In countries like Italy, with an unstable economical environment and frequently changing governments, 1 can anticipate a complete deficiency of trust in institutions and economical structures, which creates favorable conditions for the improvement of disinformation, Teresa Coratella of the European Council on abroad Relations told EURACTIV.pl’s fact Talk podcast.
Disinformation in Italy in brief
Dominant narratives: pro-Russian, anti-EU, anti-vaccine, pseudo-pacifist, related to economy, migration, COVID-19 (including “mask diplomacy”), war in Ukraine, climate
Major disinformation spreaders: external actors (China, Russia), home policymakers (e.g. the League, Forza Italia, M5S, sometime others, including the Democratic Party), media
Most common false stories: Europe having failed to support Italy during the first COVID-19 outbreak, prompting China and Russia to step in, the reasons why Russia initiated the war with Ukraine and why Kyiv refuses to accept Russia’s terms, Italy facing advanced energy prices due to European sanctions and the EU’s consequence to Russia’s invasion, Italian money being wasted on a futile war that brings no benefits to anyone, urgent request for peace between Ukraine and Russia at any cost
Combating disinformation: founding the National Cybersecurity Agency, establishment of a fresh directorate general for public diplomacy in the abroad Ministry, including a unit dedicated to addressing abroad manipulation and disinformation, exchange of best practices with another countries, US-Italy memorandum of understanding
Welcome to TruthTalks, a brave fresh podcast series tackling the challenges resulting from fake news and propaganda head-on. Join us for engaging short conversations with experts from all EU associate states and Ukraine as we uncover the fact behind dominant disinformation trends and research the strategies shaping Europe’s fight against manipulation.
In this episode, we research the disinformation scenery in Italy with Teresa Coratella, Deputy Head of the Rome office and Policy Fellow the European Council on abroad Relations’ Rome office.
Karolina Zbytniewska, EURACTIV.pl: Italy, a country renowned for its rich history, culture, and political dynamism, is besides grappling with the ever-evolving scenery of disinformation. Could you start by shedding any light on the major disinformation themes presently circulating in Italy?
Teresa Coratella: Italy present can be defined as the perfect laboratory in Europe to survey disinformation—how it works and what the main topics are. Since the financial crisis began 15 years ago, Italy has been the perfect investigating ground for disinformation narratives. Italians felt very vulnerable, making them a prime audience for disinformation campaigns.
Then, over the years, migration emerged as a major theme. It became the perfect storm for spreading fresh disinformation narratives. In this case, it was driven more by Italian policymakers than external actors, who saw migration as a strategical tool for electoral campaigns.
Then came COVID-19, which marked 1 of the highest peaks of disinformation campaigns and abroad influence in Italy. For the first time, we saw crucial disinformation tactics deployed by 2 abroad actors—namely, China and Russia.
Everyone will remember China’s „mask diplomacy,” where China was portrayed as Italy’s large saviour. On the another hand, there was Russia’s „From Russia with Love” campaign, in which Russian planes delivered aid to Italy, reinforcing the communicative that European institutions had failed to support the country.
These campaigns were highly effective, primarily driven through organization channels by China and Russia. Their embassies in Italy played an active function in promoting specified narratives and engaging Italian policymakers.
Then, the Russian invasion of Ukraine began. Unfortunately, the scale and impact of disinformation surrounding the invasion have been even more severe than during the COVID-19 pandemic. The narratives built around the war have been mostly uncontrolled, with abroad actors pushing their strategies. What’s even more concerning is the engagement of home actors, including policymakers and organization leaders—particularly from right-wing and populist parties like the 5 Star Movement (M5S).
Beyond that, the media environment has played a crucial role. This is simply a critical issue for Italy today. Our media scenery is weak, outdated, and inactive heavy influenced by the legacy of Italy’s past. We must remember that Italy had the largest Communist organization in Western Europe for nearly 3 decades, and this has had a lasting impact on our society, culture, and media. As of today, disinformation in Italy is driven by 3 main forces: external actors, policymakers, and media representatives.
You mentioned quite a few issues and layers, describing Italy as a perfect laboratory for analysing disinformation in Europe. You besides pointed out multiple crises. So, how is it that crises make countries, peculiarly Italy, so susceptible to disinformation?
Crises hit the weakest part of each country—society. Citizens are the first recipients of all crisis’s effects. And erstwhile you have a country like Italy, with a very weak economical environment that is not unchangeable at all, and even worse, where governments change all 1 or 2 years, what can we expect? A complete deficiency of trust in institutions and economical structures.
And this creates the perfect vacuum for home and external actors to step in and effort to fill it. We’ve seen this with the economical crisis—disinformation about the euro and its effects on society, even after so many years. We’ve seen it with migration, peculiarly narratives about peculiar treatment for migrants, including illegal and violent migrants, alternatively of supporting Italian citizens.
