Disinformation

Nazism from the West and freedom from the East. History is being distorted in Slovakia.

Adapt Institute provides an overview of disinformation trends that have been on the rise in the last two weeks:

• The celebrations of the 81st anniversary of the Slovak National Uprising (SNP) have traditionally left a bitter taste. It is becoming customary in Slovakia to commemorate historical moments in the spirit of revisionism and the misuse of their legacy for political purposes.
• While the President accused the mainstream media of spreading hatred in his speech, the coalition attacked a folk music ensemble that withdrew from performing at the celebrations. The ensemble's decision was said to show disrespect for the election results and even to polarize society.
• We learned from some government officials that the SNP was a struggle against Western occupation. This, they say, could easily happen again today. Robert Fico suggested that Nazism is reawakening in the West. Others vehemently pointed out that freedom comes exclusively from the East.
• Paradoxically, it seems that for some, 1968 marked a liberation. At the very least, these actors are trying to absolve Russia of guilt for 21 August 1968, when the occupation and normalisation process began in Czechoslovakia. They willingly forget that the orders came from Moscow and that the Russian Federation is the successor state to the USSR.
• Last but not least, the Slovak anti-vaccination community has also seen a modest revival. An analysis by the Slovak Academy of Sciences confirmed that mRNA vaccines against Covid contain only trace amounts of DNA molecules. This exposed holes in popular conspiracy theories about how vaccines were supposed to be a global experiment on humanity. The report was met with reactions mainly from figures on the pandemic charlatan scene.

Slovak National Uprising in the shadow of propaganda

For several years now, the SNP celebration has marked the start of a new season of disinformation and propaganda activities. After a summer when political topics tend to quiet down, the SNP is a good opportunity to dust off certain narratives and stir up emotions in society. This year's August 29 was no exception – the cultural program in Banská Bystrica was accompanied by messages of hatred in society (for which President Peter Pellegrini also blamed the media), as well as elements of Russian (and in fact Soviet) propaganda.

Three of Slovakia's highest constitutional officials spoke at the event, with PM Robert Fico's speech naturally being the most anticipated. In addition to defending the so-called sovereign foreign policy and his visits to dictators, the prime minister, as expected, also launched into criticism of the West. This has become a favorite discipline of his lately, and he does not shy away from using rhetoric that plays into the Kremlin's interests. Among other things, Fico spoke of the "carving up" of Russia and the "denial of the results of World War II." He sparked controversy right at the start of his speech by quoting Adolf Hitler on shifting the borders of the Germanic peoples at the expense of the Slavs.

Using historical moments or national holidays for political battles and spreading harmful narratives is nothing new in Slovakia. As already suggested, this year's SNP was no exception. That is why we looked at this event through the Gerulata Juno analytical tool. We used it to analyze the most popular posts on Slovak Facebook that contained the keywords "SNP" or "uprising." We excluded posts that did not contain problematic narratives from the list. We then evaluated the posts based on the total number of interactions (the sum of all reactions, comments, and shares).

As usual, the post with the highest number of interactions belongs to the Slovak PM. In it, Robert Fico mainly works with hints of Russian propaganda, which he inserts between explanations of the historical significance of the uprising for Slovakia. This is one of the few posts where Fico does not attack head-on with his favorite narratives. He talks about Slovakia's value system (probably referring to its affiliation with the West), which he contrasts with the fact that we will not "accept anything that resembles Nazi methods, symbols, and vocabulary." In other words, Fico indirectly attributes certain features of Nazism to the West or Ukraine. He also stated in the post that "endless attempts to distort and expropriate the history of World War II" must end. The PM was probably referring to the narrative of the so-called Soviet liberators. The essence of this narrative is that the crimes of the USSR (and, in essence, of today's Russia) are justified or, so to speak, nullified by their participation in the liberation of Europe from Nazi occupation at the end of World War II. The PM's post was also shared by the official profile of the Office of the Government of the Slovak Republic.

The second post was published by Tibor Gašpar and shared by the official SMER-SSD page. The deputy speaker of parliament, who is still facing charges of founding a criminal group, decided to use his social media presence to attack the Urpín folk ensemble. The ensemble refused to perform at the SNP celebrations because its members did not want to be associated with politics. Originally, they were approached by the Museum of the SNP, and the members of the ensemble did not realize that the celebrations were organized by the Ministry of Defence. According to Tibor Gašpar, the ensemble's gesture "fits into a dangerous trend that seeks to question and discredit everything Slovak" and relies on "spreading hatred." A similar post was addressed to the folk ensemble by Gašpar's party colleague Ľuboš Blaha. According to the MEP, Urpín was to be misused for "anti-Slovak hatred" because its members (and liberals) are bothered by the fact that Slovakia was "liberated by the Soviets" and "fascism came from the West". What is striking is that after cancelling their performance at the celebrations, the state also canceled the folk ensemble's planned performance at the Agrokomplex agricultural exhibition. It seems that any disagreement with the current government is considered by its representatives to be a gross violation of morality that deserves punishment—either lynching on social media or other consequences.

