EU SLAMS RUSSIA, CHINA FOR MISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN

The European Union (EU) has accused China and Russia of mounting a misinformation campaign after a thorough study on misleading content about the virus, vaccines or alleged cures on their sites, Bloomberg reported on June 11, 2020.

The EU’s findings on China and Russia are based on a separate study by the commission’s foreign and diplomatic wing, which said it had evidence of a “coordinated push” by official Chinese sources to deflect blame for the coronavirus pandemic and promote its response to the virus.

China and Russia were blamed for spewing out false and misleading online information about COVID-19 in a European Union report that seeks to stem the “unprecedented” spread of fake news amid the pandemic.

The two nations are among “foreign actors” that sought to “undermine democratic debate” and enhance their own image through “targeted influence operations and disinformation campaigns around COVID-19 in the EU,” the bloc’s executive authority said in the report published on Wednesday.