counter-propaganda

Mr. Tihonenko and Mr. Mamonov are two of the youthful faces of Current Time, America’s answer to Russia Today (RT), the Kremlin’s propaganda network.  The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which oversees Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, has started a 24-hour Russian-language TV channel to counter the rise of RT and Sputnik, another pervasive Russian broadcaster.  Viewers of Current Time in Russia proper cannot be many—it started quietly in October, and is available there only online or by satellite.  No cable providers will carry it. 

At a time when extremism is increasing, when our citizens are questioning their common EU identity more than ever – now is the time to firmly place culture and cultural policies at the heart of the European political agenda.  Making 2018 the year of European Cultural Heritage is a first step in the right direction.  But the EU should use the positive dynamics created by this initiative to create a concrete strategy and action plan for international cultural relations, including culture as a tool of soft power and promoting it as a pillar of sustainable development. 

To fight terrorist propaganda on the Internet, social media companies, such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have all instituted take down policies and teamed up with Microsoft to create a database of unique ‘fingerprints’ to automatically detect terrorist propaganda in the form of images and videos. [...]  Despite these efforts, however, ISIS still continues to successfully disseminate its propaganda on the internet. 

You can fight a visible enemy with guns and bombs.  But how do you face the fury of online radicalisation and recruitment of youngsters who are misled with misquoted verses and other sacred statements.  By quoting the right verses with their proper contexts and interpretations, of course.  This is exactly what the famous Mahim Dargah, in collaboration with Goregaon-based Madrassa Darul Uloom Faizan-e-Raza, is doing.  They are fighting the terrorist outfit Daesh or Islamic State (IS) through social networks and helping stop youths from getting swayed by extremist propaganda. 

First Amendment, propaganda will automatically enter the media equation.  We need to combat it the way we combat all bad ideas: with our vigilance and wit, knowing that we can’t ever completely expunge it from the atmosphere. [...]  By our best non-hysterical efforts, refuting propaganda with the diligence we fight cockroaches, we can hope to reduce propaganda’s effect to that of background radiation.  The truth loses battles but never the war. 

Congressional negotiators on Wednesday approved an initiative to track and combat foreign propaganda amid growing concerns that Russian efforts to spread “fake news” and disinformation threaten U.S. national security.  The measure, part of the National Defense Authorization Act approved by a conference committee, calls on the State Department to lead governmentwide efforts to identify propaganda and counter its effects.  The authorization is for $160 million over two years.