DISINFORMATION

Illegitimate protests, a rigged opposition and a conspiratorial media. The disinformation scene continues its attacks on democracy and the interests of the Slovak public

Infosecurity.sk presents an overview of disinformation trends that have been on the rise in the last two weeks:

• The disinformation ecosystem focused mainly on the civil and political protests that took place in Bratislava. Together with the representatives of the government coalition, they tried to delegitimize the protests in particular. They either spread fears of another assassination attempt or conspired about the role of the media and the non-governmental sector.
• The opposition was often labelled as controlled or rigged. In other words, according to the disinformers, it serves someone else's interests. Some stuck to rhetoric about spreading hatred and nurturing assassins. Some referred to a planned Maidan by the secret services.
• Ad hominem attacks on Michal Šimečka and the Progressive Slovakia party complemented the latest reverberations of the Olympic Games. Disinformers continued to use the bogeymen of liberalism and progressivism. Similarly, they defended the latest actions of the Minister of Culture, who is said to be fighting anti-Slovak elements in her purges.

Scaremongering of further violence and assassination attempt

For Slovakia, the last few weeks have meant a shift away from liberal democracy and the rule of law. The government actions that triggered these developments were accompanied by manipulative arguments and toxic rhetoric, which included disinformation and ad hominem attacks. The targets have traditionally been the opposition and the media, which are presented as public enemies under the labels of progressivism or liberalism.

This was no different in the case of the protests that were organized in Bratislava after the controversial actions (purges) of Minister of Culture Martina Šimkovičová and the release of former special prosecutor Dušan Kováčik, who was legally convicted of corrupt activities. During the protests, not only politicians, but also actors and the cultural community as a whole became victims of ad hominem attacks. To illustrate, Milan Uhrík, MEP and chairman of the far-right Republic, spoke of people with anti-Slovak attitudes or hatred towards Slovakia.

The rhetoric about the protests was built on two pillars. Firstly, there was an attempt to delegitimise them and to scare about their consequences, such as further violence or assassination attempt. Either they were indirectly presented as undemocratic or as inauthentic - and therefore controlled by the opposition and the media, or even by a secret entity from abroad. The cultural community and the citizens were to be manipulated and abused. Alternatively, they were to indirectly serve the financial interests of Michal Šimečka or the Progressive Slovakia party.

This then relates to the second pillar of the rhetoric of the ruling coalition - the attempt to mythologise the role of the opposition, the media and the NGO sector in organising protests. Individual actors are continuously demonised as enemies of society. Paradoxically, the protests have helped the ruling coalition to divert attention, at least in part, from the issue of the release of former prosecutor Dušan Kováčík from prison. He is minimally mentioned in the communication of the disinformation ecosystem and, if anything, in the role of a victim of some "manipulated monster trial". At least that is how Prime Minister Robert Fico defended the situation.

In reality, however, Dušan Kováčik was sentenced in 2022 to 8 years in prison and a fine of 100 thousand euros. He was convicted of accepting a bribe of 50 thousand euros from the mafia and taking out files, thereby deliberately disclosing classified information. On 7 August, Minister of Justice Boris Susko (SMER-SSD) decided to reopen this legally closed criminal case. This means that Dušan Kováčik, who served as a special prosecutor during the SMER-SD governments, is currently out of custody. According to the opposition and critics, the Minister has thus interfered with the independence of the courts. This power is usually used in cases where there is a reasonable suspicion of misconduct in the judicial process. Corruption is a serious social issue in Slovakia, and Susko's decision lacks transparency in particular – he has not yet offered a justification for the actions that led to the release of Kováčik, suggesting that it was a politically motivated decision.

Minister of Justice Boris Susko, whose decision led to the suspension of Kováčik's sentence, feared for the health of the citizens who are supposedly being herded to the protests. He did not forget to spice things up - the protesters are said to be driven "to the hell of emotions and low instincts" by the opposition, which "goes by the tried and tested manual with the abundant assistance of the media and artists". The result of such rhetoric is not only a further polarisation of an already divided society, but also a weakening of the pillars of democracy and the rule of law. Especially when most of the narratives come from government officials.

On 14 August, the ruling coalition responded to the unrest and protests with a joint statement. Although it states in the introduction that the government respects the right of citizens to protest, the rest of the text seeks to delegitimise them. The protests are to be based on the inability of the liberal media, political NGOs and the opposition "to accept the results of the parliamentary elections, which is manifested in the spread of lies, hatred and hysteria". In other words, the ruling coalition is openly presenting the protests and the discontent of a section of the public as a creation or tool of the opposition and the media. At the same time, together with the rest of the disinformation ecosystem, it tries to convince its audience that the protests can lead to violence in society or directly to another assassination attempt of a member of the government.

