Interview with the researcher of fakes

Since January 2020, fakes about coronavirus have been studying the relevant humanitarian research of the RANEPA in the school of relevant humanitarian research. Researchers created a base with hundreds of rumors, which included the “advice of a doctor of Yura from Ugun”, a story about poisoned fruits and “Letter of Belgian doctors”, and also found out who and how are distributed such posts.

Paper spoke with the head of the research group “Monitoring Actual Folklore” Alexandra Arkhipova about why fakes are popular, which rumor was the first to appear in Russia and for what posts were fined users.

- Is it possible to track when the first fake about coronavirus appeared in Russia?

-In January 2020, when it became clear that everything was serious in China, the text in different languages ​​appeared in social networks that the Chinese artificially spread the Chinese through the infection of bananas. Allegedly red dots on bananas - these are traces of injection of the virus, and we must refuse to buy them. This was one of the first rumors about Koronavirus, which became popular among Russians.

Even then, it was clear that the coronavirus epidemic was a social catastrophe, and people react to such things with the spread of rumors. Therefore, we began to pay attention to such stories, built a key request with the words that are repeated in the options, for example, this story with bananas, plunged them into the search engine monitoring of social networks - in this case in “Mediaology” - and she gave out how many times these stories were replaced for a month.

“Then you started creating your fake base?”

- We began to “catch” the inframation - the term introduced by WHO in early February. For us, the objects of study are any repeated texts distributed through informal communication channels, where the “collective author” and individual distributor admit that the information set forth in these texts is genuine and needs to be distributed. It can be rumors, tips on how to be treated correctly, warnings that Moscow will be covered with quarantine, and so on. For us, the main thing is not the opposition of “truth-wing”, but what and how people pass through each other.

As far as I know, our research group “ Monitoring of Actual Folklore ” is the only one to study the infustodemia both qualitatively and quantitatively. In the end, this is part of our work - we study people's reactions to social and political events, and the creation and spread of folklore texts is one of such reactions.

- In the conversation, you share fakes and rumors. Explain what fake is? How does it differ from hearing?

- At a very primitive, philistine level, we can say that fakes and rumors are one and the same. At a more deep level, it must be understood that rumors are called information with a claim to reliability and with references to its sources, which is distributed through informal communication channels: in a store, on a bench at the entrance, on social networks. Fake news is called the text in the media that imitates the real news.

You can disassemble this by example. There is a story that the inhabitants of Ancient Rome were afraid of octopuses who allegedly live in sewers and attack them. Residents of Victorian London were afraid of a wild pig, which allegedly lives in the sewer. And the inhabitants of Moscow in the 1990s were afraid of rat-mutants, who supposedly live in the subway. This is all one plot, a city legend. It can be told in the form of rumors: “They heard that mutants are found in the Moscow metro”, or a news message can be published: “Nightmare! Mutants ate a child yesterday. ”

Rumors and fakes have different registers. Hearing can turn into a fake message, but may not turn. Moreover, rumors may turn out to be true, fakes - by definition of non -true.

- How then is the information check?

-We know that from a scientific point of view of rat-mutants does not exist. And yesterday, the police did not receive reports that the child was bitten to death in the subway.

In reality, journalists, as a rule, do work before us and establish that this is a fake. For example, a story about Bill Gates and Chipping has been going on from January, they wrote about it hundreds of times. But from us she received a media outburst only in April.

- What were the first rumors about coronavirus? And how did they change?

-The first outbreak of rumors and fakes about coronavirus was associated with purely xenophobic motives against the Chinese: firstly, these are infected bananas; Secondly, the story that the Chinese infect the packages with AliExpress virus. And thirdly, the story characteristic of several cities of Siberia, where Chinese students live massively, are that the Chinese run up to you and showered with white powder to infect coronavirus.

The next outbreaks began already in February and continued until the end of March. We highlighted several groups with the following motives:

1. There is no real danger, the authorities use coronavirus in their interests.
   
2. Pseudo -Demedic advice and folk recipes: garlic, soda, etc. - real medicines.
   
3. The virus was created by external enemies as a biological weapon.
   
4. Vaccines, tests, masks are a method of chipping or killing.
   
5. The virus spreads through products, things, cellular communications (including intentionally).
   
6. The authorities hide information about the epidemic and its consequences.
   
7. Representatives of the authorities manipulate the epidemic and its consequences.
   
8. Marginals (scammers and migrants) harm during the pandemic.

- Why did the flash of rumors occur in February - March, that is, before there was a peak of incidence in May? Then it was not so scary yet.

- In February - Marta, a cafe worked for us, people gave lectures, the authorities said that we did not have infected. But at the same time, the virus had already escaped from China, Europe was rapidly falling under his onslaught, everything that was possible was closed there. The circle around us was shrinking, but the authorities [Russia] continued to say that everything was fine.

Accordingly, a feeling of total uncertainty arose. It was not clear to people what would happen tomorrow: whether they would have a vacation in Italy or not, whether to send children to study abroad or not. This state is “you can’t be afraid” when you do not know where to put the comma.

