Australia’s spy chief has warned anti-immigration rallies are being exploited by neo-Nazi groups and “Russian operatives” to sow discord, as the country faces a trend seen across Western democracies of declining trust and rising disinformation.
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation’s director-general of security, Mike Burgess, said on Tuesday community cohesion is under attack in an unprecedented way.
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ASIO is investigating pro-Russian social media influencers who are working with an offshore media organisation to condemn Australia’s support for Kyiv, while also using “social media to spread vitriolic, polarising commentary on anti-immigration protests and pro-Palestinian marches”, he said.
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Australia in August expelled Iran’s ambassador and said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had directed two anti-Semitic attacks in Australia by using intermediaries.
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Such efforts were achieving “limited traction”, he added, pointing to the stabilising impact of Australia’s social-welfare safety net, compulsory voting and growing economy.
While social media algorithms are accelerating extremism and raising the risk of violence, it is people who create the content and decide to act on it, Burgess said.
“I worry we risk creating real world ‘aggro-rhythms’ where grievance, intolerance, polarisation and rhetoric feed on themselves,” he said.
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TIL Russian spies grew the NSN members in vats and loosed them on us. They are also behind the white Australia policy and our refusal to reckon with genocidal and slaving history.
Like I’m sure operatives can do a few nudges or offer some funding or training but like… the Nazis are coming from inside the house.
Yep, this. We can’t blame the local racism on others. At its core, it’s Australian, and it’s up to us to keep making it unAustralian.
That would be the Azov Battalion, and US neo-Nazis. The Russian gov are likely more into informational campaigns, like giving digital megaphones to the Nazis inside the house.
Tbh I don’t feel comfortable speculating on what state stupidity operations are. My exposure to some as an info sec enthusiast suggests they’re extremely varied and often quite stupid. Following the same logic as scams a lot of the time: go wide and see who bites.
But to get back to the point: there’s this growing trend of liberals (little ell) blaming everything they don’t like about politics on Russian/Chinese psyops which credits state stupidity too much and disguises the underlying issues in our society.
Further xenophobic paranoia and militarism is… unlikely, shall we say, to address or protect against the political movements that fester in such environments.
That’s the funny thing, the leader of the NSN is actually a kiwi.