state propaganda platforms.

          So it'll turn up on Fox at any minute?

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by rtb61 ( 674572 )

          It actually seems to be more sourced out of Canada. It does not have to be governments any more due to corruption and deep state shenanigans and various questionable organisations like Bilderberg a club for the psychopathic rich, all sorts of stupid stuff can happen. There seems to be a real concerted effort to blame a Chinese lab for the release. Doesn't need governments, just needs corruption in government and the psychopathic rich, wars for profit have been started, everyone knows this, billions are publ

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Not a real war, just an excuse for the MIC to siphon off more money for "preparedness".

    • Re: (Score:1, Troll)

      by Brett Buck ( 811747 )

      Most people don't. There are endless stories about Russia because of the lefts 3-year and counting hissy fit over Trump.

      The Russians/neo-Soviets are undeniable monsters, and Putin is running a classic socialist/communust kleptocracy. If it was easy to get rid of him/them, then the world probably should. But they are not major players or a particularly unique threat to the USA and certainly not a threat to our elections. They run these stupid little propaganda campaigns, no one pays any attention, and they a

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward
        A healthy stance if you're living in the US.
        But I hope you can see how someone within driving distance of the Russian boarders might feel a bit more concerned.
        Putin might not be a globalist, but he does seem to be not only a neo-Soviet but also somewhat of a neo-Stalinist who longs to restore the old glory of the Soviet Union.
        This includes expanding its borders again.
        And we're also among the people who read this site.

      • Re: (Score:1, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Trump doesn't care about them one way or the other, the real issues are China, and globalists. Putin is certainly no globalist.

        As long as the Russkies have that pee tape and Russian state banks have their mailed fist clutched around his financial balls, Trump cares.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        This guy goes full retard every time he posts. His bigotry and hatred spill out in a series of froth-mouthed isolationist statements full of ignorant drivel.

        This is useful in the context of this story. Learn to recognise this crap. Expose it for what it is. Pray for the souls of the ignorant tools that breathe and re-breathe this malodorous garbage.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      If a think thank can only think in terms of Russia.. then "Russia" is the only answer.

    • Simple - they have a death wish.

      War with Russia (or China, which would be defended by Russia) would immediately and very rapidly escalate to a thermonuclear exchange. That would kill virtually all human beings immediately, and all of the survivors quite soon after.

      But if you are an elderly political leader, a billionaire perhaps, who has enjoyed the best of everything all your life, and you finally run across someone whom you can't destroy or browbeat - why not exercise the Samson Option and kill everyone j

    • I need an answer.

      What does a fake news hoax have to do with war?

      I need an answer.

    • War is just Facebook by other means.
  • I won't believe anything until I see it as a sponsored ad in my Facebook.

    -- 2016 Democratic voter

  • Meanwhile... (Score:4, Informative)

    by Rei ( 128717 ) on Sunday February 09, 2020 @03:26PM (#59708298) Homepage

    Progress continues on wiping out the disease. All new cases as of yesterday:

    Link [teslamotorsclub.com]

    All new cases excluding Hubei as of today (Hubei always reports late):

    Link [teslamotorsclub.com]

    (For anyone who wants the raw data used to generate those graphs - wget -q -O - https://bnonews.com/index.php/... [bnonews.com]
    test-coronavirus-cases/ https://bnonews.com/index.php/... [bnonews.com] | html2text    )

    I know that a lot of people will say that you can't trust China and you can't trust WHO, but the problem with these hypotheses that China is lying and WHO is either duped or under China's thumb is that if anything, the data from outside of China shows an even less virulent disease than the data from within China.

    That's not to say that the disease should be ignored, or that global pandemics aren't a threat. But this isn't looking like it's going to be the next Spanish Flu.

    (That said, it certainly did expose some weaknesses in pandemic response and preparation systems, and the economic damage to China is going to be a harsh incentive to respond better next time)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Rei ( 128717 )

      Whoops - the second link should have been: here [teslamotorsclub.com].

