Russia, China, and Iran: Converging Tactics in Domestic and Regional COVID Disinformation
Disinformation efforts related to the COVID pandemic have become a new facet in the evolving information warfare environment. Russia, China, and Iran saw an opportunity in the pandemic to shape the domestic and regional opinions of their respective countries via COVID-related issues. This report highlights some ways in which disinformation tactics are spreading between our primary threat actors. Read on for more details:
Executive Summary
The governments of Russia, China, and Iran - via traditional and social media — messaged their domestic and regional audiences to paint their respective COVID response efforts as effective and appropriate while shifting blame to others (often the United States). These actors have also stifled contrary or dissenting information as part of their efforts to control narratives and opinions. These actions provide evidence that China and Iran are adopting disinformation and social media manipulation tactics from Russia, posing a potential increase in information warfare capacity and capability that the United States and adversaries of Russia, China, and Iran may face in the future. Such tactic-sharing could make it more difficult to attribute disinformation efforts to a specific actor or counter them.
Threat Actors’ Actions
● Russia
○ Starting in late March 2020, Russian federal government COVID-related domestic actions revolved around controlling media. The government emplaced legal measures forcing media platforms to remove “fake news,” while clamping down on citizens reporting or discussing news contrary to the narratives the government wanted to spread.
○ As of April 2020, government disinformation targeted domestic and foreign audiences, posing a risk that its citizens could believe in and use fake cures or ineffective methods (folk remedies, scams, or myths that are unproven, and even potentially harmful) for combating COVID, exacerbating spread of the disease.
○ At least until mid-May 2020, overall COVID-related messaging to the Russian public was incongruous. The government tried to downplay the risks to the public, bolster the image of the government’s response to the growing number of cases, shift blame onto Western nations for the disease, and showcase support to other nations.
● China
○ Throughout March 2020, state media promoted conspiracy theories regarding COVID (a common Russian disinformation tactic). One conspiracy theory suggested it may have come to China via a US military athlete in 2019.
○ State media outlets attempted to bolster public confidence and highlight the government’s efforts to address the pandemic. A March 2020 piece by state-run Xinhua News Agency praised the urgent and heroic pandemic response (translated to English via machine translation) with classic propaganda-style imagery depicting the response as a war-like fight.
○ In April 2020, state media capitalized on opportunities to negatively portray US management of the crisis, such as using Chinese-subtitled clips from a popular US political satire show criticizing US handling of the pandemic. This messaging also shows China’s willingness to repurpose existing content (as Russia has) rather than creating new items.
● Iran
○ Since March 2020, Iranian leaders (including the head of the IRGC and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei) have spread the narrative of US responsibility for COVID. Suspect social media accounts created and amplified related messaging, suggesting a coordinated messaging campaign (an example of adapted Russian tactics of coordinated manipulation efforts).
○ Iranian state media and government spokespeople repeatedly downplayed the severity of the virus in Iran, potentially to counteract widespread domestic economic problems and varied political problems the government faced.
The overall disinformation regarding COVID highlights the evolving nature of the major threat actors’ information warfare efforts. In domestic and regional messaging from Russia, China, and Iran, the United States continues to play the role of scapegoat and major adversary as the respective governments exercise authoritarian control over media and dictate narratives. Russian disinformation regarding COVID revolved around government efforts to control information regarding the reality of COVID and its effects on the country, downplaying the seriousness initially, and painting the government as strong and in control. Through its tightly-censored state media apparatus, the Chinese Government promoted a positive narrative regarding its handling of the pandemic, directed attention to the mismanagement of the pandemic by other countries, and spread questionable theories about the origins of the virus. Iranian domestic and regional messaging on COVID followed two lines of effort: downplaying the seriousness of the pandemic in Iran and blaming foreign forces (notably the United States) for the existence and spread of the virus. This campaign aimed to deflect blame from the regime for failures in responding to the virus domestically and to undermine the United States in the Middle East. Iranian and Russian messaging strategies mirror successful past campaigns regarding new diseases, such as the campaign to blame the US Government for the AIDS epidemic. Russia in particular has a history of blaming the United States for emerging diseases around the world. Both China and Iran also seem to have adopted disinformation tactics that Russia had often employed in the past. The convergence of disinformation tactics among threat actors could pose challenges in the future when attribution of manipulative efforts is necessary, and it could cause problems in formulating effective policies or counter-disinformation efforts.
This product was created by a team of graduate students from American University’s School of International Service. The work herein reflects the team’s research, analysis, and viewpoints.
