Election interference in Romania and Moldova, undermining NATO support for Ukraine and, most recently, a campaign to create the impression that Russia is about to invade the Baltic states. These are just some of the recent examples of disinformation that the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence (StratCom COE) has looked into.
Jānis Sārts has been Director of StratCom COE since 2015, researching how new technologies are used by hostile states or organizations to spread false or misleading information in order to achieve a specific goal.
In May, he will be a guest at the Future Greenland conference in Nuuk.
– It will be my first time visiting Greenland, so I am looking forward to it, says Jānis Sārts, who has a background in the defense sector and who was State Secretary in the Ministry of Defense in Latvia for seven years.
Prevention and combating
StratCom COE was established in 2014 almost at the same time as Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula, and in the years to come, the center's experts have been busy, because the extent of disinformation from, among others, Russia and China, terrorist groups, economic and political criminals and many others is increasing year by year. The communication center focuses on analyzing how the false stories arise and trying to prevent them from happening again. According to Jānis Sārts, prevention works better than treating symptoms or combating them once a false story is out in the public domain.
– The most natural thing is to try to correct and correct disinformation. But it is actually not the most effective. And in some cases, you can actually reinforce a false narrative by reacting, says Jānis Sārts, who instead works with so-called “prebunking”, which is about revealing and warning against disinformation and false narratives and the tactics used before they are spread in the public.
– The best medicine is to make people more resistant to disinformation. It is in a way a form of vaccination, says Jānis Sārts, who adds that one method is also to close down specific networks, for example Russian networks, as several Baltic countries have done, among others, which makes it more difficult for Russia to spread the false stories.
Misinformation and freedom of expression
The big challenge is to locate disinformation and separate it from misinformation, because where disinformation is the spread of information that the sender knows is false, misinformation is the spread of incorrect information that the sender believes is true.
– Studies show that we humans lie on average four times a day, so lies and false stories are not extraordinary. Disinformation differs from misinformation in that it is typically a more coordinated attack by several people or a transnational network with a specific purpose in mind. And that is something that we monitor and track online, says Jānis Sārts, who also draws attention to the importance of freedom of expression in a democratic society.
– We are trying to create some reaction mechanisms to disinformation that do not stifle freedom of expression, which is very, very important. We always keep in mind whether a person may just be lying or saying something for fun, which must be allowed for.
The role of social media
According to Jānis Sārts, it is also important that traditional media is aware of their role in relation to source criticism and fact checking.
– A population cannot solely trust what a government says is false or true. There is a need for independent actors, journalists and others who relate to the stories that are spread and the mechanisms that are used. For example, on social media, where you can buy 100,000 likes for 300 euros, which makes it even easier to manipulate, and we actually increasingly see social media as the source of many false stories, says Jānis Sārts, who believes that with AI technology just around the corner, we are looking into a future where those who control the artificial intelligence infrastructure will be able to control how we humans think and act in given situations.
– Many AI systems are today better at debating and influencing than most people are. We need to deal with that, because it could potentially develop into a bad scenario, says Jānis Sārts.
The article is sponsored by Greenland Business.