    • Tesla Motor Clubs links? WTF? You Tesla guys are obsessed narcissists. You aren't going to die of this virus, or the next one. You also aren't going to go to Mars with Musk. Didn't you learn your "analysis" lesson when you used to drone on and on about how the "automated robots" were going to increase Tesla production by X% every month in their "dreadnaught" factories? You even broke it down to type of model of robot and logged every delivery. Life doesn't work like that. It isn't a video game with algorith

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Rei ( 128717 )

        Tesla Motor Clubs links?

        Yes, I post graphs to the Coronavirus thread there. Why do you care what server the images are hosted on? I literally gave my datasource on which the graphs are based. Do you want the whole script?

        What exactly is your problem? Did you just come here because you saw the word "Tesla" in a URL and decide that was a good segue for some straw men (your description starting from "drone on..." describes literally no conversation I have ever taken part in).

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Rei ( 128717 )

          (But since you're obsessed with the topic: Tesla's production has averaged growing about 50% per year over the long term, so are you honestly saying that this is a poor growth rate? You seem unusually angry since Tesla's stock price spiked recently.)

    • The infected outside of China are treated with ICU, ventilators, antibiotics, HIV drugs.

      The infected inside of China overwhelmed the Wuhan health care system. The sick are preventing from entering the hospitals, or rounded up in quarantine camps, and left to die. There is multiple video evidence of this humanitarian disaster.

      Are you some kind of CCP shill or flunky?

      They don't quarantine 45 million people over 800 deaths. 800 deaths is a rounding error in the typical death rate of Wuhan city over a month per

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Did you miss the building of a 1000 bed hospital in 7 days?
        What is with people you like you? An inability to see beyond a narrow focus of indoctrinated hatred of foreigners and living in a systemic de-humanisation of everybody that doesn't look and sound like you?

        The Chinese are taking drastic action because the problem is drastic. A 2% fatality rate means 20 million deaths in China, 6.5 million deaths in the US and worldwide a figure of 160 million people. This is a number that dwarfs the dead from all

        • Unfortunately, the 2,500 added hospital beds essentially are to get patients out of traditional hospitals into isolation rooms. That is an important step to allow other hospitals to be able to return to normal operations (for which they are designed, and for which their staff is trained), but it doesn’t exactly do much to address the remaining cases in Wuhan.

          Something is very odd with the numbers in China. SARS deaths were likely grossly underreported (factor of 5 assumed in some reports), which mak

      • They don't quarantine 45 million people over 800 deaths. 800 deaths is a rounding error in the typical death rate of Wuhan city over a month period.

        You quarantine 45 million people do stop an infection with possibly exponential growth. That's how you make sure that it _stays_ a rounding error.

    • the data from outside of China shows an even less virulent disease than the data from within China.

      The data from outside China is mostly worthless because nearly all those cases are people who traveled to China, unknowingly got sick, and returned home (many before they became contagious). Heightened awareness of the disease caused a quick lockdown, examination, and if necessary quarantine of anyone whose recent travel fit this pattern (they've still got 3 cruise ships quarantined full of people who visite

      • Thailand normally received 24,000+ passengers per day from Wuhan, and the flights continued almost a week after nCOV was identified as a serious threat. The Thai government said everyone was fine because they took temperatures of people at the airport. A fairly significant number of Chinese people “fled” China (and Wuhan) for Thailand before the end of January, beyond those numbers.

        Yet, Thailand only lists ~600 persons under investigation for nCOV.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • I know that a lot of people will say that you can't trust China and you can't trust WHO, but the problem with these hypotheses that China is lying and WHO is either duped or under China's thumb is that if anything, the data from outside of China shows an even less virulent disease than the data from within China.

      The cases outside China are being treated not just by western medicine, but the best of western medicine. If a case of Coronavirus showed up in your hospital tomorrow it's now the top priority of your best staff.

