Daniel Iriarte (Zaragoza, 1980) is a journalist who one day left behind shocking work destinations, such as Istanbul or Cairo, editing desks or untimely schedules to focus on the analysis of disinformation for public and private entities. The product of this is ‘Cognitive Wars’ (Arpa, 2025), an agile and disturbing essay about how “states, spies, companies and terrorists” strive to colonize minds, waging in each individual, in this era of global confusion, a battle as relevant as the fighting on the plains of Ukraine or the bombings that devastate Gaza.
Your book left me worried…
Yes, I finished the book in February, and it is already over. For example, there was the possibility that, with artificial intelligence, the collection of personalized data from each citizen and the sending of messages from them, which already occurred in Brexit with Cambridge Analytica, would be more persuasive and massive. A month ago we learned that a Chinese company already does this profiling and sends personalized messages. For now, only in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, to neutralize debates against the Communist Party.
How can a democracy defend itself?
A difficult question. We see massive exploitation of the characteristics of open societies by the adversaries of democracy: freedom of expression, of the press. Furthermore, in most democracies, spreading disinformation is not a crime. And the initiatives that have been launched to verify news or deny hoaxes do not work. It takes much longer to deny a hoax than to generate it.
Cover of the book ‘Cognitive Wars’, by Daniel Iriarte. / Editorial
What I liked most about his book is the psychological profile of an extremist. Explain how the mind of a radical receives information…
His name is David Saavedra, author of ‘Memoirs of an Ex-Nazi’, and he was talking about the concept of ‘cognitive bubble’. David is a person who, in addition to having left the Nazi movement, has reflected on the mental processes of radicalization. He says that, when one is within this movement, his way of reasoning is a bubble in which only what fits with his mental shelf enters; What is not is discarded, something also applicable to the ultra-left. Once ideology becomes an identity element, it is much more difficult to influence the individual. He compares it to falling in love.
Is journalism not enough?
No. Neither do verification organizations. What is working, more or less? Digital literacy. Taiwan is a territory with a big problem with Chinese disinformation, which always tries to modify the consciousness of Taiwanese. There are many government WhatsApp initiatives and channels that one can go to if one sees suspicious information, and they verify it there. These initiatives make people aware that some of the information circulating may be misinformation. It works even better in Finland, where children’s training begins at a very early age, and they are taught to distrust what is given to them, question sources and narratives. Finland is the Western country with the least penetration of Russian disinformation.
Are Spain and Europe improving?
I would say no. Although it depends on what sector. Among the kids, there is a dichotomy. On the one hand, they have greater exposure to social networks than adults. We, on the other hand, move in the debate between truth and lies. For young people, many times, the truth that I like is the one I adhere to. But there is also a cynicism that does not exist in later generations: they understand that part of what is circulating is false. As for the rest, I don’t know what to say. I see political movements that think it is a shortcut to power, and they use it with impunity and with some success.
An example.
Anti-immigration accounts, which attempt to amplify incidents in which immigrants have participated, or falsely attribute violent episodes to immigrants. They manage to create an anti-immigration climate that certain parties exploit.
The best disinformer in the world, according to his book, is Russia. How did you acquire that mastery?
They have always been very good at psychological operations. This shows that technical means are not as important as finding the psychological key for manipulation to work. Russia has only adapted the old KGB methods to new digital ecosystems.
Should coercive measures be applied against disinformers?
There is no universal notion of what disinformation is. And these types of mechanisms can lend themselves to abuse by a Government. In the case of people in the service of foreign powers, some type of restriction can be established.
He talks about China and, to a lesser extent, Iran. Does the West misinform?
In the book I tell about the American campaign against the Chinese covid vaccine. During the pandemic, the US realized that China was winning the battle of public opinion with an untested vaccine. Elements of the Pentagon thought that it had to be counteracted and created swarms of fake accounts that spread narratives against the Chinese vaccine. Some were legitimate, like the lack of testing. Others don’t: In Muslim countries it was said that it had pork fat. But there is no equivalence, neither in moral terms or in quantity, between democracies and autocracies. The former respond to a public opinion that does not like this behavior.
Do radicalisms always lie?
I would say yes. The world is too complex to put it into a simple idea that can mobilize the bases.
For democracies to survive, should they do like Romania, that is, sometimes suspend elections?
You have to go case by case. What happened in Romania was clear: a candidate without support suddenly becomes the most voted, thanks to Telegram and TikTok. But we must remember that once the protest vote takes shape, it is very difficult to put the genie back in the bottle. There are going to be cases with a not so clear scenario. And any measure can be counterproductive. In France, Le Pen has been convicted of irregular financing, a proven crime. But his party continues to lead.
A piece of advice for future journalists.
Journalistic work is still important. And the truth too. There continues to be a thirst for reliable knowledge among audiences, and people want to be able to trust who informs them.
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