Online Scots ‘risk being radicalised by Iranian tricks’
SNP MP Stewart Mcdonald has warned disinformation spread online risks “radicalising” parts of the electorate following claims that Iran is interfering in the Holyrood election.
Mr Mcdonald called for a new strategy to tackle the problem amid reports of cyber specialists working on behalf of the Iranian regime posing as pro-independence users on social media.
The comments follow a study by the Henry Jackson Society think-tank that warns the Iranian regime's aims are similar to those of Russia – to “attack the constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom”.
An SNP MP has warned disinformation risks “radicalising” parts of the population amid claims Iran has been meddling in the Scottish election.
Stewart Mcdonald called for a new approach to tackle misinformation following reports cyber specialists working on behalf of the Iranian regime are targeting Scottish voters by posing as pro-independence users on Twitter and Facebook.
It is believed fake accounts were encouraging real users to share content and material of a pro-independence nature in the form of memes, graphics and cartoons with their friends and contacts on the sites.
Fake websites have also been set up, designed to influence the campaign by tricking internet users as part of a wider disinformation campaign from iran.
Now the snp’ s defence spokesperson has called for a serious strategy to crack down on disinformation.
Mr Mcdonald said: “Foreign, malign interference in our elections is no real surprise – it has been a running problem for almost every country in Europe and, most prominently, the United States.
“Although it is true to say that the level of activity in Scotland from countries such as Iran and Russia does appear to be minimal, that is not to say that it’s something we can afford to ignore – we can’t because the problem will grow.
“So it is incumbent on all politicalparties to better understand the problem and do what we can to counter it.
“We will, however, have to go further and develop a comprehensive national strategy to counter-disinformation.
“Too often we are stuck in a mindset of thinking that this is just a few twitter bot sand whilst this might be how it starts, it is rarely how it ends.
“As events in Washington in January showed us, disinformation only needs to radicalise a relatively small part of the population before it becomes a physical assault on democratic institutions.”
Mr Mcdonald has previously called for the UK and Scottish governments to work together to tackle the issue, as well as the appointment of an “ambassador for hybrid affairs” to work with other countries to tackle the issue.
He said: “As the fight against disinformation is a pan-western concern, Scotland could work in concert with other governments by establishing an annual information resilience strategy summit, hosted herein Scotland, where governments and civil society groups can come together to better learn from each other and also coordinate strategies where this would make sense.”
An SNP spokeswoman claimed the party was working to counter disinformation.
The spokeswoman said :“that is why we led the calls for the Russia report to be published, so work could start sooner rather than later to tackle the threat of foreign interference in UK and Scottish politics.
“However, we have been disappointed by the slow nature of the UK Government’s response.”
The comments follow a study by the Henry Jackson Society think-tank, which echoes Mr Mc don al d’ s previous warnings and claims the iranian regime' s efforts are similar to that of Russia – designed to instil chaos, uncertainty and division to weaken their adversaries.
The study explained“iran has become increasingly sophisticated in both the scope and choice of its target”, with the author of the report, Dr Paul Stott, saying that in terms of cyber capabilities, Iran should no longer be considered a“third tier” country.
There search said the increasing presence of iranian disinformation was an attempt by the regime to “attack the constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom”.
The report concluded: “Iran has shown itself to be a country which engage sin russian-style disinformation campaigns, repeatedly establishing fake websites and internet accounts in an effort to disrupt the political systems of liberal democracies.
"Judged within this context, Iran is almost certainly looking to disrupt our current elections, most likely those under way for the Scottish assembly.”
It included that while the majority of the activity targets Israel, Afghanistan and Iraq, there has been an increasing amount of effort targeting scotland over the past year.
Scottish Conservative candidate for perth shire north, m ur do fraser, called for action from the social media giants.
He said: "This is not the first time we have seen such meddlingby hostile foreign regimes, but it is deeply concerning that Iran's operation to manipulate Scottish democracy is becoming increasingly sophisticated.
"Five minutes on Twitter is all it takes to see the vast number of anonymous pro-nationalist accounts dedicated to relentlessly targeting the Scottish Conservatives, as we are the only party with the strength to stop the snp' s destructive agenda.
"The social media companies seem to understand the dangers, but there is clearly much more they should do.
"One problem is knowing which of these accounts are run from Tehran and which are 'sock puppets' controlled by anonymous cybernat cowards who spew out abuse from behind a keyboard."
the gamut from the Abolish the Scottish Parliament party to UKIP.
However, the reason the parties, particularly those in opposition to the SNP, are courting the peach vote is because they are allocated a number of MSPS depending on how many votes they receive, once the number of constituencies already won in that region is taken into account, in the aim to make the overall result more proportional.
Given the opinion polls are suggesting a dominance of the 73 constituencies for the SNP, the percentage share of the vote on the peach ballot has suddenly become even more vital for parties to ensure they return MSPS in any kind of numbers.
For unless a party wins at least 5 per cent of the peach vote, it is unlikely to win any of the 56 regional party list slots at all.
The Conservatives are being particularly blatant about their scheme to get the peach votes – on a giant billboard they proclaim “How to Stop Indyref2 – Peach Ballot Vote Conservative”, while party leader Douglas Ross has claimed that “only by using your peach ballot for the Scottish Conservatives can you guarantee that the next Scottish Parliament will be 100 per cent focused on recovering from Covid”.
Labour has been similarly overt, with party leader Anas Sarwar launching a peachcoloured campaign bus to call for people to use their second votes for his party.
Labour MP Ian Murray has said: “If you want a country focused on what unites us, not what divides us, then use your second vote, on the peach ballot paper.”
Interestingly Scotland’s top polling expert, Professor John Curtice, has already said the numbers are showing the Scottish Conservatives could gain from peach votes, with pro-uk voters tactically voting with their list ballots to prevent a SNP majority.
Indeed, he has said that more than one in seven Labour voters – around 15 per cent – intends to lend their list votes to the Scottish Conservatives.
Scottish Lib Dems leader Willie Rennie is slightly less catastrophic in his rhetoric for the second vote, saying: “The peach ballot paper is a proportional voting system so every vote counts to put recovery first.”