According to a recent report issued by the Information and Decision Support Center of the Egyptian Cabinet, on rumors, the year 2021 witnessed the largest rate of rumors, as the years were ranked according to the rate of spread of rumors, during the period from 2014 to 2021.
The report indicated that the year 2021 came in the lead with a rate of 23.5%, compared to 22.9% in 2020, 20.1% in 2019, 12.9% in 2018, 9.3% in 2017, 6.5% in 2016, and 3 1% in 2015 and 1.7% in 2014, bearing in mind that this is a relative distribution of the total mentioned period.
In the details, an Egyptian government source revealed that it had monitored an increase in the rate of rumors targeting the stability of the country during the recent period, explaining that the groups working to spread these lies began using new methods of dealing with them according to modern mechanisms used in fourth and fifth generation wars.
The source, who spoke to “Sky News Arabia” and preferred not to be named, explained that the Cabinet’s Rumors Monitoring Unit is working continuously to monitor all rumors that the terrorist Brotherhood is trying to promote through its media platforms or electronic committees through social networking sites, and immediately respond to them. .
What is the fourth generation wars?
The fourth and fifth generation war is defined as the war of using information to mislead and damage trust between citizens and state institutions by relying on modern technologies.
According to Omar Muhammad Ali, in his book “The Fourth Generation Wars”, it depends primarily on the hidden confrontation with members of society by exploiting the information obtained, in a manner that serves to undermine confidence between society and its institutions, then the next stage comes, which is spreading chaos and exhaustion. The forces of the state, and therefore their goal is achieved through the following stages: information gathering, psychological warfare, guidance, and chaos.
Rumors are one of the most important methods and means of psychological and social warfare during the implementation of fourth-generation wars.
High level monitoring and confrontation
For her part, Naim Saad Zagloul, head of the media center in the cabinet, said that since 2014 until now, a mutation in rumors has been monitored, and rumors are constantly being issued in different ways and mechanisms, especially with the spread of modern means of communication in an attempt to falsify the facts, in an intervention with one of the Egyptian channels. .
Zagloul also indicated that all rumors are promptly and quickly responded to, and a pioneering methodology is followed in dealing with fourth-generation wars of rumors.
The group employs all its arms in the war of rumors
Major General Mahmoud Al-Rashidi, the former Egyptian Assistant Minister of Interior for Information, told “Sky News Arabia” that the terrorist Brotherhood has resorted, during the last period, to using all the modern technological techniques that they own and which are at their fingertips from major media companies or propaganda institutions to fabricate any false news. On the general situation in Egypt, with the aim of striking stability, taking advantage of modern technologies and fourth and fifth generation technology.
Al-Rashidi explained that the group also relies on these tools to fabricate news and events such as demonstrations or audio conversations of public figures by recording the tone of voice and then re-recording with other words that serve the contexts they target.
And he continued: “But at the same time, Egypt possesses systems of a very high degree of development and accuracy, which enables it to detect these plans and confront them through the process of “electronic autopsy”, meaning “carrying out examinations and careful review of photos and videos as well as recordings, and separating the fake from the real.” “.
It is a complex process, but the Egyptian authorities have high and distinguished competencies in this field. Al-Rashidi praised the efforts of the Ministry of Interior in this regard.
