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In November, Debunk EU analysts examined 1,175 articles that found false and misleading information about the Baltic countries and Poland. They were published in 102 different media in the Baltic countries and Poland in English, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish and Russian. It is estimated that the articles examined reached 226 million. audience of people.
During the observed period, the addresses of false and misleading information in the Baltic States changed, when evaluating the articles examined in November, In Lithuania, disinformation increased by 42.7 percent. Latvia saw a slight decrease of 9.9%, while Estonia saw an average increase of 25.9%.
Disprove the EU data. Disinformation distribution in the Baltic countries and Poland, 2020 November
In terms of accessibility, the flow of disinformation to Lithuania increased by 14.4%, decreased by 4.7% in Estonia and halved in Latvia by 50.7%. In November, the Baltic states were more aimed at local audiences, with a lack of national events or examples that would have been better suited to be broadcast to a wider audience in Russia itself.
Disprove the EU data. / Flow of disinformation in the Baltics and Poland, 2020 November
The second wave of COVID-19 was observed to affect the spread of misinformation / disinformation in the Baltic States and Poland. In Lithuania, COVID-19 was the third most popular topic in the articles examined, although its availability was only 10th among all articles. In Poland, the COVID-19 narrative ranked first in November. Most of the articles on this topic were published and most of the reactions were received on Facebook.
Narratives directed against the Baltic states and Poland have been used as misleading criticisms of the attitude of the Baltic states and Poland to the protests in Belarus and the extension of sanctions against Alexander Lukashenko’s regime. The use of this rhetoric has been on the wane for several months, and in November the US presidential elections and NATO military exercises revived a narrative that presents the Baltic states and / or Poland as US vassals. And NATO.
After the death of Belarusian protester Roman Bondarenko on November 20, Estonia proposed new sanctions against Belarus. At that time, the amount of news directed against Estonia and the Baltic countries also increased.
“It has been noted that since the launch of the Astrava nuclear power plant in November, the Kremlin-sponsored media has intensified disinformation narratives based on the approach taken by the Baltic states on the nuclear power plant. November, Estonia also appeared in these narratives, when in previous months the rhetoric referred only to Lithuania and Latvia, ”says Balys Liubinavičius, Debunk EU chief analyst in Lithuania.
Estonian Interior Minister Mart Helme’s statements about US President-elect Joe Biden sparked a government crisis in the country, which was seized by the pro-Kremlin media as an opportunity to once again portray Estonia as a humble American “servant”.
Photo by Scanpix / Astravo Nuclear Power Plant
During the observation period, the pro-Kremlin media tried in various ways to portray the supposedly anti-Russian Estonian policies. “Estonia has been portrayed falsely accusing the Russian media of discriminating against the population because of the language they speak. Estonia was also reported to have accused Russia of manipulating historical facts. Stories of disinformation even claimed that prominent government figures are Kremlin agents. ”Says Liubinavičius.
In the case of Latvia, the Latvian narrative as an attempt to show that Russia is a hostile state was used primarily in disinformation articles. The second most widely used narrative was the description of a country as a “failed state.”
Estonia has been portrayed as falsely accusing the Russian media of discriminating against the population because of the language they speak, Liubinavičius says.
“Many articles focused on the fact that Russia is the pillar that helps Latvia’s economy, and they said that Latvia is a Russian country. These narratives are closely related as it has been claimed that Latvia has lost Russia’s support due to its irrational policy against Russia, “says B. Liubinavičius.
Meanwhile, Lithuania has often been portrayed as a “failed state” whose incompetent government is incapable of making rational decisions, especially regarding the commissioning of the Astrava nuclear power plant. Most of the misinformation was observed on November 2, 3 and 11, when there was a lot of talk in both Russia and Belarus about power plant safety.
According to B. Liubinavičius, the pro-Kremlin media tried to dispel Lithuania’s doubts about the Astrava nuclear power plant as much as possible. “In addition to being described as ‘hysterical’, ‘jealous’ and ‘irrational’, Lithuania has also been accused of allegedly irresponsible and unjustified intimidation of the country’s population through non-existent threats,” the analyst said.