We saw it with COVID-19. At the beginning, Italy was the first and most affected country in Europe. The government at the time was completely unprepared to deal with specified an unprecedented phenomenon. And that created the perfect environment for disinformation campaigns to take hold.
And today, it’s the same. The current government is very isolated in Europe, meaning it promotes narratives that go against the EU. Non-European actors realize this is another perfect minute to step in and fill the vacuum with their own narratives. And we see this happening daily.
To be very honest in my analysis, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has maintained a strong stance against Russia. After 3 years, she is inactive committed to supporting Ukraine, even if this means going against another members of her government—for example, Matteo Salvini, who would like to see peace at any cost. She is trying to counter this narrative, but „peace at any cost” is another clear example of how effective Russian disinformation is in Italy.
If you look at polls among Italians, you’ll see that they are among the EU citizens most in favour of ending the war, even if it means Ukraine giving up its territorial rights—without considering the consequences erstwhile the war ends.
It is possible due to the fact that over the last 25 to 30 years Italians have been exposed to a strong pro-Russian narrative, primarily shaped by Silvio Berlusconi’s 20 years in politics. As prime minister, he built a very individual relation with Vladimir Putin while making Italy highly dependent on Russian energy. This is simply a very inexpensive but highly effective way to make a population that supports something that is unfair according to global law. And unfortunately, it is simply a very simple process.
You’ve outlined a full array of narratives that have emerged since the economical crisis 15 years ago. What would you say are the major disinformation narratives today?
The first 1 is absolutely about Russia—why Russia started the war and why Ukraine is unwilling to accept Russia’s conditions. At the moment, this is the main communicative we see, alongside vaccine-related narratives.
Not related to COVID-19, due to the fact that fortunately, we are past that. Now we are seeing a resurgence of general anti-vaccine narratives, mainly pushed by very visible members of the current government. These are the 2 dominant narratives today.
But I’m besides starting to see climate change returning as a major topic, mostly due to president Trump and his possible second term. We already know his position on climate change and the Paris Agreement. Since this government is simply a strong admirer of president Trump, I’m already seeing anti-climate change narratives re-emerging in public debate.
And who benefits from spreading these disinformation narratives? I realize the case with Russia, but what about the anti-vaccine narratives? And the anti-climate change ones? I get that they are typical of populist discourse, but who gains from spreading anti-vaccine disinformation?
Policymakers in government. erstwhile you spread these kinds of narratives, you make fear among citizens. And erstwhile people fear for their health—especially after what we experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic—it becomes much easier to control society.
People who are afraid will perceive more and question less. Ultimately, if we look at any society, but peculiarly Italy, the 2 most crucial concerns for Italians are wellness and economical stability.
This brings me to climate change. The full discourse around climate change is tied to the argument that Europe failed to handle the green revolution properly. According to these narratives, it is citizens who are now paying the price for that failure. So you see how 2 fundamental concerns—health and economical stability—can be leveraged by policymakers to make a crucial impact erstwhile utilized in the right way.
You mentioned Russian disinformation, specifically why Russia started the war. Could you explain a bit more about this disinformation communicative so we can better realize it? It’s most likely the peace narrative, but could you elaborate?
When the conflict started, the main communicative regarding Russia and the war was that Italians, due to European sanctions and the European reaction to Russia’s invasion, would face advanced energy prices, and their wallets would be importantly impacted by the consequences of sanctions on Russia. In the first phase of the invasion, these were the key topics circulating on X and Facebook, primarily through those 2 channels. Today, the situation has completely changed.
The main communicative now is focused on the peace camp. It asks Italians: Do you truly want your money to proceed supporting a war that benefits no 1 and serves no purpose? This is the main question being asked to Italian citizens. If we look at how the current Italian government contributes militarily and financially to supporting Ukraine, the numbers are so low, almost nonexistent, that no Italian is paying the price for the unfortunate invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
This is simply a false communicative that is continuously spread in Italy. So yes, the argument is that we should prosecute peace for the sake of Italy’s economical stability. That’s the prevailing communicative at the minute surrounding the conflict and Russia.
Returning to your metaphor of the laboratory, let’s look at the anatomy of disinformation. Taking the subject of Russia, Ukraine, and the war against Ukraine, where does disinformation begin? How is it orchestrated?
In this case, it starts with the authoritative social media accounts of the Russian government. That’s the starting point. The second phase involves Italian policymakers who are considered „Russia-understanders”—a word utilized to describe them. They share this content and publically express their thoughts on it.
Over the years, however, this has changed a bit. I remember erstwhile the Bucha massacre took place, we inactive had European Parliament members from the League and even Berlusconi, the leader of Forza Italia, publically suggesting that we should effort to realize why Russia did that. There was an effort to explain why Ukraine provoked Russia, leading to the Bucha massacre. Today, fortunately, these types of narratives have completely disappeared.
