This is the topic of the interdepartmental round table, which was organized and held on November 29, 2023 by the Ukrainian Research Institute of Special Equipment and Forensic Science of the Security Service of Ukraine, the National Academy of the Security Service of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Institute for Advanced Training of Television, Radio Broadcasting and Press Workers, Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine.
The moderator of the event is the head of the department of the Ukrainian Research Institute of Special Equipment and Forensic Science of the Security Service of Ukraine, candidate of legal sciences, senior researcher Oleg Parfylo.
During the welcome speech, Yurii Chechil, the director of the Ukrainian Research Institute of Special Equipment and Forensic Science of the Security Service of Ukraine, doctor of philosophy in the field of law noted the incredible relevance of this topic and expressed hope for fruitful cooperation in finding effective means of countering disinformation.
Andrii Chernyak, The rector of the National Academy of the Security Service of Ukraine, Doctor of Law, Associate Professor highlighted the most actual topics for discussion and legal issues in countering disinformation.
Bohdan Chervak cited examples of Russia’s hostile information war, aimed, in particular, at splitting the military-political leadership of Ukraine and called for active consolidation of efforts of all governmental structures, civil society to protect the information space of Ukraine, debunk fakes, spread media literacy among the media audience. In this context, Mr. Chervak noted the successful activity of the UTRPI, expressed gratitude for the organization of the training course on media literacy and information hygiene.
Oleksandr Makobriy, Deputy Director of the Department of Information Policy and Information Security of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine for European Integration noted that russia’s information war against Ukraine has been waged not since 2014 and not since 2022, but since the creation of our country. Aggressive Russia directs great efforts and resources to this anti-Ukrainian propaganda in all possible spheres of life. Mr. Makobriy thanked the Defense Forces of Ukraine for the opportunity to hold events on finding ways to counter the aggressor in the information sphere, expressed hope that during the round table effective recommendations will be developed to achieve the set goal, and also called for the combined efforts of all structures in this fight against an insidious enemy.
“Media education is a vaccination against misinformation” – such a thesis and, accordingly, the approach to solving the problem was expressed by Glib Golovchenko, acting director of the Ukrainian Institute for Advanced Training of Television, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Secretary of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, Honored Journalist of Ukraine. Mr. Golovchenko noted that the UTRPI trains specialists who are able to professionally recognize disinformation, fakes, distortions in information products. He also drew attention to the intense UTRPI`s educational program, aimed at the development of critical thinking of journalists, compliance with information hygiene, standards of media work.
During the round table, well-known scientists, legal practitioners, judicial experts, public activists, journalists, bloggers expressed their reports and visions in the format of a brainstorming session on this issue.
In particular, Anait Hoperia, head of the Information Threat Countering Department of the Center for Countering Disinformation of the National Security Council of Ukraine, in a presentation “Modern tools of russian propaganda and methods of countermeasures,” revealed the methodology of waging an information war with russian tools of influencing not only the Ukrainian audience, but also the international community. We are talking about such an arsenal as fake letters, websites, advertising products, fake covers of influential magazines, cartoons, deep fakes, etc. The speaker presented information about how the Telegram channels, bots of russian social networks, kremlin propagandists are waging war, what methods they use, how they involve pseudo-experts, who, by the way, have the opportunity to spread their false propaganda in the bowels of international structures. Anait Hoperia noted, in particular, that the spread of false information about Ukraine, unfortunately, is ahead of our efforts to neutralize hostile disinformation, and even for the ambassadors of other countries, it was a revelation of how they are being fooled by Russian propaganda, setting them against Ukraine.
Next the audience of the round table was shown a provocative video about the alleged speech of Ukraine’s Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhny against the President of Ukraine, Supreme Commander-in-Chief Volodymyr Zelenskyi. This bright dipfake was analyzed by experts Yuriy Nizovtsev – chief judicial expert of the Center for Judicial and Special Expertises of the Ukrainian Research Institute of Special Equipment and Forensic Science of the Security Service of Ukraine, candidate of legal sciences, Anna Yarosh – forensic expert of the Center for Judicial and Special Expertises of the Ukrainian Research Institute of Special Equipment and Forensic Science of the Security Service of Ukraine, Oksana Serbinenko, leading judicial expert of the Center for Judicial and Special Expertises of the Ukrainian Research Institute of Special Equipment and Forensic Science of the Security Service of Ukraine. In the presentation “Possibilities of forensic examination in the context of countering the spread of disinformation”, this hostile information injection was refuted step by step. In the course of the discussion, a question arose about whether we should also use this kind of media texts in response to or in anticipation of a hostile, aggressive neighbor.