      The other side of that is that's also a symptom of how contagious it is. Right now China has 800 deaths and 37000 confirmed cases, about 2% mortality (though only 2600 "recoveries"). But how many people never showed up at the hospital? Half? A quarter? The outbreak might be a lot larger than we rea

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        The other side of that is that's also a symptom of how contagious it is. Right now China has 800 deaths and 37000 confirmed cases, about 2% mortality (though only 2600 "recoveries"). But how many people never showed up at the hospital? Half? A quarter? The outbreak might be a lot larger than we realize, and much harder to keep contained. If it gets loose in a major US or European city you could be looking at hundreds or thousands of deaths. That's worth freaking out a little.

        It's hardly contagious.

        Take the

    • Exactly, we don't need complacency and we don't need fear mongering for political motives. What is necessary is for the politicians let the public health and bio-researchers just get on with their job unhindered.

  • Just another item on the long list of propaganda (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Shompol ( 1690084 ) on Sunday February 09, 2020 @04:00PM (#59708388)
    I spoke to some Russians from Russia last year, and apparently US is also behind assassinating the leader of Russian opposition, who was "gunned down near Kremlin by CIA operatives". According to Russian media, US would hate nothing more than Putin having any kind of functional opposition. All this despite the fact that they also made some random guy confess.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Sin2x ( 1189089 )
      And that's bullshit too. Everybody in Russia knows that Nemtsov's death was done by the Chechen and covered up by Kremlin.

      • And that's bullshit too. Everybody in Russia knows that Nemtsov's death was done by the Chechen and covered up by Kremlin.

        As someone who was BORN there (my grandma apartment block features quite prominently in the photographs from the First Chechen war) I should remind you that killing someone down there is: Nothing Personal, Just Business

        If someone hired them to do that and paid, they will do it. It is the same way someone hired them to take 200M in cash to Al Qaeda on the 15th of December (intercepted by mistake at Beirut airport). They will stick to the contract. They always do - they are some of the most honourable peop

  • Perfecto (Score:3)

    by Artem S. Tashkinov ( 764309 ) on Sunday February 09, 2020 @04:09PM (#59708416) Homepage
    The Putin administration/mafia state has probably the most talented spin doctors in the world. The country is crumbling under corruption and iniquity yet they perfectly manage to brainwash most of the Russians into believing that the West is to be blamed for most if not all the woes. This one is no different.

  • I call bullshit (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Sin2x ( 1189089 ) on Sunday February 09, 2020 @04:17PM (#59708430)
    Funny thing is, I'm subscribed to a lot of Russian political Telegram channels (I'm Russian myself) where most of the shadow policy is discussed and there is nothing aboutto coronavirus being related to the US at all. Is somebody trying to evoke the Cold War feeling? Funding must be scarce nowadays, eh.

  • And the Arabs' media blames Israel and the US [jpost.com]. Some news...

  • And the fact that truly nobody would put it beyond them (the US)... not even its deluded brainwashed livestock "citizens" ... is what makes this so believable in the first place, whether it is true or not.

  • ... know it's fake news?

    If the US actually were responsible and got caught, what position would they take?

    They would call it fake news. Let's see some proof.

  • Just a hoax, sorry about the mushroom cloud!
  • Is strong with you people.

  • I love... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Schmo Schollie ( 6164562 ) on Sunday February 09, 2020 @08:01PM (#59709020)
    How there is zero conversation about Russian submarines probing our undersea cable telecommunications, setting up anti-satellite weaponry, perfecting their internet kill switch, and last but not least, Putin's government dissolving after he claimed he can continue his reign indefinitely.

    Trumps focus on Biden over Russia is ridiculous. The US has bigger fish to fry than corruption in Ukraine. All those actions from Russia are indications of gearing up towards warfare and the sluggish action of this administration is worrisome.
  • Back during the cold war they had a campaign where they spread around the idea that AIDS was actually a bioweapon created by the U.S against poor countries and their primary evidence was how it was wreaking havoc particularly in many parts of Africa. Apparently this gained a good amount of traction particularly in far left circles as poorer countries really were more heavily affected, but primarily because of lower awareness, access to contraceptives, healthcare to make diagnosis and medication for those wh

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