The Center for Combating Foreign Propaganda responds to misleading propaganda

Leah Gabriel: External parties spread rumors about the elections and lies about "Corona"

• Lea Gabriel, Coordinator of the Center for Combating Foreign Propaganda at the US State Department.

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• China is trying to reshape the global narrative about the Corona vaccine.

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With the US elections approaching and the quest to develop a vaccine for the Corona epidemic, US officials who are analyzing and combating misinformation aimed at undermining democracies say that foreign disinformation actors are now focusing on spreading lies in these two areas.

Lea Gabriel, coordinator of the Center for Combating Foreign Propaganda at the US State Department, says President Donald Trump's health is also an active topic of online discussion among audiences abroad.

The following are excerpts from her interview with the Voice of America newspaper in this regard:

After the emergence of some posts on social media, after Trump and some senior American officials were infected with the Corona virus, is there any indication that foreign opponents of the United States are pushing certain stories, using this moment to sow discord in America and undermine Americans' confidence in the political system?

■■ We have seen on social media that there is a diversity of accounts in this regard, issued by China.

But I think it is also important to realize that the Chinese Communist Party closely controls these narratives, and that the Chinese Communist Party censors narratives within the Chinese information landscape and on Chinese social media, so it is really difficult to know what is really happening in the minds of the Chinese people.

■ How do opponents of the United States change or modify disinformation campaigns and influence the electoral process with the approaching election date, on the third of November?

■■ Our mission (Center for Global Engagement) is to directly synchronize and coordinate the efforts of the US federal government to confront misleading foreign information and propaganda aimed at undermining the security and stability of the United States, its partners, and its allies.

So we focus on that foreign disinformation aimed at foreign audiences.

The center has been tracking many different stories of disinformation over the past several months.

Before recently, we saw a lot of misinformation stories being promoted by Russia, China and Iran as well.

What we finally see is misleading information about the development of the Corona vaccine, issued by the Chinese Communist Party in an attempt to reshape the global narrative, to appear as if it is holding the global initiative in responding to the production of the vaccine, instead of being responsible for the spread of the virus.

We see Russia continues to use disinformation in an attempt to undermine democratic institutions.

We know many stories of Russian misinformation about "Covid-19", as well as about vaccine development.

What other points do the narratives about the US elections focus on?

■■ In the early days of the "Covid-19" crisis, we saw the Chinese Communist Party go to great lengths, adopting disinformation tactics in the Russian way, so the tactics adapt and change with the changing environment of social media, but we are working closely with our partners within the American agencies, And globally, to ensure that they are always aware of misleading information and propaganda.

We have also exposed Russian narratives of disinformation that focus on the turmoil in Belarus and other global themes.

Before recently, we saw a lot of misinformation stories being promoted by Russia, China and Iran.

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