Vershinin Mikhail Social psychologist, A "consultant on withdrawal" 31.08.2008
"Those, who study without thinking, will be deluded. Those, who think, but have no desire to study, will meet difficulties". Confucius
The modern history of mankind has shown us that conflicts in the human environment can take not only the shape of a classical war or partisan warfare. The modern development of defense technology and armament, as well as the experience of the two World Wars, has shown, that there are no victors in the mass wars. Avoidance of the World Wars, which with the invention of the nuclear weapon have presented the mankind with a fait accompli, that World War the fourth will most probably not break out, since there will be no soldiers to fight at that war, has generated a new kind of confrontation —information wars and propaganda.
Society, having changed from the postindustrial to information type, has put the information technologies at the head of the global priority. Possessing information is becoming a modern measure of "wealth/success" of a person, state and society. Information technologies are tightly connected with mass media, communication lines and television. The modern world offers a big choice of information for those seeking it, and there are dozens of times as many possibilities of acquiring it as there were 100 years ago. Having read an issue of "Bulletin" or "Businessman", a contemporary person learns more information than he or she could learn during the lifetime 100 years ago.
It is the Internet that plays a significant part in the development of the information technologies.
The modern Internet is becoming a standard of information transfer in the society. Now it is not necessary to read foreign press or watch foreign TV channels, it is quite enough to visit several news websites in the native language. The Internet enables any person or a group of people to popularize their points of view in the information space. On the one hand it serves for the free information exchange, absence of censorship and free communication discourse. The underside side of such progress is permissiveness, ambiguity of information, wide range of opportunities for disinformation and availability of propaganda and manipulation.
Propaganda and manipulation of information is an integral part of the modern communication lines, which serve for realization of somebody's interests. These interests can vary from personal to public ones. Groups of people and individuals constantly collide with each other in the Internet in order to bring their point of view to a wider range of the Internet community. "The outcome" of such collisions is, for example, the modern Vikipedia, where many articles are amended by the supporters of different opinions, which can make Hitler a famous and kind politician or make Stalin a great reformer. As mentioned above, "the freedom of information" has some defects, which can be used by different political, religious and social opponents.
We can endlessly discuss this issue and make examples starting from Mussolini and Hitler to the contemporary "stars of propaganda", but the aim of our article is to discuss the methods and their application in the Internet by the destructive cults .
Practically every cult which passes from a simple organization to a more complicated administrative staff machinery (from one group with a charismatic "Guru" to a number of geographically remote groups, worshipping their own "Guru"), pays attention to the external surroundings.
External surroundings serves as a source of
. New members;
. Their property and material benefits.
Constant work with the surroundings enables the cults first of all to:
A) Conceal their "true face" in the guise of social and public projects;
B) Continue active recruitment into their circles ;
C) Popularize their doctrine to unite the in-cult groups;
D) Wage information warfare against the "outer enemies of the cult".
The work with surroundings is carried out in the four directions, but with different emphasis depending on the cult's history and personalities of its leaders.
Virtually all the known big cults distribute propaganda in the Internet. But this activity can be different in different cults.
For example: a neofascist organization "New Acropol", which hides in the guise of a philosophic society, prefers developing a limited number of websites and tries not to advertise its activities outside its information grounds, but does not limit the freedom of expression of its adherents. At the same time "New Acropol" is legally prosecuted by the website designers, who criticize "New Acropol" and reveal its neofascist nature.
"Scientology", on the contrary, controls dozens of various websites, actively spreads "positive news" outside its information projects, but at the same time the cult prohibits communication of the non-recruiters outside its information sites. This cult prefers psychological chasing of its opponents, avoiding court prosecution (peculiarity of the RF).
Another example can be served by the psychocult "Lifespring", which does not have its own websites, but at the same time is actively spreading news and leading recruitment on different information sites. "Lifespring" is s kind of a franchising pyramidal structure, where separate cult groups have their own Internet-projects. "Lifespring" avoids court prosecutions and specializes in propaganda of its doctrine and persecution of their opponents in the Internet.
"Jehovah's Witnesses", "Krishnaists" and "Mormons" have a couple of their own Internet projects, but prefer to use the Internet for communication of their adherents. The main activity is performed outside the Internet.
