WASHINGTON -- Two U.S. congressmen have introduced legislation aimed to establish government strategy aimed at combating “foreign disinformation campaigns” they say are being waged by Russia and China.
The bill, announced May 11 by Republican Adam Kinzinger and Democrat Ted Lieu, mirrors one introduced earlier this year in the Senate, and underscores the concerns U.S. lawmakers have about what many perceive to be government propaganda from Moscow and Beijing.
The legislation, Kinzinger said in a statement, “develops a comprehensive U.S. strategy to counter disinformation campaigns through interagency cooperation and on-the-ground partnerships with outside organizations that have experience in countering foreign propaganda.”
A leading Russian lawmaker, Konstatin Kosyachov, meanwhile, likened the U.S. efforts to those of the Soviet Union.
This is very reminiscent of the practice in the former U.S.S.R., with its sophisticated counterpropaganda system," Kosachyov, who heads the International Relationss Committee in the Russian parliament's upper chamber, wrote on his Facebook page.