The spread of disinformation in Estonia has increased considerably since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, and the new web constables to join the force this year have had their hands full, police admit. One of the main goals of this disinformation is to spark conflict involving those from Ukraine who have arrived in Estonia.

Following the arrival of the first war refugees from Ukraine in Estonia, disinformation started sparking conflicts between war refugees and pro-Russian people in the country as well, Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) communications specialist Capt. Maarja Punak said.

"The number of these has still increased significantly," Punak said. "If we look back at the end of February, beginning of March, we received quite a lot of disinformation in connection with war refugees and about conflicts between Ukrainians and Russian-speaking Estonian residents that was not true."

According to the PPA official, Estonian police noticed news the likes of which they hadn't seen before on their social media in March, and disinformation began being disseminated again ahead of May 9, which is celebrated in Russia as Victory Day.

"It's the same thing now — when changes occur in Ukraine, it reaches our social media as well, and people start disseminating info that would have an emotional impact on people living in Estonia," she said.

According to Punak, the goal of disseminating such info is to confuse and anger people and then take advantage of that to drive people to do things they otherwise wouldn't.

The PPA's goal, meanwhile, is to figure out whether people disseminating this disinformation are consciously doing so or whether they've simply fallen victim to propaganda themselves, she stressed.

"We make first contact," the police captain explained. "We talk to the person and also look at what they do going forward. Whether, after we've spoken with them and explained to them why their actions on social media weren't appropriate, they understand or continue as before. In other words, what they do afterward is a very clear indication of whether they understood that conversation or not."

She also noted that police officers have also been trained to chat with people in such a way that they'll notice if someone is lying. "So it's definitely not a good idea to lie if a police officer comes to talk with you," she added.

Since January, the PPA has increased its number of web constables, one responsibility of whose is to monitor the possible dissemination of disinformation or propaganda in public groups online, Punak said.

"There is just so much of this information in connection with the war to work or look through," she acknowledged. "There's definitely at least half as much more of it than there was this time last year, for example."

According to Punak, disinformation is being spread primarily via the Telegram platform.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!