Belgium's two main intelligence agencies have released a declassified report in which they warn that national groups linked to the far left and far right are using the COVID-19 pandemic to destabilize society.
The report was released Wednesday on the state security service website (VSS extension), Belgium's leading civilian intelligence agency. The agency said it wrote the report with the General Intelligence and Security Service (GISS), which is Belgium's main military intelligence service.
The document warns that political extremists are spreading misinformation, aided by propaganda information products released online by foreign intelligence agencies.
Disinformation was designed to pit groups of people against each other, undermine the state, and spread hatred of medical experts.
Among the most active is the world anarchist site Indymedia. Earlier this month, posts on the site urged Belgians to commit acts of violence against police officers and sabotage infrastructure such as telecommunications, to disrupt the work of rescuers. The posts also urged readers to act quickly because law enforcement is engaged "with the pandemic.
According to the VSSE / GISS report, far-right groups, on the other hand, have spread disinformation products, especially racially themed, online.
For example, a white nationalist group that calls itself Knights of Flanders promoted conspiracy theories linking COVID-19 to flu shots.
Other groups have released information claiming that Muslims have been educated by religious figures to "coughing in the face of the infidels".
Some far-right groups, on the other hand, claim that personal protective equipment (PPE) has been deliberately removed from the market as part of asecret government plan to exterminate the elderly.
Finally, a small number of groups - mostly far-right - are spreading messages that criticize Western responses to the coronavirus pandemic and praise the Russian government's efforts to fight the disease. Among them is a new organization known as "Europe team“, Which has branches in several European countries, including Belgium.