A Russian network linked to the Kremlin has spread disinformation about Britain’s Princess Catherine. The New York Times reports this. These are messages that circulated just before Catherine announced that she was being treated for cancer.
The newspaper spoke to Martin Innes, a digital disinformation expert from Cardiff University in Wales. Together with his colleagues, he followed 45 social media accounts that shared messages about the British princess that turned out to be untrue. The accounts previously shared disinformation about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and French support for Ukraine.
According to Innes, the messages were intended to create division, cause “chaos in society” and “erode trust in institutions, in this case the British royal family and the news media.”
Princess Catherine shared on Friday that she has cancer. Before that, she had been out of the picture for some time, due to a planned abdominal operation. The absence caused much speculation on social media. For example, people claimed that her husband, Prince William, had an affair or that Catherine had had plastic surgery.
