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EESTI ELU reedel, 22. jaanuaril 2021 — Friday, January 22, 2021
Nr. 3
Opinion: Canada is not immune to Capitol Hill riots Marcus Kolga, The Toronto Star, January 2021
English-language supplement to the Estonian weekly “EESTI ELU” Tartu College Publications Founding Chairman: Elmar Tampõld Editor: Laas Leivat 3 Madison Avenue, Toronto, ON M5R 2S2 T: 416-733-4550 • F: 416-733-0944 • E-mail: editor@eestielu.ca Digital: www.eestielu.ca
Truth, trust, media and the biggest lie
a different perspective, that presents the facts that aren’t controlled by government or big business. It may include tra ditional media forms such as newspapers, TV, films etc., like the MSM, as well as non-tradiConventional wisdom says tional media such as web-based that media in the Western sources. The main thrust of AM world can be segmented into is to challenge the status quo two – mainstream and alter and offer free ideas. native. Mainstream media AM accuses of MSM of be(MSM) generally encompasses ing motivated only by financial television, radio, print and the profit. Therefore it must amuse internet in the form of online people and appeal to as many news publications dealing as possible. with sports news and world Unfortunately, the storming news. of the US Capitol was glaring MSM is generally considered evidence that a sizable portion to be the voice of the majority. of the AM has been hijacked by It typically reaches a larger the extreme right wing who audience. At least in the USA have systematically and de these individual media outlets liberately advanced the great are usually parts of a small lie, which Mr. Trump still pernumber of conglomerates who sists in repeating, that the elecown most of the newspapers, tions were stolen from him. It is magazines, TV networks. a falsehood that some 60 judges This is the media, with its (including the US Supreme journalists, that Mr. Trump Court) rejected or deemed accuses of being ‘enemies of unworthy of considering, that the people’ and creating ‘fake bipartisan investigations have news’. Without using the pre- repudiated, that audits and cisely same accusatory rhetoric, ballot recounts have disproved – Estonia’s EKRE (no longer a a lie that cannot account for the part of the governing coalition) thousands of officials who mimics Trump. The term was would have had to be complicit already in use in 19th century in destroying pro-Biden or addEngland and has been used to ing millions of pro-Trump votes. describe false or misleading When Trump realized that content presented as news and credible evidence simply could communicated either in ‘spo- not be created to support his ken, written, printed, electronic accusations, he demanded that and digital formats’. the Secretary of State of The White House re-intro- Georgia ‘re-calculate’ the elecduced and popularized it by toral results – all this after the naming as ‘fake news’ MSM state had conducted three recoverage of Mr. Trump’s false counts. In spite of this obvious claims of his inauguration’s desperation by Trump, the altcrowd size being much greater right AM (including Esto nia’s than the public gathering four Uued Uudised, EKRE’s official years previous. Aerial photo on-line voice) continued to adgraphy proved that Trump was vance a dangerous lie that culmaking his bold-faced inaugural minated in armed insurrection. lie as president. Ever since, the The MSM has more diversity White House uses ‘fake news’ than the broad brush used to to describe any negative press characterize it. Take for incoverage of Mr. Trump. And stance News Corp, led by depending on which ‘fact - family patriarch Rupert Mur checking’ organization one doch, that owns major news follows, Mr. Trump has been papers around the world, in able to accumulate between cluding the Wall Street Journal, 20,000 and 30,000 untruths New York Post and Fox News. during his four-year term. Most of the papers have been ‘Alternative facts’, also known as staunch supporters of coined by the White House, Mr. Trump and his last big lie. was ridiculed by the MSM But is this a fair assessment of press as ludicrous, but also Murdoch’s media outlets? taken as an unintentional admitThe recent resignation of tance by Trump staff that he Murdoch’s son James from a was living in a world of unreali- top executive position in his ty. father’s vast media empire Alternative media (AM), at confirmed what observers had least theoretically, should offer known for years, especially
Last week, Canadians watched in horror as a violent mob smashed their way into the U.S. Capitol – never believing that the same could one day happen in Ottawa. During and after the riot, they shared amusing social media memes of a map of Canada being sawed away from America and joked about Canada paying for their own wall with the U.S. We would be wise to check that smugness. Growing discontent among Canadians in various regions is being stoked by malign foreign actors who amplify disinformation and conspiracy theories on both the far-left and far-right. Left unaddressed, trust in our democratic institutions will erode and lead to a deeply polarized society not unlike what we are seeing in the United States and some Euro pean countries over recent years. The warning signs are clear. Extremist groups, conspiracy theorists and fringe media platforms have taken advantage of the fear and frustration brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic to attract new followers. Their blunt-force rhetoric satiates emotions that have been stripped raw by the pandemic, promoting anger at elected officials, media and ultimately each other. As Canadians desperately seek to come to terms with the devastating psychological and financial effects of COVID-19, conspiracy movements offer simple explanations – regardless of factualness – and an outlet for their anxiety and rage. Wild anti-government conspiracy theories have been shared on tens of thousands of Twitter accounts, accusing Chrystia Freeland and Justin Trudeau of being traitors who have used COVID-19 to assist Germany to save the New World Order, for example. Supporters of the Western
