Poland

KRRiT (nd)
 * (P.59-69) Description of the situation in Poland (in Polish).

Jankowicz, N. (2020)
 * “The Poland I visit today is fractured, partisan, and petty. It is gripped by conspiracy theories or else obsessed with disproving them.”
 * “... the Smolensk disaster, an unspeakable tragedy that should have inspired cohesion and unity, has instead been used to drive division and a pandemic of partisanship in the country.”
 * MFA official. ““Russia is retaining the wreckage to heat the internal debate in Poland.””
 * “... Kaczyński embrace of a conspiracy theory he lifted from the “defenders of the cross.””
 * Wojciech Kość. “...”conspiracies were marginal” until / the crash was politicized.”
 * Łukasz Warzecha. “... he recognizes the polarization of Polish television is an obstacle to fighting disinformation in the country. But the biggest problem, in Warzecha’s opinion. is people. “How many people consciously look for unbiased news?” he asks. “If they watched [the public broadcaster] during the PO days,” when the current opposition party was in power, “they still do.” Habits reign supreme.”
 * “... Poland’s approach to the problem of disinformation: polarized, flippant, lacking substance, and nearly / devoid of forward-looking responses.”
 * “In order to circumvent Poles’ disinclination toward overly Russian sources, disinformation in Poland is exercised through calculated decisions, like the retention of the Smolensk wreckage, fueling partisan rancor in Poland. It also seizes upon the most delicate, destructive, and difficult elements of Polish discourse. And in large part, Polish actors drive it.”
 * InfoOps. “... while these narratives begin on blatantly Russian websites such as Sputnik, they are amplified by the homegrown Polish media ecosystem. Stories are republished on online forums and by influential bloggers, making the content seem more trustworthy as it is laundered through Polish-language outlets and increasing the sheer number of sources “reporting” a story that initially appeared on a Russian government-sponsored website. The report makes no assertion whether this laundering of information and influence is something Russia deliberately orchestrates or if it happens naturally, either way, the effect is the same. As in Georgia, local voices are spreading divisive narratives and hastening the polarization of Polish society, It’s a phenomenon that plagues the United States as well ...”
 * Kamil Basaj. “But at its root, Basaj says what Poland needs to address is “the polarization of society. This is ... one of the results of not only / propaganda or disinformation campaigns but the whole system of influence to the information sphere.” Whether they are created in Russia or within the borders of Poland, influence operations have increased polarization in Poland and left the country more vulnerable to disinformation in the future.”
 * PiS polarized on LGBT. Some of the anti-LGBT disinformation “had connections to Russia”. Unclear whether PiS is aware of that.
 * Grzegorz Rzeczkowski. “... Russia wants to „show foreigners that Poland is crazy,” ...”
 * Waitergate. According to Rzeczkowski links with Russia. “It’s these connections, along with PiS’s implementation of the very tactics that the Kremlin employs, that make a coherent response to Russian disinformation and influence operations impossible, Rzeczkowski believes.”
 * “Given that Russia uses domestic actors and homegrown messages to sow division, the problem facing Polish civil servants ... becomes more and more intractable.”
 * Marek Zagórski. “...”it’s quite easy to influence people’s views, because ... we have a situation in which a majority of social media and internet users are not able to see a difference between an opinion and just news or informative content.”
 * “... education is undoubtedly vital, but pushing for greater media freedom and a pledge to commit democratic communication tactics – not those that mimic the Russian playbook, parroting conspiracy theories and exploiting societal divisions – would go a long way toward decreasing polarization and increasing trust in government and media throughout the country, making it more resilient to foreign interference.”
 * PiS. “... by weaponizing conspiracy theories and choking the editorial independence of the public broadcaster, it has deepened societal divisions and thus given Russia the upper hand.”
 * “In Poland, where the Law and Justice government utilized conspiracy theories and fearmongering to gain support in the short term, polarization has skyrocketed in the long term.”

Analyses
 * Washington Post on Poland