The third post was published by SMER-SSD MP Zuzana Plevíková. In the video, Plevíková presents the SNP celebrations as apolitical (which is essentially unrealistic given the speeches made by politicians) and accuses the folk ensemble of insulting the legacy of the uprising. To make matters worse, according to the MP, the members of the ensemble have thus proven that they "do not respect the election results." This is a favourite narrative of the ruling coalition, which has been using it in recent years to respond to any criticism directed at its ranks. It has been heard during anti-government protests, but also in response to regular media articles. However, in the case of a folk ensemble that refused to participate in the celebrations, playing the card of disrespect for the election results is quite ridiculous.

Another post was published by MEP Ľuboš Blaha. A long-time member of SMER-SSD, Blaha decided to use the SNP to attack the opposition. The SNP celebrations were supposed to show how isolated the Progressive Slovakia (PS) party is. According to Blaha, "people walked around them as if they had leprosy," and therefore PS should reflect "on its hateful politics." We note that only three sentences separated the word leprosy from Blaha’s call for reflection in the post. Blaha then specifically targeted MP Tomáš Valášek (PS), whom he labelled an agent and accused of "loving NATO, armament, and genocide." The MEP was apparently trying to respond to criticism that came after he, as a leftist, shook hands with Milan Uhrík, the leader of the far-right movement Republika.

The last post in the series was also published by Ľuboš Blaha. This time, he defended historical figure of Gustáv Husák, who was quoted by Robert Fico in his speech at the SNP celebrations. Even though Husák participated in the SNP and fought against the fascists, we must not forget that he was the main Slovak face of the communist regime before 1989. From 1969 to 1987, he served as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, and until 1989, he also served as president. He thus stood at the forefront of normalization, which meant the end of any democratization processes in Czechoslovakia. For Blaha, however, he was a realist who "saved Czechoslovakia from bloodshed after 1968" (by handing over power to Moscow). The MEP appeals to nostalgic appreciation of socialism when he talks about social security and "an unprecedented increase in living standards". He ignores the repression and severe restrictions on freedom that occurred during the period of normalization after 1968. Instead, Blaha rather attacks journalists, calling them nobodies who are paid by evil elites.

As a bonus, Blaha devoted another post to the SNP. It essentially contains every anti-Western narrative you would find in a Russian propaganda handbook. Blaha begins the post by thanking the heroes of the SNP for "rising up against Western occupation." According to him, they defeated brown fascism, and now it is up to us to "defeat the rainbow one." Western fascists (we don't know exactly who, but in cooperation with the Slovak opposition) allegedly want to "conceal the historical truth" because the well-worn phrase "war came from the West and freedom came from the East" is supposed to apply. The pattern is probably clear to every reader — Blaha oversimplifies history with his mental shortcuts. Labelling the entire West as Nazi (whether in the past or present) is the real historical revisionism and spitting on the victims of World War II, which the ruling coalition otherwise brandishes.

Attacks on science and revisionism of '68

In addition to the uprising against Nazism, Slovakia commemorated another significant moment in its history – the aforementioned year of 1968 and August 21, when Warsaw Pact troops invaded Czechoslovakia, marking more than 20 years of Soviet occupation. However, unlike in recent years, this anniversary did not quite resonate. However, some content appeared that sought to capitalize on the topic in the waters of disinformation.

For example, there was a post on the Facebook page Mr. Slovak, which used a popular image with the caption "The occupiers came at night." However, the image was accompanied by manipulative revisionism with the words "then the 'occupiers' left and took nothing with them" and "then the 'liberators' from the West came, and today we have almost nothing". The content was obviously aimed at evoking nostalgic optimism for a world that was not capitalist and was somewhat simpler.

Ľuboš Blaha, on the other hand, attempted to shift the responsibility for the occupation of Czechoslovakia from Russia to Ukraine. He even called on President Zelensky to apologize. Ukrainians were supposed to have played a decisive role in the former USSR, which Blaha illustrates with the example of Leonid Brezhnev, then First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The MEP disputes Brezhnev's Russian roots and claims that he was fully "shaped by the Ukrainian environment". However, he fails to mention that political decisions came from Moscow.

Yet even reality, without any nationalist sentiment, speaks quite clearly: it is not Ukraine but the Russian Federation that is the successor state to the USSR, having taken over its international obligations and status. Blaha reveals the propagandistic intent of his video in its conclusion – today, he says, it is "not Moscow that threatens our sovereignty," but Brussels and Washington.