I don’t see any pro-Russian Italian politician pushing for specified narratives anymore, which have been replaced by calls for peace—”we request peace for Ukrainians and for us.” This represents a false pacifism narrative, which I mention to as „false circumstantial pacifism.”
Unfortunately, this communicative isn’t only pushed by pro-Russian policymakers but besides by the 5 Star Movement, which has made pacifism a central pillar of its approach toward Russia. Even worse, any members of the main opposition party, the Democratic Party, are besides promoting this false pacifism narrative.
And erstwhile you have policymakers, the natural next step is the media. We have a large issue with our media, as they trust solely on advertising and public funding. This means that in the case of state-owned public media, representatives of the government are regularly invited to tv and radio shows. This makes it very easy for the communicative to be spread among Italian citizens.
Another problem linked to this is advertising, which is based on the number of clicks. It’s very tempting to post an attention-grabbing, misleading header on the main page or during a tv or radio show, as it leads to more people listening and clicking on the content.
This is very unfortunate. The last point is the format of the shows*. The level of information in Italy is so low that everything is reduced to a spectacle, with people making false statements. It’s better to have people who shout, scream, and make a debate that can last for the next 24 or 48 hours, alternatively than inviting serious experts. Experts are seldom invited to Italian tv or radio programs.
I think we’ve almost achieved the same by inviting quite a few experts to our info TVs and radios. You’re speaking of many issues common to another countries, including the actors and narratives. How would you specify the circumstantial characteristics of the disinformation scenery in Italy?
To me, the unique characteristic is how weak our civilian society is in defending itself from these narratives. We don’t have the antibodies to do that for respective reasons. First, there’s a deficiency of public investment in programs to teach citizens how to admit and defend against false narratives.
The second reason is the deficiency of organization will to fight disinformation. erstwhile so many policymakers are pushing these narratives, there will never be strong institutions able to tackle a phenomenon that poses a threat to democracy.
In Italy, unfortunately, we inactive don’t treat disinformation the same way another countries like Poland or the Baltic States do, with their strong traditions of tackling it. We don’t see it as a threat to destabilise our society, democracy, or economy. At the end of the day, it’s about destabilising the pillars of society. So, to me, this is the most hard component in Italy erstwhile trying to combat disinformation.
Maybe 1 more topic, since you mentioned migration just briefly as part of a longer list. Could migration be a more circumstantial subject in Italy?
Yes, migration is indeed very specific. It’s our Achilles’ heel. No government, prime minister, or policymaker will always find a solution to migration, due to the fact that it’s the perfect storm for all the narratives you request to push forward to gain public support. Migration is tied to safety and economical stability—so it’s simply perfect.
What’s even more circumstantial to Italy is how Prime Minister Meloni will yet decide to handle migration. We’ve seen how Germany, with its conservative but pro-European party, has started utilizing migration as a tool to appeal to the alternate for Germany and another parties. We’ve seen it even in the UK in fresh days. For the past couple of years, Prime Minister Meloni has tried to keep a average approach to migration. She built a peculiar relation with Ursula von der Leyen to address it.
She even created this model of cooperation with Albania**, which so far has been completely failing, but she’s always done it to present herself as proactive. Now, the real turning point will be erstwhile we see Germany, France, the UK, and even Poland, where the migration debate is evolving. What will Meloni do?
It’s more heated than the real numbers in Poland.
Exactly. Will Meloni keep a average approach, or will she revert to utilizing migration as the worst crisis to always hit not only Italy but besides Europe? I think that’s something we all request to watch closely, due to the fact that how this issue develops will likely form the public debate and possibly give emergence to fresh disinformation trends.
What’s being done to counter disinformation in Italy and what more would you recommend?
Under the government led by Mario Draghi, the National Cybersecurity Agency was established based on an old and not very effective law. erstwhile Draghi came to power, he set up this agency, which was a large step for Italy. Although it has very limited resources, it’s doing a good occupation of monitoring disinformation trends.
Then, the Ministry of abroad Affairs, which had been ignoring the phenomenon for years, was restructured a couple of years ago. A fresh directorate general was created for public diplomacy, with a unit specifically focused on abroad manipulation and disinformation.
The government and the ministry have besides established good exchanges of ideas and best practices with another EU associate states, specified as Poland. Then, there was the Italian G7, which ended in December. The highest point of the G7’s focus on disinformation was the signing of a memorandum of knowing between Italy and the US to cooperate more closely on topics that affect both countries.
Now, with this fresh administration, we’ll see what happens with the memorandum. Will it become an empty box? It most likely will, given president Trump’s stance on disinformation, which tends to neglect the problem. Or, perhaps, the 2 governments will proceed collaborating on it. It’s besides early to tell.
I don’t think fighting disinformation is 1 of president Trump’s biggest priorities, so we’ll request more time to see how this develops. The good news is that we already have a structured cooperation to build upon, so let’s see how it progresses.
You can learn more about the disinformation scenery in Italy here.