It is no coincidence that the actors are exploiting this particular incident. It carries an emotional charge and the last months have been lined with rhetoric that has put Fico and the government in the position of martyrs. This rhetoric has been used effectively by the Prime Minister in particular in his speeches about the protests. This is why they have earned a lot of attention on Slovak Facebook and we analyse them in more detail below.

But Fico was not the only one who linked the protests to dire predictions of further assassination attempts. For example, Minister of the Environment Tomáš Taraba also joined in, accusing the opposition of a policy of "pure hatred" and the education of assassins. Chairman of Slovak National Party (SNS) Andrej Danko, for his part, asks in his video whether the opposition "has a taste for blood". The opposition, he said, is out for revenge and is deceiving the people. More seriously, however, he questions the democratic role of the protests - he sees their organisation as disrespecting the election results.

Minister of the Interior Matúš Šutaj Eštok accused the opposition parties Progressive Slovakia and SaS, which organised the protest in Bratislava, of "irresponsible manipulation of people's emotions". He also linked the situation to the assassination attempt on Fico in Handlová.

György Gyimesi, for his part, claimed that the aim of the protests was the "destabilisation of Slovakia".In his post, a member of the Aliancia-Szövetség (non-parliamentary Hungarian minority party) essentially summarised most of the labels and narratives that the disinformation system has used in its attacks on the protests over the past few weeks: the opposition is fanatical and spreads hatred against its opponents; the protests are aggressive and are just unnecessary stirring up of the people, which fosters hatred and polarisation in society. At the same time, the protests are only meant to serve the power and financial interests of the opposition, the "army of NGOs" or the freeloaders.

This narrative was really frequent. According to the ruling coalition, the protection of culture or democracy and the rule of law is supposed to be just a cover. The aim of this highly manipulative rhetoric is once again relatively simple - not only to undermine the legacy and legitimacy of the protests, but also to demonise their organisers or the media.

In this context, the accusations that Martina Šimkovičová brought against Michal Šimečka and Progressive Slovakia were also helpful. At her press conference, the Minister of Culture drew attention to the "suspicious" use of public funds from the Fund for the Support of the Arts. The Foundation of Milan Šimečka was supposed to draw the subsidies. The minister linked the foundation to the leader of Progressive Slovakia, whom she accused of having financial interests in the continuation of the foundation's subsidies.

The activities and significance of the foundation are also reflected in the statement of its founders opposing the government attacks. The reality is that Šimečka is only associated with the foundation by the name of his grandfather, who was a dissident during the Soviet regime. However, this did not prevent Prime Minister Fico from taking advantage of the situation to call for Šimečka's dismissal from the post of deputy speaker of parliament. This was despite the fact that neither Fico nor Minister Šimkovičová offered any evidence for their claims.

Other government officials and actors in the Slovak disinformation ecosystem have also joined the baseless accusations and manipulative rhetoric. Slovak National Party also supported Šimečka's dismissal on its Facebook page. In another post, the party speaks of an "apparent conflict of interest", which is said to explain the reasons why the opposition was committed to opposing the reforms at the Ministry of Culture. Milan Uhrík, for his part, spoke openly about "tunnelling state subsidies". However, neither of the contributions provides any evidence and relies solely on the fictitious connection of the foundation with the Šimečka family.

Since the posts containing narratives about opposition and civil protests were among the dominant ones in the Slovak information space in the last two weeks, we also looked at them using the analytical tool Gerulata Juno. We used it to analyse the most popular posts on Slovak Facebook that contained the keyword "protest". We excluded from the list those posts that did not contain problematic narratives. We then evaluated the posts based on the total number of interactions (the sum of all reactions, comments and shares).

The first three posts with the highest number of interactions were published on Robert Fico's profile. In all of them, the Prime Minister focused on attacks on the opposition, the media and civil society. Whether it was the purges in culture or the dismissal of Dušan Kováčík, Fico defended his ministers through conspiracy theories, false accusations and spin-doctoring of reality. He continued to accuse the opposition of spreading hatred, radicalising citizens or preparing an undemocratic coup. After the last few weeks, during which the disinformation ecosystem focused on shaping the image of public enemies in the form of progressivism and liberalism, both labels are now effective mental shortcuts for creating negative associations. Fico only reinforces this mythologisation of an undemocratic and ungovernable opposition, a conspiratorial media and illegitimate protests.

