The sociologist Pira: “Two wars are underway, one with weapons and one with fake news”

“Two wars are currently being fought in Ukraine: one with traditional weapons and the other with fake news. Disinformation has taken a leading role in this new conflict. Everything looks like a spectacle. The Russians dressed as Ukrainians, and the victims only numbers not human beings “. Francesco Pira, associate professor of sociology of cultural and communicative processes at the University of Messina and President of the National Observatory on fake news of Confassocissioni, which has been studying the phenomenon of disinformation for years, intervenes on the terrible Ukrainian situation. “Compared to the most recent wars – says the Sicilian teacher who at the University of Messina is the Didactic Coordinator of the Master in Expert in Digital Communication – we are witnessing a totally different situation. The constant disintermediation ensured by the many videos published by Ukrainian citizens who document from their homes, at the invitation of the Government, what is happening in this moment of Russian invasion. The new technologies are undoubtedly facilitating the work of the many envoys, from all parts of the world, present in the war zones, but it is true that they themselves admit that every day they have to dribble dozens of fake news spread to counterinform public opinion. on truths that in reality are only plausible pseudo-news because they are narrated to deceive the inhabitants of the invaded cities ”. The sociologist warns: “for almost two years also in our country we have felt the fragility of children, adolescents, elderly people who are already severely tested by the pandemic emergency who fear what Russian President Putin has threatened: to use weapons never used before. And if he does, the answer will come immediately. This is terrifying us – concludes Pira – also because we are not part of a generation that has experienced war but of a generation that would never have thought of living these hours of anguish where systematic disinformation also becomes an offensive strategy, where hackers become killers. of IT systems to destabilize “.