about Murdoch’s morbid backing of Trump’s enormous appetite for dishonesty. Although he refers to the media in a general sense, it’s known that his bitter description is directed at the Murdoch conglomerate: “Spreading in formation, whether about the election, public health or climate change, has real-world consequences.” He condemned the US media for its “toxic politics” which threatens American democracy. He points fingers at the extensive media portfolio’s owners (the Mur doch family, Ed.) who “know the truth, but choose instead to propagate lies”. In a disguised reference to Murdoch’s Fox News, James
Canadian separatist movement, WEXIT, have shared memes that include a group of camouflaged militiamen carrying assault rifles asking, “Wonder how many people would actually answer the call to step up and take our rights and freedoms back …. The time to fight is coming sooner than later.” QAnon, the popular and dangerously divisive U.S. conspiracy theory movement, also has a following in Canada. The group had infamously claimed in 2016 that Hillary Clinton was running a child sex trafficking ring out of the basement of a Washington, D.C. pizza parlour. Now QAnon flags have been spotted flying at several Cana dian COVID antimask rallies. One of the leaders of the Washington riot, pictured in fur and a horned hat, identified himself as a QAnon “shaman.” Compounding all of this are malign foreign actors, including the Russian and Chinese governments and their supporters, who amplify these polarizing narratives and inject their own disinformation to further pollute our information environment. As the EU warned in March of last year, the Kremlin’s goal over the past 10 months has been “to aggravate the public health crisis in Western countries ... in line with the Kremlin’s broader strategy of attempting to subvert European societies.” As bad as this might be, it gets worse when elected officials, like President Trump, repeat and amplify false claims and conspiracy theories. In Canada, an Ontario MPP recently claimed that Canada is converting COVID quarantine sites into internment camps and has also attended several anti-mask rallies, undermining the efforts of federal and provincial health officials. Such irrespon sible behaviour, based on cynical political calculations, lend legitimacy to the seditious narratives that empower those who seek to destabilize our society.
The trajectory is painfully clear. The defence of our democracy requires a long-term, whole-of-society strategy that includes the co-ordinated parti cipation of governments, civil society and media in order to build long-term resilience against this threat – something our governments have failed to do. We should begin with our children, by providing them Scandinavian-style early digital media education to provide them with the tools to critically assess the information they consume. Elected officials, their staff and civil servants should be provided ongoing training on digital media literacy and the detection of foreign influence operations. We should learn from our allies, like Taiwan, who have successfully detected and defended against disinformation attacks. The events of the past week underscore social media’s role in the breakdown of our social cohesion. While a last-minute ban on Donald Trump’s account by Facebook and Twitter was wise, it represents but a tiny bandage on a gaping existential wound that is killing Western democracy. All of the social media giants, including Google, continue to facilitate and enable foreign state disinformation and conspiracy theorists by providing them platforms, audiences and even revenue streams. While Canada is not immune from the political unrest witnessed in the United States, we may still minimize the risk by developing a comprehensive strategy to address information warfare and foreign inter ference.
said that it had played a role in the riot that shook Washington by intensifying election disinformation, influencing a substantial portion of the public to believe a falsehood.
ers”, “The incidents in America were initiated by the Democrats after their last election defeat”? The fifty years of political lies that Estonians had to resist in their captive homeland surely make them more mindful of and revolted by persistent falsehoods generated by a foreign leader. One cannot trivialize the enormity of Mr. Trump’s ‘big lie’ and it’s persistent repetition in Estonia. (to be continued)
(James is the son of Anna Maria Tõrv whose father is Estonian Jakob Tõrv. There has been a tongue-in-cheek observation that it’s James’ genetic heritage that took hold and inherently disgusted him.) Is it appropriate to ask what James Murdoch’s reaction would be to disinformation in Uued Uudised, with articles bearing headlines such as: “Evidence is mounting that the riot wasn’t instigated by Trump sup por ters”, “Antifa members wearing masks blended in with the riot-
(Marcus Kolga is a documen tary filmmaker, human rights activist and expert on foreign disinformation. He is the direc tor of DisinfoWatch.org and is a senior fellow at the MacdonaldLaurier Institute’s Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad.)
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