SINGAPORE — Foreign governments have been found to attempt to influence the domestic politics of other countries, said Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam in Parliament on Monday (Oct 4). 

In his opening speech during the debate on the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Bill, he laid out several examples of this, as he explained the need for dealing with online hostile information campaigns conducted by foreign parties. 

“Countries are actively developing attack and defence capabilities as an arm of warfare, equal to and more potent than their land, air and naval forces,” said Mr Shanmugam.

He added: “There are no angels in this game.”

Here are some of the examples that Mr Shanmugam provided: 

Ukraine

• Mr Shanmugam said that while there is no way of verifying this, the Russians are said to have intervened extensively in Ukraine through a disinformation campaign  
• During the 2014 protests, Russian media outlets published articles that portrayed the Ukrainian government as being fascist, racist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic 
• There were claims that Jews were being terrorised and beaten in Ukraine and assertions that local Jewish leaders were appealing to international bodies for help 
• The campaign also sought to undermine trust in the Ukrainian army and weaken the resolve of Ukrainians to defend their own nation
• Popular support was built for Crimea to join Russia and eventually, Crimea was annexed by Russia 
   

Czech Republic

• In another example of Russia’s interference, Mr Shanmugam said that the 2018 Parliamentary Select Committee had received evidence that Russia targeted extremists and fringe politicians to spread propaganda and undermine support for Ukraine
• This led to 25 per cent to 33 per cent of the Czech population believing that the Ukrainian government was facist 
• As such, the Czech government could not support Ukraine with humanitarian aid 
• Four in ten Czechs also blamed the United States for the crisis in Ukraine
• Mr Shanmugam said that hostile information campaigns managed to change the Czech government’s foreign policy 
   

The Netherlands

• During the referendum on a free trade agreement between the European Union and Ukraine, Russians allegedly posed as Ukrainians and inflamed local debates 
• They also attended public meetings and appearances, and used social media to spread disinformation
• This included a video that reportedly showed members of the Ukrainian National Guard burning the Dutch flag and threatening to carry out attacks against the Dutch if they voted against the trade agreement
• Eventually, Dutch people voted against the trade agreement
   

United Kingdom

• British newspaper The Telegraph reported that a network of Iranian internet trolls on Twitter spread divisive information on the day the United Kingdom was holding a referendum on its membership with the European Union in 2016
• More than 770 Iranian Twitter accounts were found to have been engaged in coordinated manipulation by spreading disinformation about British politician Nigel Farage and current British Prime Minister Boris Johnson
• It praised the then-leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn
   

United States

• US intelligence assessed that Iran had carried out a covert influence campaign against former US president Donald Trump during the 2020 presidential election 
• Iranian cyber actors pretended to be from the far-right group Proud Boys and sent threatening and spoofed emails to democratic voters in multiple US states
• They demanded that these individuals vote for Mr Trump and spread a video intending to demonstrate alleged voter fraud
• Social media accounts published over 1,000 pieces of content online
   

France

• A report from the French government in April 2018 found that there was a hostile information campaign against French president Emmanuel Macron when he was running in the 2017 presidential election
• The report, however, stated that the campaign was not successful in interfering with the election or antagonising French society
• American alternate-right trolls were found to be supporting Mr Macron’s far-right opponent Marine Le Pen
• There was a campaign spreading a rumour that Mr Macron had a secret offshore account before the final televised debate between both candidates
• Phishing attacks were also carried out with email spoofing targeting Mr Macron and his party members, and these documents were leaked hours before campaigning stopped for a cooling-off period before voting