Propaganda techniques

US government officials have suspected Russia of spreading fake news about the coronavirus, thus undermining international efforts to combat the epidemic, AFP reported.

"I'm alive, I swear", Ratko Mladic told his son in a telephone conversation after he was interrupted by a visit of his lawyer in a detention unit, so that he could contact the family and deny false information.
Darko Mladic adds that his father reacted to the news with a joke, and that he was not particularly excited to hear it, or commented further on the fake news.

The Montenegrin Culture Ministry said that the country has become the subject of an organised "disinformation campaign" since it adopted controversial legislation on religion which has angered Serbian Orthodox believers.

Disinformation campaigns helped lead to the assassination of Martin Luther King, the daughter of the U.S. civil rights champion said on Oct. 17 after the head of Facebook said social media should not fact-check political advertisements.

Democrats accused the Trump administration on Oct. 2 of using "propaganda and disinformation" to attack the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and demanded that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo explain how the material circulated at top levels of his department.

Facebook won't check the credibility of politicians' posts, the social network announced a year before the US presidential election.

The social network relies on third parties, including major news outlets, to verify the information. 

Ad revenue has effectively sustained websites flagged as disinformation sources with millions of dollars, according to a study. Despite talk of regulation, experts told Deutsche Welle the issue needs a "whole-of-industry solution", DW reported. 

"Politicians are not really eager to burn their fingers over disinformation," Jakub Kalensky, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank, told participants at a summer school of journalism in the central Czech town of Havlickuv Brod in August.

The government in Skopje has come up with an ambitious draft strategy to combat the epidemic of fake news - but many media professionals and experts are not persuaded.

Recent years have seen a lot of talk about fake news on social media. This is justified.