The post with the most interactions on Facebook was used by the Prime Minister to attack the leader of Progressive Slovakia. He followed up on misleading claims that accuse Michal Šimečka of corrupt activities. As we wrote above, the accusations were originally made by Culture Minister Martina Šimkovičová. Despite the fact that the minister did not provide any evidence and the foundation, according to the available information, bears only Šimečka's name, Robert Fico also operated with the accusations in his video. Among other things, he tried to delegitimise the protests organised by the opposition in mid-August. According to the Prime Minister, this is an abuse of democracy to protect the financial interests of the Šimečka family. Such statements can be seen as a pragmatic and above all manipulative use of the situation, by which Fico is trying to respond to the growing dissent of a part of Slovak society.

The Prime Minister also operates with rhetoric that scares that the organisation of protests will lead to further tensions and hatred in society. Alternatively, Fico, in the position of a martyr, is straightforwardly predicting that Slovakia will face another assassination attempt on a member of the government because of the protests. The second post on the list was no different. According to the Prime Minister, the protests are also aimed at physically shutting down members of the government. In the video, he also says that if there is further violence, he will "no longer regulate the behaviour of our voters in any way". At the very least, he is thus outlining the possibility of a kind of inherent revenge against the opposition. At the same time, Fico continues to accuse the opposition of "ungovernable politics". He continuously attempts to paint a manipulative picture in which the opposition does not defend the interests of citizens, but organises protests at the behest of the media or the non-governmental sector. According to Fico, the latter are supposed to wage a sort of war against the ruling coalition. Not only does this build a reality in which they face a conspiracy, but it also reduces the legitimacy of the protests as an instrument of democratic change in the eyes of their audience.

Robert Fico's third post contained similar narratives. In it, the Prime Minister continued his conspiratorial theorising about the role of the media and the opposition in some kind of political conspiracy aimed at the undemocratic removal of the current governing coalition. In particular, he emphasised the assassination attempt in Handlová, and again relied on language about an activist who was incited by the "hateful rhetoric of the liberal and progressive media and politicians". In addition to inciting society, the media and the opposition had a history of illegally arresting people associated with the SMER-SD party, according to Fico. Fico presented the legally convicted former special prosecutor Dušan Kováčik as a "victim of manipulated criminal proceedings" and a " conspiracy". With his manipulative rhetoric, the Prime Minister is not only covering up for a man proven to be linked to a corruption case, but is also calling into question the pillars of the rule of law in Slovakia.

The next post in the series was published by the Minister of the Interior Matúš Šutaj Eštok. In it, the chairman of the Hlas-SD party, like Prime Minister Fico, attacks Michal Šimečka and the Foundation of Milan Šimečka. He also relies on manipulative portrayals of the link between the Progressive Slovakia party and public funds from the Fund for the Promotion of Arts. Šutaj Eštok's post also indirectly praised Minister Šimkovičová for her purges in culture. In recent weeks, the Minister has dismissed the directors of emblematic cultural institutions in Slovakia (including the Slovak National Theatre and the Slovak National Gallery). She argued her decisions not only by the incompetence of the directors, but also quite manipulatively by their proximity to the so-called progressive ideology. According to Šutaj Eštok, the ministry has long been under the "influence of progressive NGOs", which, by organising events, allegedly gain "space to spread their political views". In other words, without any arguments or evidence, the Minister of the Interior generally labels art or the organisation of cultural events as something unacceptable and automatically political. Similarly, he tries to reduce the legitimacy of the protests - following the example of Fico, he manipulatively calls them a way of protecting the source of income of Šimečka.

The last place belongs to a video in which Rudolf Huliak (MP for SNS) compares the atmosphere of the protests in Bratislava to the Maidan in Ukraine (Revolution of Dignity in 2014). The latter was supposed to have been prepared by "secret services from across the sea, hand in hand with progressives". Apart from the fact that Huliak is quite obviously working with conspiracy theories, like the rest of the disinformation ecosystem and the government coalition, he is scaring his audience with the possibility of another assassination attempt and violence in the society. He goes on to accuse Progressive Slovakia of stirring up the people, also expressing concern about the secret services who might be orchestrating "something" at the rainbow protests. The mysterious "something" may have no substance in Huliak's rhetoric, but it can effectively function as a scarecrow and a hook for the emotions of his audience.

The "threat" of liberalism and the reverberations of the Olympic Games

Several key themes of socio-political events have been misinterpreted by disinformationists and exploited for continued attacks against the bogeymen of liberalism and progressivism. In recent weeks, the discussion about the shape of contemporary Slovak culture and the changes made under the leadership of Minister Martina Šimkovičová (SNS) has been conditioned by this, against which a part of the public, as well as well-known personalities from the cultural environment, have protested.

