Should Swiss Voters Worry About Foreign Influence During Elections?
Date
10/17/2023 1:02:59 AM
(MENAFN- Swissinfo)
Pусский
(ru)
Швейцарская разведка обеспокоена российским влиянием на итоги выборов
The focus of the intelligence report, seen by the NZZ am Sonntag, is a blurry video shared on X (formerly Twitter) in September that's meant to show migrants in a bad light. In it, a Black man appears to be urinating on a street in the town of Baden, northern Switzerland. The video was viewed hundreds of thousands of times, says the newspaperExternal link , although it's unclear when it was actually shot.
The Federal Intelligence Service (FIS) says in its classified report that“most of the accounts that drove the distribution of the video are probably not authentic” and are likely of Russian origin.“In the information space, Russia is actively exploiting the issue of migration to influence Western states,” the FIS is quoted as saying.
By casting migrants as threats to societal norms and security, Russia's aim is to“stir up fear and strengthen polarisation between and within Western societies”, it adds. Migration has been a topic of debate during the current election campaign.
The FIS, when contacted by SWI swissinfo, said it would not comment on the NZZ story or on the content of its classified report.
Real users versus bots
Whether the video is actually achieving its aim to stir up fear is hard to say. Daniel Vogler, the deputy director of the Research Center for the Public Sphere and Society at the University of Zurich, points out that few people in Switzerland actually get their news on X – a mere 7%, according toExternal link the 2023 Reuters Digital News Report.
The reach of the video could also be limited by the fact that it was largely spread by bots.
“A so-called bot network will retweet their own message,” Vogler says.“But did real users or even users from Switzerland see the post? If it's only being reposted by bots, it's not likely many people actually saw it.”
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