Cheap provocation? How fake news affects the economy of Ukraine

Russia is at war with Ukraine not only with the help of aircraft, missiles, tanks and artillery, but also by throwing a lot of fake news into the information space. And often they can harm the economy no less than explosions of rockets or shells.

“Today” spoke with experts and learned how fake news affects consumers and the economy.

How it works

According to legend, one of the Rothschilds, who became fabulously rich, being the first to know the result of the Battle of Waterloo, said: “Who owns the information, owns the world”. Modern exchanges are always going up or down on rumors or hints.

For example, just on one phrase of Putin that there is progress in negotiations with Ukraine, Western markets grew by 2%. Western traders believed the Russian president’s statement, despite the fact that he constantly lies.

Or, for example, several notes in the Western media, which reported that China could provide Russia with military assistance, collapsed the Chinese stock market to a record high. The fall was like during the 2008 crisis. Investors panicked that for this the United States would impose sanctions on China similar to those already received by Russia.

As experts say, any news – fake or real – can have a temporary effect on the market, but they most often do not change the global trend.

“Fake news in its mass is not capable of having any serious impact on the economy. In fact, any professional who has been on the market for quite a long time can confidently state that even real (not fake) news is far from always capable of leading to any some long-term consequences for quotes,” TeleTrade analyst Sergey Rodler explains to Segodnya.

According to him, short-term exchange rate fluctuations always occur under the influence of news.

“And although temporary fluctuations can lead to an increase or decrease, however, the movement within the general trend that arose under the influence of the most powerful events will remain in force. In other words, US stocks may periodically bounce and grow in value, but this will not cancel the global trend for the flow capital into safer assets, which launched last November amid the Fed’s stimulus cuts,” continues Rodler.

Panic is the worst adviser

Similar methods can also be used by the invaders in the war against Ukraine, especially since now any information can be dispersed through social networks.

“During serious shocks, whether it be an economic crisis or a war, mass panic can arise. In general, a huge number of people were engaged in studying the nature of panic moods, but they never learned how to fully prevent it. Panic is bad because it often occurs in the absence of real reasons, however, leads to quite tangible consequences,” continues Sergei Rodler.

The expert says that in the United States this is called a “self-fulfilling prophecy” – false premises provoke people to new behavior, during which an initially wrong idea of ​​u200bu200bthe situation becomes true.

“For example, someone did not find the necessary goods in their store, on the basis of which they made the erroneous conclusion that a widespread shortage had begun, and recorded an emotional video on TikTok. People began to share it and ran to stores in order to stock up on the product, which eventually led to real problems,” continues Rodler.

Of course, now such news about the shortage of food is perceived especially acutely for obvious reasons.

“That is why officials and businesses need to act together, inform the population about the real state of affairs and prevent the population from reacting emotionally. And the people themselves should be more rational and not make hasty conclusions. Anything can become an outbreak – both sincere intentions of people, and mercenary,” sums up Sergey Rodler.

Earlier we wrote to whom and how compensation will be paid in Ukraine. Read about how to properly manage money during the war.