Sects like "Aum Sinrike" ("Alef" nowadays) prefer to use the Internet as the main method of recruitment. It is first of all due to the fact that students and teachers of different higher educational establishments, programmers, i.e. people, who due to the sphere of their occupation spend a lot of time in the Internet, make up the kernel of "Aum Sinrike".
"Megre" or "Anastasians" movement actively develop their own information projects, which makes it possible to control the communication of their adherents from different geographically remote places. And since the ideology calls to avoid "the rotten civilization" and long for "nature", very often it is the only effective instrument of constant control over its adherents. At the same time the main recruitment work is done outside the Internet.
Let us review the general criteria of analysis of the destructive cults' information activities.
Criteria
Description of the criteria
1
Top-30 requests in search engines
The results of retrieval requests and analysis of the first 30 requests make it possible to determine existence of cult information websites as well as the level of anticult activities. For instance, absence of critical information in search engines after entering words "New Acropol" suggests that the activities of this cult are insufficiently studied, well-hidden or the victims of the cult are not looking for help etc.
2
Direct advertisement in search engines
Availability of prepaid direct advertisement in search engines suggests that the cult is actively recruiting new members and makes significant investments into this campaign.
For instance, after entering the word "scientology" in Yandex you will find several advertisements about the courses of scientology, which suggests that the cult is actively recruiting new members in the Internet.
3
Informational presence in the Internet +characteristics of the main/ supplementary resources
This criterion makes it possible to estimate the total number of the official sites of the cult. Official sites can be of two types: main and supplementary. The former are dedicated either to the cult in general or to the personality of the "supreme Guru". The latter are specialized sites, oriented at some specific kind of the cult activities (e.g. Scientology: education, literature distribution, exhibitions, psychiatry or drug addiction fight.
Correlation of different sites of the cult makes it possible to determine the main concentration of its activities in the Internet.
4
Types of supplementary cult resources
Analysis of the supplementary website orientation makes it possible to determine the preferences of the cult development in the concrete direction. If most of the supplementary websites of the cult give information about introduction of the cult methods of work at schools and pedagogy, then it enables us to determine the orientation of the cult activities in this very region ( if the sites are monolingual + auxiliary criteria).
5
Time of registration and the person the domain is registered at
Time of the cult site registration together with the simultaneous comparison of information on the cult development outside the Internet make it possible to analyze the trends and reasons for the cult net activity. For example, if all the domains are registered with one or two individual persons and are officially located in different cities or countries, then it is possible to find out the subordination and interaction between different cult centers.
6
Geographical position of the Internet resources/ hosting
Location of different cult domains in one place (city or region) indicates the organization of the cult information activities in the Internet. For example, location of most of the hosting sites in one city indicates that this activity is carried out by a limited group of people and is under strict control of the cult.
7
Mono-and multilinguality of the cult resources
Multi- or monolinguality of the cult website make it possible to determine the concentration of the cult control, geographical control, exercised by the subsidiaries or the cult center, the range of the recruitment activity (which additional regions and nationalities are the objects of the cult recruitment). If, for instance, the main information site is in 5-15 languages, but its hosting is, for instance, located in the USA, then it is obvious that the cult leaders do not entrust the information activity to their regional centers.
For example, division of the information resources of the cult according to the groups of languages: Asia, Europe, Africa, America, — suggests that the cult follows continental or regional information policy (it is necessary to study additional criteria).
8
The graphic design, color and style of the content
Design distinctions and usage of different photo materials or vice versa their monotony makes it possible to indirectly analyze the sources of information inside the cult, etc.
The style of news or other materials content makes it possible to determine the authorship and the original source of the information.
9
Author's rights
Availability of information about author's rights and its analysis can indirectly help us to determine the legal opportunity of prosecution, initiated by the cult and the names of the law companies, providing legal service.
10
Topics of the cult news
As a rule, the main cult news is formed in the following way:
. news about the Guru;
. news about the cult;
. news about achievements;
. news about external foes.
The variety or monotony of news indicates the level of "the cult propagandistic activities" and its information control.
For example, some cults publish news only about their "Guru", which suggests that the cult is oriented at the person of the Guru, not at "his cult doctrine". Abundance of news about external foes indicates the external closeness of the cult. Abundance of news about "the achievements of the cult" indicates the active phase of the recruitment activities, etc.
