1   15 March, 2020
 2
 3COVID-19 disinformation
 4
 5A lot of actors cashing in on the epidemic
 6
 7   The virus spreads around the world, along with a bunch of
 8   disinformation and potential malware / phishing campaigns. There are
 9   many actors, pushing many narratives -- some similar, some different.
10
11   Interestingly, the three big players in the information warfare space
12   -- Russia, Iran and China seem to be running similar stories on their
13   state-backed media outlets. While they all tend to lean towards the
14   same, fairly anti-U.S. sentiments -- that is, blaming the US for
15   weaponizing the crisis for political gain -- Iran and Russia's content
16   come off as more...conspiratorial. In essence, they claim that the
17   COVID-19 virus is a "bioweapon" developed by the U.S.
18
19   Russian news agency [1]RT tweeted:
20
21     Show of hands, who isn't going to be surprised if it ever gets
22     revealed that #coronavirus is a bioweapon?
23
24   RT also published [2]an article mocking the U.S. for concerns over
25   Russian disinformation. Another article by RT, [3]an op-ed suggests the
26   virus' impact on financial markets might bring about the reinvention of
27   communism and the end of the global capitalist system. Russian
28   state-sponsored media can also be seen amplifying Iranian conspiracy
29   theories -- including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC)
30   suggestion that COVID-19 [4]is a U.S. bioweapon.
31
32   Iranian media outlets appear to be running stories having similar
33   themese, as well. Here's one [5]by PressTV, where they very boldly
34   claim that the virus was developed by the U.S. and/or Isreal, to use as
35   a bioweapon against Iran. Another [6]nonsensical piece by PressTV
36   suggests that "there are components of the virus that are related to
37   HIV that could not have occurred naturally". The same article pushes
38   another theory:
39
40     There has been some speculation that as the Trump Administration has
41     been constantly raising the issue of growing Chinese global
42     competitiveness as a direct threat to American national security and
43     economic dominance, it might be possible that Washington has created
44     and unleashed the virus in a bid to bring Beijing's growing economy
45     and military might down a few notches. It is, to be sure, hard to
46     believe that even the Trump White House would do something so
47     reckless, but there are precedents for that type of behavior
48
49   These "theories", as is evident, are getting wilder and wilder.
50
51   Unsurprisingly, China produces the most amount of content related to
52   the coronavirus, but they're quite distinct in comparison to Russian
53   and Iranian media. The general theme behind Chinese narratives is
54   critisizing the West for...a lot of things.
55
56   Global Times claims that [7]democracy is an insufficient system to
57   battle the coronavirus. They [8]blame the U.S. for unfair media
58   coverage against China, and other [9]anti-China narratives. There are a
59   ton other articles that play the racism/discrimination card -- I
60   wouldn't blame them though. [10]Here's one.
61
62   In the case of India, most disinfo (actually, misinfo) is mostly just
63   pseudoscientific / alternative medicine / cures in the form of WhatsApp
64   forwards -- "Eat foo! Eat bar!".^[11]1
65
66   I've also been noticing a ton of COVID-19 / coronavirus related domain
67   registrations happening. Expect phishing and malware campaigns using
68   the virus as a theme. In the past 24 hrs, ~450 .com domains alone were
69   registered.
70
71   corona domains
72
73   Anywho, there are bigger problems at hand -- like the fact that my uni
74   still hasn't suspended classes!
75     __________________________________________________________________
76
77    1. [12]https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/coronavirus-group-hosts-
78       cow-urine-party-says-covid-19-due-to-meat-eaters/article31070516.ec
79       e
80
81References
82
83   1. https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/1233187558793924608
84   2. https://www.rt.com/usa/481485-coronavirus-russia-state-department/
85   3. https://www.rt.com/op-ed/481831-coronavirus-kill-bill-capitalism-communism/
86   4. https://www.rt.com/news/482405-iran-coronavirus-us-biological-weapon/
87   5. https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/03/05/620217/US-coronavirus-James-Henry-Fetzer
88   6. https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/03/05/620213/Coronavirus-was-produced-in-a-laboratory
89   7. http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1178494.shtml
90   8. http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1178494.shtml
91   9. http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1180630.shtml
92  10. http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1178465.shtml
93  11. https://icyphox.sh/home/icy/leet/site/build/blog/covid19-disinfo/temp.html#fn:cowpiss
94  12. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/coronavirus-group-hosts-cow-urine-party-says-covid-19-due-to-meat-eaters/article31070516.ece