Eduard Chmelár, who previously served as an advisor to the prime minister, struck a similar note. In his post, he perceives the anniversary of 1968 as "an annual festival of Russophobia and chauvinism", which is to be exploited "for the lowest anti-Russian instincts". The real point for Chmelár is that Slovakia has been threatened multiple times in its history by its allies. According to Chmelár, history can repeat itself, and Slovakia should not even trust its NATO allies. Chmelár concludes his post quite romantically, revealing to his audience what he calls the "slogan of the modern fifth column" – "Hate the East and ignore the fact that you have become a vassal of the West." It's like something out of a textbook. A Russian propaganda textbook to be more precise.

Last but not least, what kind of reality would it be if hatred and attacks on certain sections of society were not spread in the Slovak information space? After the media, the opposition, and the civil sector, it was the turn of scientists. Of course, this was not the first time that scientists had been subjected to attacks, but the report by the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV), which was commissioned by the Ministry of Health to examine the composition of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19, provoked controversial reactions not only from various charlatans but also from government officials.

The SAV analysis responded to media statements and works containing claims about high amounts of DNA in mRNA vaccines. Peter Kotlár, who serves as the government's representative for reviewing the process of resource management during the COVID-19 pandemic, was a particularly vocal proponent of such dubious claims. Through Kotlár, who is an orthopedist but pretends to be a virologist, part of the government is in fact sanctioning the spread of anti-vaccine narratives. Among other things, Kotlár has long been active in the alternative media outlet TV Slovan, where he communicated various conspiracy and disinformation narratives to his audience in collaboration with the current Minister of Culture, Martina Šimkovičová.

The SAV has proven two things: that mRNA vaccines contain only trace amounts of DNA molecules and that claims such as Kotlár's are based on technically incorrect procedures and/or misinterpreted results. Let us recall that despite the inaccuracy of his claims, Kotlár called for an investigation of the State Institute for Drug Control for approving the vaccine in March of this year based on the results of his analysis.

The scientists also emphasized in their report that media statements and works containing claims about high amounts of DNA, along with unsubstantiated and "nonsensical" claims about the dangers of vaccination, are a hazardous source of manipulation of public fear, which seriously threatens the health of individuals as well as public health. This direct blow to the disinformation scene, which has grown precisely on the back of the pandemic, received a relatively quick response. Despite the findings, Kotlár insists on his claims and believes that the matter should be decided by the judiciary.

In Kotlár’s defence, Ľuboš Blaha attacked the SAV quite directly. In his post, he referred to mRNA vaccines as experimental "jams", which "will take years to reveal all the risks associated with them". Among other things, he returned to narratives about pandemic totalitarianism, COVID propaganda, and the suppression of dissenting opinions. However, beneath this, the MEP hides the questioning of reality, scientific findings, and measures against the COVID-19 pandemic. Note that Blaha still works as an employee of the SAV (at the Institute of Political Sciences), but despite this, he refers to the SAV as a pseudo-scientific corporation that is "dependent on contracts with pharmaceutical companies."

Neither did the Slovak PM hesitate to defend Peter Kotlár. At a press conference, which he subsequently shared on Facebook, Robert Fico accused the media of refusing to publish statistics on people who died after being vaccinated. He claimed that this was because journalists were "fed advertising from pharmaceutical companies". He thus indirectly sided with those who publicly question vaccination as a relevant anti-pandemic measure. In the case of Fico, who rode the wave of the infodemic out of political decline, this comes as no surprise.

The same is true of Miroslav Heredoš, a former candidate for the far-right Republika party, who is also one of Slovakia's well-known anti-vaxxers. In one of his posts, he called the SAV's analysis a hoax. He claims that we are "facing a monolithic conspiracy against our health". The proof of this conspiracy? According to Heredoš, the SAV Biomedical Center does not have an OMCL (Official Medicines Control Laboratories) certificate and is therefore not one of the European certified laboratories.

To explain, OMCL certification means that a laboratory can perform independent testing of medicines if they are to be placed on the European market. Laboratories obtain this certification after approval by the European Commission. These are the very same laboratories (as well as the Slovak State Institute for Drug Control) that have already approved the supply of mRNA vaccines to the European market in the past. All batches examined by the SAV have already been checked by a certified OMCL, and Heredoš's questioning of the relevance of the analysis in this way is manipulative. However, this did not stop him from spreading misinformation in other posts, where, for example, he conspired about testing a global genetic experiment.

Project is organized by Adapt Institute and supported by the Prague office of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom. It continuously monitors the activities of both Slovak and foreign disinformation actors, but focuses mainly on the former. The project activities are built upon daily monitoring of emerging disinformation, hoaxes, and conspiracy theories in the online information space. This approach allows the analysts to identify disinformation posts and narratives that resonated with the public the most, as well as to find out where they originated, and how they spread and evolved on social media. The report takes the form of a bi-weekly summary of arising trends in the spread of malicious information content online. Based on that, Adapt Institute can inform the public about emerging and current trends in the field of disinformation, manipulation, and propaganda.