In November, disinformation related to COVID-19 also increased in Lithuania.
The NATO Iron Wolf 2020 and Brilliant Jump 2020 military exercises, which took place in Lithuania, also became a pretext for disinformation spread by media friendly to the Kremlin.
Lithuania and other Baltic countries were also described as “sympathizers of Nazism and fascism”.
Lithuania and other Baltic countries were also described as “sympathizers of Nazism and fascism”. “The desecration of the Soviet cemetery in Obeliai in November was presented as a supposed example of the revival of Nazi ideas in Lithuania,” says B. Liubinavičius. Commenting on this event, the Russian Embassy in Lithuania speculated that desecration is possible. “[…] russophobia and evidence [neigiamai] introduce the Russian, Soviet and Soviet soldier [Lietuvoje]”Outcome”.
November in Poland The media focused on three issues: protests against restrictions on abortion, the coronavirus and the purchase of vaccines, and Poland’s veto of the EU budget. In the articles, Poland, like the Baltic countries, is also presented as a Russian country.
Protests across the country over tougher abortion laws have helped Kremlin-backed media spread the word about the unstable situation in the country.
Reuters / Photo by Scanpix / Protests in Poland
Poland has been portrayed as an irrational country that buys a “dangerous” vaccine and overestimates the effects of COVID-19 by imposing unjustified restrictions. According to B. Liubinavičius, false and misleading information related to vaccines was noticed when news broke about plans by the EU and Poland to purchase coronavirus vaccines. Poland was also often mentioned as hostile not only to Russia but also to Belarus.
The investigation also observed a steady stream of anti-NATO communication. Alliance military exercises in the Baltic States and Poland often lead to a wave of misinformation: anti-NATO narratives in November focused primarily on the fact that the military exercises disturbed the local population. According to B. Liubinavičius, the fake articles tried to create a negative image of NATO: they wrote about soldiers firing near schools and hospitals, military blockade equipment, as well as attacks between NATO and Lithuanian or Polish soldiers.
Disprove the EU data. / Main sources in Estonia and Latvia, 2020 November
In November, nearly half of the articles were published in the Kremlin’s career publications Sputnik and Baltnews, as well as on the Rubaltic.ru website. In Poland, the websites neon24.pl and news-front.info stood out among those that spread the most false and misleading information.
In November, 141 articles were analyzed in Estonia, potentially reaching 41.2 million. audience (there were 112 articles of this type in October). In Latvia, 210 articles were found, reaching 34.2 million. people (there were 233 such articles in October). In November, 458 articles related to Lithuania were examined (321 in October), reaching 119 million. consumers. In Poland, 366 of these texts were detected, reaching 31.5 million. readers (data for Poland was first collected in November, so no information is available for comparison yet).
Disprove the EU data. / Main sources in Lithuania and Poland, 2020 November.
Data for this study was collected using the DebunkEU platform, as well as CrowdTangle, a Facebook-owned tool that tracks public content interactions from Facebook pages and groups, verified profiles, Instagram and Reddit accounts. Pages. The Truly Media platform, designed to help journalists check digital content, and TruthNest, Twitter’s data analysis platform, were also used.
The investigation also observed a steady stream of anti-NATO communication.
Apie Debunk EU
Debunk EU is an initiative that brings together the public, the media, and the state to combat fake news that confuses and undermines confidence in the country. The Debunk EU initiative has received attention and funding from Google, the world’s largest search engine, as well as media giants such as The Financial Times and Deutsche Welle. The organization has presented its activities in 17 countries, including the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Serbia and others.
The November disinformation study was conducted by a team of Debunk EU analysts: Lithuanian chief analysts Balys Liubinavičius and Laima Venclauskienė. Sir. Estonian analyst Enel Ehrenhaft. Sir. Latvian analyst Kristine Skujina-Troksa and head. Polish analyst Magdalena Wilczyńska.
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