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UK and Mumsnet targeted by disinformation - question

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DucklingSwimmingInstructress · 26/05/2024 12:02

Hello Mumsnet

It's been stated by many entities that the UK (US, Europe generally as well) is being targeted by Russia and perhaps China as well, plus the wave of disinformation about Gaza.

On the support-Ukraine threads we've seen this frequently.

The big danger is that Russia / China / Gaza-involved are influencing people in favour of the policies they support.

The smaller, but not insignificant, danger is that because there's so many lies around that even posters posting in good faith get suspected when they (quite reasonably) question statements or opinions. When someone who is genuine writes a comment that unfortunately is very similar to Russian bad-faith actors' words either because they truly think that way or because they've been influenced by lies, it's a difficult situation.

I know bad-faith actors (whether Russian, Chinese, Gaza-involved) are clever by hiding behind VPNs.

But it would be good if Mumsnet could say what they are doing to counteract this malign people and countries, and the general policy please?

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MNHQ

HebeMumsnet · 29/05/2024 10:23

Morning, everyone,

We are, of course, aware of these issues. As several people have pointed out, to reveal exactly how we are dealing with it would be to give those people instructions as to how to work their way around it, so we're afraid we can't give out information like that.

Obviously, in terms of these sorts of characters appearing on the boards or starting threads, they are usually reported fairly swiftly and it's mostly quite easy for us to see from our end whether they are genuine or not.

We don't think we can assume that everything that is factually incorrect is 'deliberate disinformation' rather than a different view or someone simply 'being wrong' so we don't have a blanket delete policy on many things. As a discussion site, where possible, we prefer for views to be challenged, alternative evidence offered etc. But when it is clear someone has pitched up here with an agenda (whatever that may be) and is posting simply in order to cause trouble, we would regard that as trolling and ban them.

Other factors might come into play, too where it's not immediately obvious that someone is a bad actor. We're less likely to give someone the benefit of the doubt if they're posting from a new account (and in an odd way), whereas if someone has been a member for years and never been in any trouble previously, we'd take that into consideration. So we take each case on its merits (or demerits) really.

Sorry we can't give much more detailed info than that. As always, if you have concerns, please do report. We never mind looking into someone, even if it turns out you were completely wrong, and, as we say, it's usually pretty clear when there's something amiss behind the scenes here, so we can often sort that pretty speedily.

MNHQ

HebeMumsnet · 24/06/2024 09:50

Hi again @DucklingSwimmingInstructress . If someone were found not to be genuine or to be trolling or spreading disinformation in order to do damage on any subject, we would ban them rather than ask them to post elsewhere.

As we've said though, we also have to allow people to have different opinions and it can be a fine line. The best thing to do if there are any particular posts or posters that you think we need to take a look at, is to report them to us using the report button and we can have a look behind the scenes and make sure they're above board. It is usually reasonably easy at our end to see whether someone is a long-term poster whose opinions on some subjects simply go against the grain or whether they are here only to cause trouble.

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