When the Dutch government announced plans to reduce certain greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 70 percent, farmers said it would force them out of business. They set bales of hay on fire and caused traffic to back up on highways.
The demonstrations were covered extensively by the conservative news media in the United States, with outlets like Breitbart and Fox News describing how the farmers were staging their own versions of this year's "freedom convoys" of Canadian trucking companies who were opposed to mandates for coronaviruses vaccines and other Covid
Disinformation researchers and State Department officials who monitor online propaganda saw the Dutch protests as feeding a troubling new conspiracy theory that Western nations are trying to impose mass hunger and submission. According to the conspiracy theorists, the new environmental regulations in the Netherlands are part of a larger plot by liberals to take control of the farming industry.
Antisemites online often use the term "globalists" to refer to Jews. The misinformation that has been gaining traction on the far right in recent months is linked to a plot by environmentalists to force people to eat insects instead of meat.
The main driver for these lies is Russia. Right-wing social media chat rooms and mainstream conservative news media have occasionally received propaganda from the Kremlin.
The U.S. officials said that Russia was trying to make up for disrupting the world food supply. As Russia's invasion continues to pressure the global markets for food and energy, they warn that these conspiracy theories will only find a more receptive audience.
Some experts said that the spread of lies about food security can be more radical than the conspiracy theories about vaccines, voter fraud and a deep state of evil bureaucrats.
The Network Contagion Research Institute tracks hate and extremists on social media. You can win an election if you lose one. You will get sick, but you will be okay.
It is a matter of choosing who lives and who dies. Political violence is justified in the minds of some people.
The Network Contagion Research Institute noticed a spike in activity on Telegram and 4chan related to the Dutch protests. Many of the people who spread false reports of an intentional manipulation of the food supply were devotees of the fringe movement that believes a group of child traffickers runs the world.
One QAnon supporter who has more than 250,000 followers on Telegram wrote, "never believe for one moment there's a shortage of anything." There is food There is water in this picture There is oil These shortages are created and manufactured by them.
The report stated that the use of "they" in many of these conspiracies is code for the elites and the Jewish community.
These ideas can be found in more mainstream outlets.
The Dutch philosopher was on Mr. Carlson's show to talk about the uprising in the Netherlands. Mr. Carlson said thatssing with the food supply causes food crises and famine. Climate activism and the war in Ukraine are to blame for this.
Mr. Carlson said we should be concerned with the big things. The food supply is the most important.
In both peacetime and wartime Russia has used information manipulation as a weapon to bring about its desired political ends.
The center said in a recent report that these efforts have been concentrated in the Middle East and Africa. According to the report, the conspiracy theories have spread through Russian state media as well as through Chinese state media.
Ms. Bray was worried that Russia would use similar emotions this winter when energy security is likely to increase. She said that the Russians wanted to pit Western nations against each other in a blame game over who was to blame for the shortages.
According to Ms. Bray, Russia is going to use these tactics more broadly.
The European Union has proposed mandatory electricity cuts and other measures due to the energy crisis caused by the invasion ofUkraine.
If these ideas have been slow to take hold in the US, that shouldn't be seen as a sign that they won't expand their reach.
Denver Riggleman, a former intelligence consultant and a staff member for the congressional committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, said that there was a long lag. There was a boom. That is what we are looking at here.
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