Remember the cold war Soviet disinformation campaign “Operation Infektion” that blamed the US for the AIDS virus? A similar pattern of spreading disinformation is evolving alongside the current #coronaviruse outbreak. ⬇️
While epidemiologists work to identify the exact source of the outbreak, officially known as 2019-nCov, pro-Kremlin actors are already blaming the U.S. for supposedly using bioweapons to disseminate the virus.
In 1983 a little-known Indian newspaper — later exposed to be financed by the #USSR — published an anonymous letter pushing a conspiracy that AIDS was developed in a U.S. bio-weapons lab. Over yrs, the false narrative was picked up by other media, before making its way to the US.
Similarly to Operation Infektion, narratives blaming the US for the coronavirus outbreak first appeared on fringe pro-Kremlin outlets, and are spreading to well-established Kremlin media, Russian politicians, and social media platforms including YouTube and VK.
It is unknown whether these narratives blaming the United States for the coronavirus outbreak will spread alongside the outbreak itself, but it serves as a reminder of Russia’s long history of employing anti-U.S. influence operations during public health crises.
While Operation Infektion took years to spread, ultimately it sowed doubt regarding the origins of the AIDS virus. Their current efforts to create disinformation narratives for coronavirus have so far been more successful than their ability to amplify them.
@DFRLab The conspiracy moving to the well-established Kremlin media.