11
Publication of news in the in-cult and noncult resources
There are three ways of publishing cult news:
. either only on the cult websites,
. or firstly on the cult websites and then on the other non-cult websites;
. or on non-cult websites with a possibility of publishing on the cult information sites.
Analysis of these modes as well as of the information methods of cult news distribution makes it possible to determine the level of "control" both over this process and the involvement of new adherents.
12
Frequency of news update on the cult resources
Infrequent update of news can indicate the closeness of the cult, absence of organizational possibilities or attention to the work done in the Internet. Frequent update of news suggests continuous usage of the Internet options. Some peak and irregularity in news update during some period can supply additional information to the cult analysis.
13
Comparison of the multilingual versions of news
Comparison of one and the same news published in different languages on the same or different sites makes it possible to determine the distinctions in propaganda among different nationalities.
14
Distinctions in the cult propaganda by the same example
The four topics of the "cult" news can differ as for variability of presentation. Presentation of the same news in different styles and from different angles gives evidence of the high professionalism of the cult's propagators. Such propaganda of the cult's version of events is very difficult to identify as imposition or manipulation of information. The distribution of the same piece of news from a limited number of the cult websites without any alternations suggests strict control inside the cult, "programmed" nature of the out-cult interaction and strict hierarchy inside the cult.
15
Sources of information +the factor of the cross-news from the noncult to the cult resource
While analyzing the cult news, this criterion makes it possible to identify the main original sources and variability of the news.
Very often cults can indirectly or covertly control different information projects. Tracing the cult news and places of its location, as well as hyperlinks to the already published news enable us to identify such "biased or pseudo-neocult projects". For example, if news of some neocult is constantly or frequently published at some non-cult site, but is not duplicated on the other non-cult websites, then we can speak about the "correlation" of these resources and expose it to analysis.
16
Cross-links
Cross-links to the principle and supplementary projects allow establishing of the cult departments' interaction. Presence of the cross-links to "the private cult projects" allows to track the interaction between different adherents groups and the concrete regional cult departments.
17
Official contact information
Analysis of contact information makes it possible to identify the level of the organizational maturity of the cult website in different regions. The address of the office with the analysis of the business areas of the city or the information about the owner of the building, the office is located in, enables us to estimate cult's expanses on the maintenance of the office and other useful information.
For instance, use of cell phones and names of "contact people" in different cities along with the absence of the Internet sites and other information, make it possible to estimate, according to the number of representatives, how the cult is developed in the concrete city, if the cult has an office or not, etc.
According to the electronic addresses of the "contact people" it is possible to estimate the level of their network activity in different non-cult projects and obtain a lot of new information. As a rule, "contact people" rarely use several e-mail boxes.
18
Number of visitors (counters) or registered users (check-in time)
Some cult supplementary sites, which are created not by the cult efforts, but by a group of devotees, contain counters of visitors and sometimes make the information about them available (regular statistics of the Internet counters: visitor's place of residence, check-in time, duration of the visit).
Some formulae allow to analyze the information about the visitors – when they were registered.
Such indirect information can be useful for the analysis of the cult's regional activities and efficiency of recruitment (these data need to be correlated with the other data on the cult activities).
19
Cult adherents communication
Cult adherent communication can be of the following types:
. Free communication – devotees are not prohibited to communicate in the framework of the non-cult projects. They are free to communicate and share information about their success and cult activities.
. Propagation of information – dissemination of the cult news and information at the non-cult sites makes a devotee confident of the significance of his activities and "rightness of the cult knowledge". People spread "positive information" about cults in the Internet in order to subconsciously persuade themselves in the accuracy of the doctrine.
. Free recruitment – disciples spread information about their life success and their cult on the sites of their potential communication with the purpose of to fulfill their commitments to recruit new members.
. Deliberate recruitment – purposeful recruitment activities at the non-cult information projects. The purpose of communication is to meet a nearest recruiter outside the Internet.
. Struggle against criticism – spread of negative information (lie, fraud, manipulation) about critics and its sources of the doctrine critics, the Guru and the cult ideology.
20
Logic of the cult adherents' replies wording
As a rule, devotees communication differs according to the two main factors: freedom of narration and quoting of information. These characteristics differ as for the limits of allowability in communication. Freedom of narration is a possibility to lead a conversation on different subjects, expressing private opinion etc. Communication with nondevotees or having private opinion, which is claimed to be "wicked in comparison with the true doctrine" is very often prohibited in the cults. Quoting of information is deployment of different sources of information, the styles and ways of establishing communication. In cults it is the use of solely cult resources of information, ban on other sources, "stereotypical" communication, which shows a "dictating or trite similarity" of statements, made by different adherents of the same cult.
