this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2023
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A new CSIS ad campaign is using Soviet-style imagery to warn Canadians about disinformation (www.cbc.ca)
submitted 1 year ago by girlfreddy to c/[email protected]
31 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Aaron Erlich, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, said it's important to make people aware of misleading information online. But he said the wording in the CSIS campaign was "not the most straightforward" and appeared to be an attempt not just to educate but to invoke fear.

Erlich said clumsy messaging can backfire, and he would like to know if the messaging was tested at all to see how it would be received.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

Ah yes: DO YOU KYOSH SHHO IS BEHIYD IT? coupled with the matryoshka doll. Good old 1980s style xenophobia. Sure, Russia is behind a lot of disinfo, but come on.

image

[–] dlpkl 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's topical and I'm glad they're being direct about it. Any more direct and it would have just been Putin's face with a speech bubble. Unfortunate that the used Russian cultural themes but eh, it is what it is.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The Soviet Union is dead and gone. What this makes me think is that our spy agency is headed by someone old and out of touch with what disinformation looks like these days. Some cold warrior who hasn't taken in any new information in 30 years.

[edit] I got kinda curious about this so I looked it up. The head of CSIS is David Vigneault.

In his first public speech since he was appointed Director, he named Russia, China, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos and Venezuela as "countries of concern"

Do you sense a theme? No Iran? No Saudi Arabia? They threatened us with our own 9/11.

Tell me this guy doesn't seem like he's living in 1950.

[–] dlpkl 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

What about that particular poster makes you think of the Soviet Union?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

The Soviet aesthetic.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Shno* and beniyd* - but your point is a good one

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I figured the H could be latin instead of a Cyrillic N.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Yeah I agree for sure.

It is possible to have a nuanced view here, to recognize that a) Putin is comitting several war crimes in ukraine and b) that governments are taking advantage of the war to justify a hyper-militaristic , hawkish foreign policy as well as mild xenophobia.

Unfortunately whenever you point out part b) , people assume youre some kind of putin sympathizer

its absurd how black and white peoples brains can turn into during wartime

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Many of the people that Russia is targeting with their disinformation are the same people that were worried about Russians in the 80s.

Don't know if this will work, it's possible nothing can get through to them. But for the simpletons that are susceptible to disinformation you really need to dumb things down for them.

RUSSIA DO BAD THING ON INTERNET. DON'T TRUST INTERNET.

Maybe a couple of neurons will fire and they might question things they see on the internet a little. Sometimes.

Probably not, but it's worth a shot.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I approve. I can't wait to see the Chinese version in the next campaign.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Russian disinformation appeals to the older crowd, while Chinese disinformation appeals to the younger crowd what with TikTok and all.

So the Chinese version would be very different as it would be targeted at a different demographic. May not even be an ad campaign at all, could just come in the form of blocking TikTok. Though it could just be in the form of regulating TikTok in some way, there is now precedent for regulating social media.

Outside of TikTok, Chinese disinformation is kinda amateur hour at the moment. I mean just look at hexbear LOL. You think that bullshit is convincing anyone of anything? They lack the sophistication the Russians have developed in the last decade and a half. They seem to go for quantity over quality and that's not at all effective.

Though they have been a little more successful in simply discouraging discussion on how shitty the CCP is. But that's more a censorship thing than a disinformation thing. How do you do an ad campaign on that? "Don't not believe the things you didn't hear about China." Doesn't make a lot of sense.