Catalonia: El Pais, Russia mobilizes 'fake news' machine
The machine of disinformation and 'fake news' set in motion by Russia in the past US presidential campaign and in recent crucial votes in Europe is also working "at full speed" in Catalonia. The Spanish newspaper 'El Pais' denounces this on the front page, claiming to have carried out an in-depth analysis and with advanced instrumentation of pro-Russian web accounts and social profiles. “After the secret campaigns for Brexit, in favor of Marine Le Pen and the German right, the Kremlin saw in Catalan independenceism another opportunity to deepen the European rifts and consolidate its international influence.
The global network that acted with Trump and Brexit is now dedicated to Spain ”, writes 'El Pais'. According to the authoritative Spanish newspaper, Russian propaganda "makes use of hoaxes, activists like Julian Assange and a legion of Internet bots, the millions of automated profiles in social networks that are capable of transforming a lie into a shared trend. of times.
El Pais' openly accuses RT (Russia Today), a pro-Kremlin network, called into question several times in recent months and also accused by American intelligence in a declassified document.
The site, funded by the Russian government and which functions as a propaganda organ in favor of the Kremlin, is using its portal in Spanish to spread news on the Catalan crisis with a sign contrary to constitutional legality. Since August 28, the newspaper says, RT has published 42 news items on the crisis in Catalonia, some with the wrong headlines such as' The EU will respect the independence of Catalonia, which however will have to undergo an accession process. RT - continues the Spanish daily - usually publishes information and analyzes that convey the Russian government's point of view on the war in Syria, the provocations of North Korea or the exits of President Donald Trump or advocates messages from activists such as Assange which coincide with the interests of Moscow. On September 12, RT published a news report in which it relaunched a 'tweet' from Assange in which he predicted 'the birth of Catalonia as a country or a civil war' and which, according to analyzes of the newspaper, shared 1700 people on Facebook and Twitter.