Russia Expels Polish Diplomats
Russia expels 45 Polish diplomats today in response to Warsaw’s expulsion of the same number of Russian diplomats last month on charges of espionage.
For years, Poland has accused Russia of intentionally provoking hostility between its neighboring nations through disinformation campaigns as part of an effort to divide and destabilize the West.
Since late February, Poland has taken in nearly 2.6 million Ukrainian refugees. The Polish government has issued repeated warnings of Russian propaganda and misinformation, including fabricated stories about Ukrainian refugees, which may become a greater cause for concern should the number of refugees increase in the coming weeks.
In response, Eastern European leaders have urged tech companies to proactively suspend and demonetize accounts that promote disinformation and have offered to provide fact-checking specialists to monitor content in real time. Before the war, VoxUkraine and StopFake were the only groups fact-checking posts in the region. Now, there are eight additional groups assigned to monitor and slow the spread of misinformation.
Moving forward, tech companies including Meta, Twitter, and TikTok announced they would restrict access to Kremlin-controlled outlets in the EU, while Meta has also begun taking down inauthentic networks that target social media accounts of Ukrainian military personnel.
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