For example, among the "Jehovah's Witnesses" it is forbidden to contemplate on religious subjects in your own expressions, that is why they often use memorized quotations and phrases from their magazines. The representatives of the "Lifespring" are welcome to freely express their ideas, but they are limited in the number of topics they can discuss (due to the peculiarities of their cult's doctrine). Other cults' devotees communicate only with the help of extracts/ thesis of their religious doctrine (e.g. propaganda of the doctrine, carried out by the "Anastasians").
21
Orientation of the cults' fight against the external surroundings (personality, elitism etc.)
Cult critical information is oriented at:
. State, government;
. Profession, nationality, social background;
. Concrete natural person or representatives of a particular NGO/ movement;
Methods of spread of critical information greatly vary, but, as a rule, cults try to fight the sources of critics, ignoring the content of critics.
22
Criticism of the cult and its publication on the non-cult websites
Availability of extensive cult criticism, as well as extensive negative information about the cult on different non-cult information websites indicates both a great number of cult victims and active struggle against the cult.
Availability extensive critical information obstructs cult's recruitment and makes it possible to carry out efficient analysis of the cult's activities.
We have reviewed the most available criteria of analysis, using the open Internet resources about the cults' activities. Now let us try to apply this analysis to one of the most active cults in the Russian-language Internet — the "Falun Gong".
Concise reference:
The "Falun Gong" (Falun Dafa, Falun Gong) was founded in China (on the basis of Falun Dafa doctrine). This destructive cult was founded by a Chinese, Li Hongzhi in 1992. He was born on July 7, 1952, but later, trying to earn bigger prestige among his adherents, he changed his birth date, so that, according to the Moon calendar, it would coincide with Buddha's date of birth. Li Hongzhi's biography is no way significant: he studied at school, in the 1970s he worked in the army stable, after that he became a trumpeter in the wood police. From 1982 to 1991 he worked in the security service of a food-producing company in the city of Chuanchun. From May, 1992 he started preaching his doctrine, stating, that for many years he had studied from Buddhist and Taoist teachers. The "Falun Gong doctrine" is based on the mixture of the elements of Buddhism, Taoism and folk beliefs, the main part assigned for Buddhism. The "Falun Gong", if translated from Chinese, means "spiritual energy of the Wheel of the Dharma".
The Chinese government, as well as many analysts, classifies this destructive cult as a religious-and-terrorist group. Because of the active confrontation with the Chinese government the leaders of the cult left the country in 1998. By the moment of its prohibition the cult had 39 offices in different cities, 1900 "educational centers" and 28000 "primary organizations". Now the world center of the cult is located in the USA (New York). The USA government and the government-related NGOs actively promote the activities of cult under the guise of the fight against "human rights violation in China". This sect is active in many countries of Europe, North America, Asia, including Russia (from the early 90's). The main East European center of the cult is located in Ukraine (social organizations the "Kioto" and the "Society of the Falun Gong adherents").
This cult acts under the guise of the courses of the Eastern curative gymnastics. The cult specializes on the acts of suicide (the peak of the mass suicide acts took place during the confrontation with the Chinese government in 1998 — around 1600 people simultaneously committed suicide in different cities), cyber-attacks on the Chinese telecommunications, cracking Chinese governmental sites, as well as the ideological fight against the Chinese government as a political system.
Total number of the cult's adherents counts for 40 — 70 million people, 95-99% of them being Asians.
The Falun Gong cult ideology is being spread in the form of books, CDs, video and audio cassettes and "free" trainings of the Eastern gymnastics or meditation. Devotees use the following agitation and propaganda methods to distribute of the listed above materials:
. organization of conferences (e.g. the World Congress of the Science and Culture of the Future at Cambridge university, Great Britain), meetings and other public events in support of their doctrine;
. dispensation of literature and informational leaflets;
. rent of premises lecturing and training.
