One of the lessons learned so far indicates that technologies are part of the battlefield, said the chief of NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence Stratcom Jānis Sārts at the Riga StratCom Dialogue conference.
The values that hold up technologies are very important, said Sārts, outlining the differences in influence platforms like VKontakte and Twitter have on society. According to Sārts, it is important to ensure in the future that technologies promote values needed by society, instead of values that support authoritarianism.
Yoel Roth, who is the head of Safety & Integrity at Twitter, said that Twitter needs to be preserved as a platform people can use to discuss true events, including information about the war in Ukraine. He said that
Russian «trolls» on the platform are a strong sign of the war, but Twitter employees are prepared to battle them. This is why, he said, they are generally dealt with very quickly.
Roth claims Twitter employees dynamically monitor the platform to ensure fake information is not spread rapidly and does not reach many users.
Meta global threat prevention director Deivids Agranovičs said the management of Facebook started preparing for «troll» attacks several weeks before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. According to him, this was important in the fight against fake news.
Most illegal operations on Facebook are performed from Russia, but «troll» operations are generated from other countries, said Agranovičs. He especially outlined operations in which hackers hack into Facebook profiles of Ukrainian officials and use them to spread fake information.
There is also the problem of fake charity donation campaigns for Ukraine that are organized on Facebook, said Meta representative.
Agranovičs mentioned cooperation with state officials and academic staff plays an important role in reporting reliable information.