Azerbaijan's emergence as a middle power under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev, its assertive foreign policy, growing international standing, contribution to global energy security, strategic importance in regional transit corridors, and domestic political and economic stability have significantly increased the scale of hybrid attacks against the country by foreign actors. These assessments were included in a statement issued by the Azerbaijani parliament's Temporary Commission on Foreign Interference and Hybrid Threats in connection with hybrid attacks targeting Azerbaijan. Harmful activities are being used to undermine society's understanding of truth and present foreign ideologies to our people as the right path.
These activities are conducted through agents of influence and clandestine organizations operating both inside and outside the country. In the digital sphere, they involve hacker groups, foreign media outlets, genuine and fake accounts, and bots. Their objective is to create divisions along ethnic, religious, and political lines within society.
They seek to sow discord within the country, turn citizens with differing views against one another, incite violence, and weaken our state from within. They encourage people to actively seek out false information that supports their existing views in the media and on social networks, believe it, and spread it among others. Through the algorithms used by digital platforms, posts designed to provoke emotional reactions among our citizens are disseminated to large audiences.
This increases the effectiveness of manipulation exponentially. It does not cost much, but worth your attention. Choose to support open, independent, quality journalism and subscribe on a monthly basis.
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