The Falun Gong activities are conducted along different directions:
A) recruitment — recruiting people in different countries, searching sponsors for the movement (natural persons);
B) struggle against the Chinese government — accomplishing cyber-attacks against the Chinese government, propaganda of "inhumanity" of the Chinese government, organization of meetings and acts of protest;
C) development of the resource base of the cult — receiving income from the in-cult activities (cult publications and souvenir trade, collecting donation, searching grants, selling devotees property).
Despite the barely noticeable activity of this destructive cult in Russia, it is very actively functioning in St. Petersburg (its Russian center), Moscow and a number of other cities. Russian government and special services passively prevent the cult from developing on the territory of the RF, hindering the organization from mass actions and obstructing the movements of the leaders of the Russian regional center of the cult. The Russian cult center of the cult is directly subordinate to the cult center in the USA (despite the fact that the Ukrainian cult center is responsible for the East European centers (mainly for the CIS and the Baltic States).
Let us try to analyze the level and quality of the destructive cult's propaganda in the Internet. But due to the fact that we are analyzing the level of the cult's influence on the external surroundings in general, we will omit some of the criteria, and carry out a confide analysis at some of them.
Top-30 requests in search engines
In general there are cult informational websites available. There is an extremely small amount of critical information about the cult.
Direct advertisement in search engines
Direct advertisement of the destructive cult is absent in Google, Yandex, Rambler, Mail.
Availability of information in the Internet + parameters of the principle/ supplementary resources. Types of the supplementary cult resources. Time and person domain is registered with. Geographical location of the resource/hosting. Mono- or multilinguality of the cult resources.
Let us analyze the cult's information projects in the Russian-language Internet.
The very first cult disciples' website was created on March 11, 1997, when the cult was becoming more popular in China and other countries.
The center of the Falun Gong in the RF. The domain is registered with the third person "Relcom.ru"— Moscow (an anonymous person, a variant, when the external host of the domain is a company, operating domains). Hosting is located in St. Petersburg. A "supplementary cult Internet-resource".
. http://www.pureinsight.ru —"Correct reasoning/A Pure sight", a website about the Falun Gong — general news about China, its scientific development, culture etc. A "private cult Internet project". Hosting is located in "Valuehost" company, in St. Petersburg. The domain is registered with Vladimir S Suxarev on December 24, 2001. A "supplementary cult Internet resource".
. http://www.faluinfo.ru — Information center of the Falun Dafa in the RF. Hosting is located in "Valuehost" company, St. Petersburg. The domain is registered with Vladimir S Suxarev on December 27, 2001. A "principle cult Internet resource".
. http://www.epochtimes.com and http://epochtimes.ru — a single media resource in 13 languages (Russian, Ukrainian, English, Korean, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Hebrew, Romanian, Bulgarian, Slovak, Swedish). Hosting http://epochtimes.ru is located in "nserver: ns20.ruweb.net". The domain is registered with Vladimir S Suxarev on December 9, 2004. A "principle cult Internet resource".
. http://www.ru-enlightment.org/docs/default.htm — Russian version of the "Wisdom, which recovered its sight" (methodological instructions — minghui.org). The project was created on January 9, 2001 in the USA, hosting being located in the USA. A "supplementary Internet resource".
. http://ru.clearharmony.net —"Clear harmony", a website about the "Falun Gong" in Europe. Russian version was created on August 16, 2001 in the USA. Hosting is located in Germany. A "supplementary Internet-resource".
. http://www.falundafa.ru — a website about the Falun Gong and its leader. Hosting is located in "Valuehost" company, in St. Petersburg. The domain is registered with Irina I Khan on April 14, 2005. The site was created by "Irina" and "Anton", working in a regional Moscow center of the cult. A "private cult Internet resource".
Graphic design, color, style of the content
When designing projects, they use the same light blue and violet colors. The number of photos is extremely limited. Most of the photographs are of official nature and are taken from the official websites of the cult. In graphics they use the image of a lotus, people in poses of the Eastern gymnastics and a limited number of the identical photos of "the Chinese government's brutality" (which are very difficult to corroborate or disclaim because of the closeness of China and the level of the technical support of the cult (option of photomontage).
Author's rights. Cross-links
Standard description of author's rights or their absence on the amateur websites (the number of which in the Russian Internet is extremely small, around 3-5 websites). Cross-links are made only in the official cult projects and to a small number of the "private" ones (not to all of them). On many Russian-language websites there are no links to some profile cult websites (e.g. to the CIPFG).