This correlates with well -known data. Rumors are distributed not when scary, but in the period of maximum uncertainty. This also confirms that the number of rumors began to drop sharply after Vladimir Putin introduced “non -working days” at the end of March.

- Who spreads these rumors?

“It can be anyone: there is no one group, some“ toothless old women ”, who, as in the song of Vysotsky,“ spread them in the corners. ” If you delve, then, according to our data (from February to August), 85 % of the authors of posts have less than 500, and those who have more than 10 thousand followers have only 2 %. That is, simple, ordinary users of social networks are distributed.

Among those who indicated their age, 2 % younger than 18 years, 3 % - at the age of 18–24 years, 18 % - 25–39 years, 43 % - 40-60 years and 34 % older than 60 years. The floor of the authors of posts is known in 70 % of cases: 63 % of women against 37 % of men. Moreover, according to Rosstat, by 2020 among the population of Russia 54 % were women, and 46 % were men, therefore, women among rumors are only 9 % more than expected.

There is such a standard statement, it is repeated as a spell: "Rumors are spread mostly poorly educated people." But this is not so. Of the “rumors distributors” who indicated the education, 73 % have higher education, 26 % secondary and 1 % are unfinished secondary. Education can be “protection” from involving rumors in the spread of rumors (more precisely, that education gives you - self -confidence, good work), but in a calm situation. In a panic situation, education ceases to be a reliable “protection” and rumors spread everything.

“But where does this information come from?” It is known who initially comes up with fakes?

- Some of these stories were invented, part was obtained using a “spoiled phone”. It can also be a special stuffing to promote an account. Often, students create history as a prank, but it is seriously perceived among adults.

Most of the stories that we now call “fakes” are formed for decades or hundreds of years, and they have no one author. For example, the story of infected bananas existed in the Soviet Union and North America in the 1980s: as the emergence of AIDS was explained. Then - pork flu and Ebola fever. In Altai, there was now a remake of an ancient mythological plot about Pandora’s box: supposedly in a damned place they built a church, found a vessel there, opened it and from there all the misfortunes of the world broke out: first coronavirus, and everything else is still ahead.

If the text is transmitted, if he loses the author, then he becomes folklore. The folklore text is a tool with which we create reality: people do not matter the authorship of the text, they calmly add or remove something, thus expressing their sense of events. Therefore, it is important not who comes up with history, but why a person decides to disseminate this information.

- Why do people spread fakes?

- This is a way to get rid of uncertainty. Here you can imagine that you are a young mother, your children will either go, or will not go to school, it is not clear what will happen to leave and work, and you are rushing, but there is no intelligible information. At this time, a text comes to you at Whats App, which allegedly explains exactly that tomorrow in the city they will introduce quarantine or schoolchildren will be detained on the streets. The possession of such exclusive information and at the same time the opportunity to send it to someone returns control over the situation: "I know for sure what will happen tomorrow."

These stories make everything that is happening extremely understandable, give a simple picture of the world. Another question is already that these texts are false from the point of view of evolutionary adaptability: they calm down at a short stage, but in the future they can harm. You follow the advice of the “young doctor of Yura Klimov”, do the “breathing test”, make sure that you are not sick - and calm down. Then go to the subway - and you can infect people, because you can be sick, because the breathing test does not check anything.

- Which fakes are the most popular?

- According to August data, the most popular type of stories - the authorities allegedly use coronavirus in their interests: for example, in reality, people die from oncology, and doctors specifically recording the diagnosis of “coronavirus” to get payments and at the same time convince everyone that there is an epidemic.

The second most popular group is Pseudo -Demedic Councils on what needs to be treated with garlic, ginger and so on. “The advice of Yura Klimov from Ujan” that the virus allegedly lives in the body at 27 degrees, belong here. “Letter of Belgian doctors” is also a classic pseudo -demodesian text, written science, but if you deeply dig, containing a bunch of unverified and conspirological information. In September, the “letter of Belgian doctors” was actively distributed, it is included in the top 3 new texts of the “inferman” for this month.

The third group - that the virus was created by enemies as a biological weapon - is, for example, Bill Gates and chipping . It is not the most popular, as can be seen on the schedule, but was broken into the top 3 thanks to our federal channels and Nikita Mikhalkov .

We can say that mainly our citizens send each other messages about how to escape, and that the authorities are lying, and the danger of coronavirus is exaggerated. And stories about "external enemies" are not particularly interested in them.

At the time of the beginning of August, our corps - all the options for rumors, fakes relating to the coronavirus - amounted to 2 million reposts. But in general, a lot of different things came to life. By October, there are already approximately 3 million fakes and rumors about coronavirus.

At the same time, it is important to understand that we see only the surface part - that which spreads in social networks. Messengers "Mediaology" do not index.

- That is, now there are many rumors again? The distribution has changed?