In addition to efforts to delegitimise the protests (described above), negative public responses to attempts to control and uniform the culture are labelled by disinformers as anti-Slovak and in opposition to genuine patriotism. At the same time, several actors do not hesitate to attack specific actors and artists. Milan Uhrík, for example, states in a Facebook post that many of the artists who allegedly controlled the culture ministry in the past "have politically abused their positions to spread anti-Slovak ideologies, enrich themselves personally, spend money on pointless projects and impose censorship on other opinions".

Such people, according to Uhrík, have no business working in institutions, as they have anti-Slovak attitudes and openly express their hatred of Slovakia. However, it is Uhrík, as well as other actors in the disinfo-scene, who display a very narrow perception of culture and national wealth and a tendency to insult or ridicule artists whose views are incompatible with those of government officials. Uhrík's post was shared by his party colleague Milan Mazurek.

Attacks on artists have also been noted in many other posts. For example, Eduard Chmelár, an advisor to Prime Minister Fico and a dubious political analyst, suggests that many films focusing on historical themes actually distort history and that actors or producers should not comment on possible parallels to current political events. He concludes by describing contemporary artists - especially actors - as comedians "for whom their progressive ideology is more important than their artistic responsibility to the audience." In the piece, Chmelár also introduces the attached image, linking several actors and actresses to the political party Progressive Slovakia. Such manipulation tends to deliberately narrow the optics in which only members and sympathisers of the Progressive Slovakia are supposed to speak out against the actions of the current government.

In addition, there was an effort to defend the actions of the Minister of Culture Šimkovičová herself in the information space. This was done, for example, by György Gyimesi, who in a Facebook post attacked the media for allegedly unjustifiably criticising her unwarranted dismissal of several people from positions in the management of art institutions. Gyimesi deliberately misrepresented the situation by trying to imply that the minister was being attacked by the media, dehumanised and "kicked around" because she was a woman.

In another post, the politician adds to the attacks on the media with claims of "fanatical radical progressives" and a "senseless opposition". Gyimesi deliberately downplays Šimkovičová's actions and tries to present them as fully legitimate. At the end of the piece, he even manipulatively suggests that the opposition can "manufacture another Cintula" (name of the attacker on Robert Fico) by rebelling against her. A similar statement appeared in the SMER-SSD post, which shared a text by party member Zuzana Plevíková. The latter conspires that the motive behind the criticism of Šimkovičová and her actions is in fact finance, as under her leadership many artists were to lose subsidies for their works and activities. According to Plevíková, the protests are also a way of inciting people, adding that "not so long ago we had a misguided one from similar protests with an infamous surname - Cintula..."

Linking the theme of the appeal of leaders of cultural institutions to allegedly harmful liberalism and progressivism appeared in a video by the pro-Russian biker group BRAT za BRATA. Its leader, Matúš Alexa, mocks anyone who has spoken out against Šimkovičová's actions. He labels these people as haters who allegedly present perverted tastes and ideologies. Like Gyimesi, Alexa also defends Minister Šimkovičová, who he says is only "doing the right thing" and showing real values and culture.

To a lesser extent, attacks against the EU and the West also appeared during the period under review, for example in the form of accusations of alleged promotion of fabricated values of progressives, which are supposed to be in conflict with the values and interests of the Slovak Republic. In this vein, Richard Glück, a MP for SMER-SD, expressed himself in a programme on the problematic portal Na Palete, claiming that the EU was promoting progressive perversions such as LGBTI, the Green Deal, electromobility, etc. Toxicity towards sexual minorities was not avoided by Uhrík, who in one of his posts spoke about the need to protect children in schools, where instead of "promoting LGBTIQ+ ideology", respect for the family and traditional values should be developed.

In recent weeks, the topic of the Summer Olympics in Paris has also been reverberating. These have so far been dehumanised by various lies and misleadings, whether it be the alleged promotion of LGBTI ideology, insults to Christianity or even the glorification of Satanism. At the end of the summer, a few more disinformation actors rode this wave, speaking of the alleged moral decay and glorification of ideology, or pointing out that 'perversions' are being pushed into our lives by the world's globalists.

Project Infosecurity.sk organized by Adapt Institute, which is supported by the Prague office of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, continuously monitors the activities of both Slovak and foreign disinformation actors, but focuses mainly on the former. The project activities are built upon daily monitoring of emerging disinformation, hoaxes, and conspiracy theories in the online information space. This approach allows the analysts to identify disinformation posts and narratives that resonated with the public the most, as well as to find out where they originated, and how they spread and evolved on social media. The report takes the form of a bi-weekly summary of arising trends in the spread of malicious information content online. Based on that, Infosecurity.sk can inform the public about emerging and current trends in the field of disinformation, manipulation, and propaganda.