Topics of "cult" news. Orientation of the cult's fight against the external surroundings (personality, elitism…)
A limited number of the cult "news". "The Guru news" contains new statements and lectures by "the Guru". The overwhelming majority of the information, published on the web-sites is about successful fight with the "outer foes". There is extremely little information about the cult's ideology and the "teacher's" biography. The main part of the information (about 80%) is dedicated to the criticism of the Chinese government.
The subject-matter area of the article is oriented at the criticism of the Chinese government. And for this the cult uses any negative or positive worldwide news about China. The topic range of the news varies from Tibet to Olympic Games — 2008 in Beijing.
Examples of the latest news headlines:
. Disorders in Lhasa were provoked by China;
. Escape from the Chinese labor camps;
. Stop murdering the innocent people — the Falun Gong disciples;
. The Olympic games in China will become a black spot in the history;
. The Chinese government is hurrying to "prepare" prisons and camps for the foreign journalists' visits;
. Olympic waste is not appreciated by the poor;
. Opening ceremony of the Olympic Games — 2008:" distortion of reality";
. Beijing Olympic Games: sports or cannibalism?;
. Normal people are against the Chinese government repressions during the Olympic Games;
. Sportsmen call Hu Jintao to observe human rights;
. " The grandiose Olympic Games opening ceremony is "boring" and "fascist-like" , — state the critics;
. Mysterious cases of dying out of the Olympic Fire ("The days of the communist party are limited";
. Heaven's warning: "The Olympic Games and repressions are incompatible";
. Chinese regime will block the Internet access during the Olympic Games";
. Tortures around the Olympic settlement;
. Bush is going "to challenge the Olympic Games", criticizing human rights violation in China;
. Amnesty International condemns the Chinese government for violation of the Olympic values;
. China requests Japan for information about the Falun Gong;
. 10 most important facts about the Falun Gong and the Olympic Games in Beijing;
. Falun Dafa International day;
. Film "Shock";
. Petition "One Million signatures"— 2008;
. Development of aggression towards Falun Gong in some representatives of higher levels of authority in China;
. The Dafa music;
. Universal encyclopedia contains a chapter about the Falun Gong;
. Audio script of preaching of the Law by the Teacher Li Hongzhi in the city of Jinnnan;
. Israel parliamentarians are against the Falun Gong prosecution, etc.
Negative Chinese news is condensed around the following types of news:
. "tortures of the devotees in China";
. "concentration camps and prisons in China";
. "violent transplantation of disciples' organs in China";
. "Tibet and the Olympic Games".
To a less extent "positive news" belong:
. "support of the "Falun Gong" cult by different people and organizations;
. "cult-participated events";
. "disciples' self-perfection".
News publication on the cult and non-cult resources. News resources + the factor of cross-news from non-cult to cult resource
The "Falun Gong" news is published in two out of three ways: only on the cult websites or initially on the cult websites and then on other non-cult websites.
Moreover news is popularized without any amendments or alternations with a reference to the major cult resource. All news is edited by the cult Mass Media. Publication of news from the non-cult resources is prohibited and intolerable, even if it is negative as for the Chinese government.
It is allowed to publish cult news in the Internet society community "Falun Gong" in the non-cult Internet projects.
For example:
. mail.ru community "the Olympic Games and outrage upon humanity are incompatible" or the "Falun Gong friends";
. planeta.rambler.ru community "Planet, called a Violet";
. scientific films blog the "Falun Gong" at blogspot.com etc.
Frequency of news update on the cult resources. Comparison of multilingual versions of news. Distinction in cult propaganda by the same example
The news update is not continuous. Intervals between publishing of new information can last up to half a year or a year (it is characteristic of the "private cult projects"). In general news appear as an element of reporting about some press-conference or event run by the cult and external news about China, used in the cult's interests.
The same news, submitted to different countries may differ in meaning and ambiguity of translation. The information oriented at Asia and the USA is kept apart. In the informational influence on the Asian countries the emphasis is made on the "spiritual component" of the cult's teaching, but the same propaganda, in the USA and its satellite countries (Israel and Great Britain) is oriented at the description of "brutality and tortures applied to the movement representatives in China".
