Key Insights:
During the reporting month, the content primarily examined topics such as the Russian language policies and corruption within the Latvian government and the European Union. The main narratives are as follows:
- Latvians and governmental policies are mistreating the Russian-speaking population in Latvia.
- Latvia’s government is corrupt, out of touch and overburdened by bureaucracy.
- Latvia does not benefit from being a member of the European Union
Overview of findings:
- TikTok, Telegram, Facebook, and X platforms were monitored in the reporting month. Content in video format achieves the most engagement, making TikTok and Facebook the primary channels for disseminating disinformation. A total of 200 posts were examined, and the number of posts has decreased by approximately 50 compared to the previous examined month.
- Similar to prior months, the content primarily revolves around domestic issues such as corruption, language policies, and economic development. In the examined month, a substantial amount of content was related to the European Union due to the elections. After the elections, content negatively targeted the European Union, and its policies substantially decreased.
- Within the examined platforms, engagement on TikTok and Facebook is largely supportive, indicating that the target audiences are susceptible to disinformation narratives. In contrast, the content examined on platform X usually receives more critical engagement, often fact-checking the content posted.
Story of the month: The true nature of war
The video posted on TikTok with the title “Īstā kara būtība” by the leader of the opposition party, Jaunlatvieši, aims to explain to the audience the “true” reasons behind the war as a response to the measures encouraging military training as well as the mandatory conscription following Russias aggression in Ukraine. The video primarily aims to target a younger male demographic to dissuade them from pursuing military training or resisting mandatory conscription by portraying it as a part of a larger conspiracy by the government.
The opposition party leader Rudolfs Bremanis, in his video, explains that the conscription measures are a tool used by the government to target young, physically strong men as if they were to be killed in a war, there is less likeliness of them revolting against the government. Hence, conscription is unnecessary for national security; it keeps the existing government in power by controlling the younger generation. Moreover, the video’s author claims that governments purposefully create narratives of existing external enemies. The author goes further to make an example of the situation of Ukraine by stating that there the government has made up the narrative convincing the population that Russia and Russians are evil and compares this situation to Russians being perceived as wrong in Latvia and the United States as well.
The statements made by the opposition party leader express the view that the perception of Russians as the enemy is artificial, especially in the context of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine can be seen as an implicit denial of Russia’s aggression. Such narratives are seemingly linked to the ones used to justify the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, claiming that the mistreatment of the Russian-speaking diaspora provoked such attacks.
In terms of engagement, the post in video format received 1660 likes, 208 comments, 192 shares and 27 thousand views. The engagement in the comment section indicated that the video is primarily received with support from a small minority, who are critical of how the political party is based on such narratives benefiting Russia. For example, the comments link corruption within the government, COVID-19 measures and alleged fear-mongering for war as tools of oppression of ordinary citizens.
(All young people must go and topple the government physically before it is too late)
(The United States military industry, CIA and FBI are the biggest abusers in the world. Those villains need the war because there is a lot of money. I think that the Latvian territory and people are doomed to war with Russia)
(War is necessary to oppress local citizens. The institutions did the same during covid times)