The direct answer: “The best weapon against the Russians is not fakes, but the truth, our truth, which has the effect of breaking consciousness for the Russians,” was given by Viktor Rybachenko, vice-president of the Association of Political Psychologists of Ukraine, professor of the Faculty of PR, Journalism and Information Policy, lecturer at the UTRPI , Honored Worker of Culture of Ukraine. In his report “Disinformation mechanism: countering influences”, Viktor Rybachenko, in particular, proposed a definition of the concept of information, revealed the content of the action of objective information and adequate orientation, as well as the nuances of the action of distorted, fake information and disorientation. Familiarized with the effect of possible terminological mines, the so-called constructive disinformation. Viktor Rybachenko drew the audience’s attention to the peculiarities of the structure created by Russian information institutes for waging an information war against Ukraine.
Denys Kazanskyi, journalist, blogger, political commentator, during his speech on the topic “Counter-propaganda in the modern media space” drew the attention of the audience to the fact that aggressive russian propaganda has recently been restricted on such platforms as YouTube and Facebook, and therefore it is important that the hostile rhetoric about the destruction of Ukraine, the genocide of the Ukrainian nation, which they spread to the domestic consumer, their hysterical statements about Ukrainians, were heard in the West, where russian propaganda has a different appearance and therefore russia is not perceived exactly as an aggressor, a terrorist country.
Oleksandr Chekmyshev, Professor of the Department of Social Communications of the Educational and Scientific Institute of Journalism of Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University, head of monitoring projects of the NGO “Common Space” Association”, doctor of sciences in social communications presented a presentation on the topic “Monitoring fakes and emotional manipulations: methodological and technological aspects.” He revealed the possibilities of using robots to recognize disinformation, concluded that artificial intelligence is not yet able to successfully replace the expert activity of specialists.
Dmytro Bezhan, an employee of the Security Service of Ukraine, reminded the audience of Winston Churchill’s famous quote that a lie travels around the globe while the truth is putting on its shoes. And he called to learn the systematic and efficient way of countering disinformation and propaganda. He gave examples of how clarifying internal Ukrainian problems plays into the hands of the enemy.
Nataliya Savinova, Doctor of Law Sciences, head of the Scientific Center for Scientific and Legal Expertise and Forecasting of the Scientific Research Institute of Informatics and Law of the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine made a speech “Public awareness as the main target of information attacks.” She noted the problem of determining the goal of Ukraine’s information policy and achieving it by opening Ukraine, affirming and popularizing its human, cultural, economic, and natural potential. Nataliya Savinova proposed introducing the discipline “Media Hygiene” into the school curriculum, updating the topic of mobilization, expanding information in other countries about Ukraine’s achievements, organizing foreign tours of Ukrainian theaters, etc.
Anatoliy Marushchak, expert of the NGO “International Academy of Information”, doctor of legal sciences, professor made a speech “Disinformation and artificial intelligence: challenges and opportunities”.
Darka Olifer, press secretary of the charitable organization Leonid Kuchma Presidential Fund “Ukraine”, media expert in a speech on the topic “Effective use of intellectual opportunities and personnel potential to protect the information space of Ukraine” noted positive steps in the field of information policy of the state, and also presented a number of interesting proposals on preventing the spread of disinformation and fakes about Ukraine.
Alina Bondarchuk – head of the department of the information collection and monitoring of the Center for Combating Disinformation of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine presented the presentation “Problems of the information space in social networks (practical cases)”.
Marianna Prysiazhnyuk. representative of the Internet project “StopFake”, PhD student of the University of Bucharest made the presentation “Strategic narratives of Russian propaganda in “neutral countries” showed how Russian propaganda actually uses the so-called neutral countries with the slogan “Who is not against us, is with us” in its anti-Ukrainian terrorist information war.