The object of the criticism is the Chinese political leader (the Party secretary) or the Chinese communist party in general. For example, a "misleading" participation in some events (when you are not provided with the whole information about the event, or you are deluded) by the representatives of scientific circles or local political elite, is highlighted by local mass media as a cultural interaction or protection of human rights, and in cult mass media of other regions, it is represented as overwhelming support and sharing of the "cult's ideology". For many representatives of social organizations it is enough to know that the "Falun Gong" is persecuted in "totalitarian China", "its devotees suffer in the Chinese torture chambers". Information about religious and terrorist nature of this organization is often becoming an element of the "double standards" or remains unavailable for the participants of the mutual events.
Official contact information
The main contacts of the cult in Russia and CIS are "name + (home or cell) telephone number. E-mail address is given mainly at the "private" Internet sites.
For example:
. http://www.falundafa.org/eng/contacts/site/42.html — contacts in the RF;
. http://www.falundafa.org/eng/contacts/site/48.html — contacts in Ukraine.
Number of visitors (counters) or registered users (check-in time)
Counters are not identified. There is no access to the information about visitors. There is general information about search engines, which estimate the popularity of these resources according to their algorithms (PR in Google).
Devotees communication. Logic of the cult adherent replies wording.
There are two types of devotees communication:
. Free recruitment — devotees spread information about their success and their cult in places of their potential communication in order to carry out their commitments to recruit new members.
. Information propagation — spread of the cult news and information on the non-cult websites makes a devotee confident of the significance of his activities and "rightness of the cult teaching". People spread "positive information" about cults in order to subconsciously persuade themselves of the rightness of the "teaching".
A distinctive feature of the "Falun Gong" is that "free recruitment" in the Russian-language Internet can be performed only by a limited number of people. When analyzing forums, one can have an impression that there are only 10-15 active adherents of the "Falun Gong" in CIS. The basic mass of devotees may only "propagate the news from the cult projects".
Such messages are stereotypical. First there comes a message about "rivers of blood", "overcrowded prisons" and other horrors of the" Olympic China". After the emotional message there come 5-6 references to the news from the major cult sites. But the references and news headlines change extremely rare and may be the same during half a year or the whole year.
Cult criticism and its publication on the non-cult sites
There are three sources of cult criticism:
. Communist organizations (characteristic of Ukraine);
. Chinese governmental organizations and Chinese mass media;
. Social organizations, researching in the field of destructive cults (characteristic of Ukraine);
. Institutions of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.
General conclusion:
Analysis of the cult's information activity made it possible to find out that the administrative center of the "Falun Gong" is located in St. Petersburg. Development of the "Falun Gong" projects in the Internet is handled by a limited group of the cult's adherents. Publishing the information on the non-cult projects and Internet recruitment are carried out by another group of disciples (presumably, from Ukraine).
It is worth admitting that the cult's information policy does not show any significant distinctions in propaganda of the teaching among the Russian-language population of the Eastern Europe and corresponds to the "standard dissemination of information". "Private cult projects" are being developed extremely slowly, which indicates the absence of any kind of support from the leaders of the cult.
According to the analysis, the cult uses the Internet facilities mainly for the inner organization and coordination of its adherents. The Internet is indirectly used for the recruitment and this is mainly aimed at spreading "negative information" about the Chinese government.
Even in comparison with the methods, used by other destructive cults, such usage of the Internet indicates that:
. Abilities of the hacker-devotees are extremely limited;
. The struggle of the Chinese state services against cyber-terrorism is efficient;
. The "Falun Gong" involves outer specialists from the Asian and American cyber-community into accomplishing cyber attacks.
The activity of this cult inside and outside the Internet will develop according to the level of support by the American governmental and non-governmental organizations and the efficiency of the Chinese state services counteraction. Unfortunately, we can state the fact that the American State Department's policy as for the destructive cults such as "Church of Scientology", "Mormons", "Jehovah's Witnesses" and the "Falun Gong" is formed according to the thesis: "He is a son of a bitch, but he is our son of a bitch!".(reference to the Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somose (senior), made, according to the statements of the American memoirist',by a 32 year old President of the USA (1933-1945) Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945).
With hopes for the better. By publishing this article the Author is not pursuing any commercial purpose, acting solely in the framework of a scientific research, expressing personal opinion without any purpose of discrediting the above mentioned juridicalatural persons and religions or submitting deliberately false.
The Author of this article is grateful to the authors and collectives, whose materials made the composition this article possible. The materials used for this article were taken from the open sources.
