Here's an unclassified 82 page report on NATO information operations [1], which designates a role for a Deception Officer and indeed defines that,
>Deception involves measures designed to mislead adversaries by manipulation,
distortion or falsification.
Nor is the overall function limited to the "adversary", for example on page 23 you can read that Info Ops are performed to create "desired effects on the will and understanding of...approved parties", which include "potential adversaries, decision makers, cultural groups, [and] elements of the international community".
I'm not saying that NATO is necessarily in the wrong to do these things in this situation, but it's certainly a bit naive to think that both sides are not fighting in the information space.
>Deception involves measures designed to mislead adversaries by manipulation, distortion or falsification.
Nor is the overall function limited to the "adversary", for example on page 23 you can read that Info Ops are performed to create "desired effects on the will and understanding of...approved parties", which include "potential adversaries, decision makers, cultural groups, [and] elements of the international community".
I'm not saying that NATO is necessarily in the wrong to do these things in this situation, but it's certainly a bit naive to think that both sides are not fighting in the information space.
[1] https://info.publicintelligence.net/NATO-IO.pdf