Tag: hubeng

Disinformation and psychological interference, cyber-attacks, emerging disruptive technologies, sabotage, election interference, economic interference, instrumentalization of migration – these are just part of the issues the Hybrid Center of Excellence at countering hybrid threats is dealing with. The Head of International relations at the Hybrid CoE, Tapio Pyysalo talks about the scope of their work, the vulnerabilities of the Western...

In the last years, channels have appeared on the Telegram application that spread pro-Serbian and pro-Russian narratives in the Western Balkans. There is no affinity for Russia and Kosovo and no pro-Russian groups have been recorded that have the goal to mobilize Kosovo Albanians. Still, Kosovo continues to be one of the key topics that gathers hundreds and thousands...

A Facebook post lacks context due to the fact that it does not clarify that the Embassy of Ukraine in Skopje’s announcement of the recruitment effort is not new and active, but outdated, and that it was followed by a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in which the citizens of North Macedonia are informed that participation in...

Russian propaganda tried to portray the fact that the Ukrainian government banned the Moscow-affiliated Orthodox Church as a “persecution of Christians” and as a tendency of the West, which supports Ukraine, to destroy Orthodoxy and the Orthodox Church. This kind of narrative is also gaining traction on social networks in North Macedonia, promoted by supporters of the Kremlin, who...

Russia, which took control of Durov’s first company and which prompted him to establish Telegram while being in exile is now expressing concern about his arrest. Media outlets there report on the absurdity of the accusations against him and consider the Telegram case an attack on Russia. The Russian embassy in France “immediately took the necessary steps” to clarify...

It’s not very difficult to note that every other post on the website is anti-Western and portrays Western countries as unjust, controversial and full of crime. Conspiracy theories aimed at fostering disruption and uncertainty among citizens are based on a few postulates or main ideas: migration, the World Economic Forum, COVID vaccination and all the best regarding Putin and...

Elon Musk speaks Albanian, while Donald Trump presents himself as the “President of the Russian Federation” - such manipulative videos can now be made in less than two minutes. Nowadays, artificial intelligence (AI) tools offer unlimited possibilities, and thus they can be used to replace the face of one person with another and alter or add an artificially generated voice...

t is Russia that denies the Ukrainian identity and religion, not Western countries. Western countries are not “gay systems” that Russia is fighting against in defense of traditional values, as the Kremlin propaganda wants to promote. Such an attitude is merely a justification for the military invasion of Ukraine and Russia’s desire to assimilate Ukraine and make it its...

Disinformation claiming that the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been living lavishly is once again circulating in the region. This time, he “purchased” an opulent villa with a winery and a vineyard belonging to the English musician Sting. Colleagues from the Georgian Myth Detector checked with the Italian real estate registry where they confirmed that as of August 8, 2024,...

Taken and translated from the Serbian version of Sputnik, the Facebook post twists the truth and spreads several pieces of disinformation. To begin with, it quotes a former Japanese diplomat, whose views by no means reflect the official position of Japan. During the entire Russo-Ukrainian War, Japan has had a decisive position on the support for Ukraine. Secondly, it...

Back in early June, Microsoft warned that Russia is waging a malign disinformation campaign aimed at the Paris Olympics and the French President Emmanuel Macron. According to their information, the influence operations include fabricated videos, fake news and AI-generated speeches, such as the case with the imitated voice of Hollywood actor Tom Cruise, writes Truthmeter.mk. Under the content-sharing agreement between...

The West does not deceive the Ukrainians into death, but provides them aid for self-defense, which is essential for them. The West would not be providing aid if the country had no use of it and if Russia had no territorial claims on Ukraine. Additionally, the patriotic feelings and deeds of the Ukrainian people as well as the leadership...

A Facebook post claims that Russian and Chinese fighter aircraft flew into US airspace, but in reality, they only came close to but did not overfly Alaska and were eventually escorted back by American and Canadian interceptors. This has been happening for quite some time, and the only thing that’s new is that this is the first time that...

The Paris Olympics are underway and the Russian athletes are not allowed to participate. The MP from the pro-Russian party Levica (The Left), Redzep Ismail, claims that the last such case was the Olympics in Berlin in 1936. That is untrue, and Ismail creates the false impression that the Nazis, who ruled Germany at the time, banned Russian athletes...

Authoritarian states such as Russia and China use various strategies to hinder the Euro-Atlantic integration and to manipulate politics and public opinion in the Western Balkans. This, among other things, was said by Rumena Filipova, the recipient of the IVLP Impact Award of the US State Department and founder of the Institute for Global Analytics (IGA). Commenting on the recent clash between...

Current phenomenon of anti-Catholicism can be seen on social networks where the Orthodox beliefs of Macedonian citizens are being manipulated. Such promotion of anti-Catholicism comes either from the neighborhood or from Russia and that can clearly be seen from the rhetoric used in such attacks. Although Macedonians are mainly Orthodox, anti-Catholicism has no tradition in North Macedonia. Ottoman Macedonia...

Neither the Ukrainian nor the Russian side has indicated that the Children’s Hospital in Kyiv was used as a location for NATO’s General Staff, as claimed by the post. The biggest military organization, NATO, is not involved in the war in Ukraine, nor does it have troops deployed. NATO is assisting Ukraine and providing support in its efforts to...

While the European Parliament condemned the meeting between Orban and Putin, it is not true that the EU demanded Orban to pay 2 million euros and that he did not have the money, so Putin and Xi Jinping offered to lend him the money as the post claims. Truthmeter tried to find such a statement given by Orban in...

Numerous conspiracy theories and disinformation spread following the attempted assassination of U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump. Truthmeter examined several of the narratives shared so far in the country, coincidence or not, also originated from individuals associated with parties aligned with the Kremlin and hold positive views on Vladimir Putin, writes Truthmeter.mk. Under the content-sharing agreement between Truthmeter.mk and Meta.mk, we...

The video in the post was first online in September 2022. It is an excerpt from a 115-minute French documentary film titled: “A President, Europe, and War” with dialogues between Macron, Putin, Zelenskyy, and other world leaders. The post promotes the video as though it was a recent discussion between Macron and Zelenskyy and, on top of that, it...