Several Twitter accounts that previously spread misinformation about Covid vaccines and supported QAnon - a movement that believes an evil conspiracy is ruling the world in the dark - have changed direction.
Over the summer, researchers have seen how several of these accounts now focus on the global food shortage, reports The Guardian, citing an analysis by the independent organization Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), which tracks misinformation on social media.
"Russian media, Kremlin-controlled sites and pro-Putin trolls are amplifying narratives that blame the West and international aid organizations for the food crisis," NCRI writes.
The narrative of the Putin trolls
Andreas Önnerfors, advisor at the media institute Fojo at the Linnaeus University in Kalmar and professor of the history of ideas, emphasizes that the stories are part of a larger cycle of legends originating in the corona pandemic:
- It was believed that the pandemic was the global elite's way of taking power.
It continued with the Ukraine war, which shifted focus from the freedom movements emerging in Europe, the United States and Canada.
The food crisis is the next stage in the elite's game to increase their own power and enslave us.
The UN has previously estimated that 49 million people are at risk of being plunged into famine or famine-like conditions, due, among other things, to Russia's war against Ukraine, which leads to food exports becoming more difficult.
Profits from disinformation
The US Foreign Ministry has criticized Russian attempts to distort the facts about the crisis.
“It was not caused, as the Kremlin claims, by sanctions imposed by the US and other countries in response to Russia's horrific aggression against Ukraine.
Food insecurity was already increasing before the invasion, and Putin's war made it worse," said a statement from June.
According to Önnerfors, Russia has an interest in spreading stories that legitimize the large-scale invasion of Ukraine.
- Everything that aims to break the solidarity that exists internationally for Ukraine and against Russia's unprovoked war of aggression serves their strategic purpose, he says.
Hear Andreas Önnerfors tell more about conspiracy theories in the clips above.