- Since the beginning of September, we have been raising rumors: as in February - March, when there were no actions of the authorities. We barely manage to bring into the base of history: both new and old.

We can say that the “letter of Belgian doctors” is now one of the most popular. The rest of the distribution is almost the same. With terrible force, old Pseudo -Dodician stories appear again, new ones arise. They talk about whether to drink or not drink aspirin, and reason whether there is a coronavirus.

At the same time, a new strong trend in the fight against masks is now noticeable. They say that the masks are chipped in advance or poisoned, and that wearing masks is harmful to health. This is a reaction to the fact that the mask regime, most likely, will remain with us for a long time.

Here are the top 4 new texts of the infustodemia for September-October:

1. “A letter of Belgian doctors” (coronavirus is not dangerous, quarantine is not needed).
2. The current flu vaccinations are secret vaccination.
3. Fraudsters under the guise of volunteers give out masks soaked in drugs.
4. Thermometers (in schools, in transport) are dangerous: they radiate radiation, chip at a distance or have some other effect.

-Do Petersburg and Moscow differ from other regions?

- At the level of cities, specific differences are not yet visible. According to our data, from September 1 to October 24 in St. Petersburg, from 7 % to 9 % of fakes from all over Russia were distributed in St. Petersburg, about 19 % in Moscow. That is, in total, two of our capitals spread a quarter of fakes from the whole country.

The specific Moscow rumor is Anti -Sobyaninsky: that the mayor Sergei Sobyanin allegedly owns a secret mask factory and therefore he puts pressure on Muscovites so that they wear masks. If you generalize, we can say that if people are unhappy with their mayor, then such rumors will arise against him.

It can be noted that most of the rumors, fakes, stories are translated (because people from different countries have similar problems). They spread around the world after the real epidemic, and China was first at first. They penetrated into Russia either directly across the border or through Kazakhstan. And in Russia they spread through Siberia. Accordingly, they came to Moscow and Petersburg not in the first place.

- You studied what fakes about coronavirus are fined by Russians, and found out that law enforcement agencies pursued people mainly for the spread of rumors containing criticism of the position of power. Has the situation changed by October?

- By August, approximately half (48 %) of all 203 cases of law enforcement agencies to fakes are fines for allegations that the authorities are hiding information about coronavirus. We can say that the authorities reacted not to really dangerous things like the Pseudo -Domedic Soviets, but to what makes people doubt the legitimacy of institutions and decisions. We have no reactions at all of coronavirus at Pseudo -Dummaged rumors and the denial of coronavirus.

Now the reaction to fakes has been revived again. But so far there is not enough data to calculate all this. After all, this does not happen right away: a person still needs to be started, the media should write about this. After two to three weeks, we will see a certain revival.

-How can you protect friends and relatives from fakes, who to some extent need reassurance?

- It is important to understand that when a person begins to repose such things, this is not because he is a fool. As we have already talked, even education does not matter here. People spread it because they are scared.

So when your mother sends a similar story to the family WhatsApp, she does this not because she is deeply interested in what the conditional Yura Klimov said. She shows care and contributes to the dissemination of information, which she considers potentially useful.

There are different ways to work with it. You can talk and say that there is a lot of information, not all of it is equally useful: it is possible that it is better to re -read what you are sending and thinking whether it is worth it. You can advise you not to send this information right away, but to discuss it personally at lunch: firstly, then it will be guaranteed to have fun, secondly, in the mode of discussion of the text, critical thinking is better to be used, and thirdly, when a person cools down, he thinks better about what they offer him.

Photo on the cover: Andrea piacquadio / pexels

Irkutsk, Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk

In his author’s program on Russia-24, the director reasoned why Bill Gates took up pharmacology and invites everyone to be vaccinated. “Do not confuse, this is not the vaccination that we received in childhood. <...> This is chipping, ”said Mikhalkov. During the program, Mikhalkov talked about a certain patent from Microsoft with number 060606 and associated it with the "number of the beast" from the book of the Apocalypse

Administrative affairs initiated mainly in part 9 of Article 13.15 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (the spread of obviously inaccurate information, which threatened to harm the life and health of citizens, the threat of violation of public order and safety), criminal cases - under article 207.1 of the Criminal Code (public dissemination of obviously false information about the threat of life and security of citizens)

Alexandra Arkhipov

Senior Researcher at the School of Actual Humanitarian Research of the RANEPA, Head of the Research Group Monitoring of Actual Folklore

At the beginning of the pandemic , the Paper published an interview with the conspiracy researcher Alexander Panchenko about the theories of the conspiracy around the coronavirus and other frightening topics. He told how such a conspiracyology arises and why it is customary to blame “external enemies” in Russia.

In this material, the creator of the site about fakes in the Russian media “Lapseschimalnaya” Alexei Kovalev tells how to read news on the Internet and not get into the information bubble. Читайте также подробный разбор «Бумаги» о том, сколько людей умерло из-за коронавируса в Петербурге и почему не все попадают в статистику.