site.btaSofia Conference Looks at Electoral Disinformation

"What is the cheapest, the most effective, the most uncontrolled and the most underestimated weapon in the world," asked Wednesday Atlantic Club President Solomon Passy in his opening remarks at a Sofia-hosted conference on electoral disinformation. His answer was: “It is no coincidence that all dictators, dictatorships around the world, rely on propaganda because it is an extremely cheap and effective weapon because if they make enough parties, they do not need to fire a single bullet to control a country.” In his words, this is how a country can be mastered from within.

The elections in Romania showed us that no country is safe from propaganda, Passy further commented. He also gave the example of Taiwan, as Aaron Hsu, head of Taipei's representative office in Greece, was present at the event. Taiwan is facing the world's largest non-democracy, Taiwan is subject to verbal attack by the world's largest non-democracy, he said. In Bulgaria, we are under verbal attack from the biggest non-democracy in Europe, the Atlantic Club President also noted.

The tactical advantage of non-democracies is that they very quickly unite and are generally not neutral in conflicts between good and evil. Unlike democracies, which are very slow to unite and are often neutral in such conflicts, Passy said. In his words, democracies should follow the musketeers' principle "One for all - all for one" or the Bulgarian motto "Unity makes the strength". According to Passy, just as there is an Article Five of NATO, which stipulates that an armed attack on one is an armed attack on all, there should be an Article Five on propaganda.

The conference, "Disinformation in Elections: Challenges and Implications for Democratic Nations," was organized by the Atlantic Club.