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Latvia Monthly: Disinformation enters mainstream politics
While Kremlin-aligned disinformation has long been present in Latvia's information space, the more alarming development is how local politicians have brought these tactics into the center of mainstream politics, making conspiracy theories and fabricated threats core components of parliamentary debate. Conservative and populist politicians like oligarch Ainārs Šlesers now routinely claim the Istanbul Convention promotes "117 genders" and enables forced gender transitions for children, combining Russian-style narratives about Western moral decay with Trumpian manipulation tactics including personal ridicule, "Sorosist" conspiracies, and apocalyptic calls to "save Latvia."
Read moreLatvia Weekly: Media and Trump
In the examined week, the content surrounded domestic issues such as corruption and media funding and international topics such as the upcoming US elections, NATO and assistance for Ukraine. Most notably, there is a highly critical view of the capabilities and the effectiveness of NATO, which were also prominent in the prior two weeks. The reasoning for such claims is rooted in the unwillingness of other NATO states to help in the case of an attack. Regarding content, the leading platform remains TikTok which garners the most engagement and there is a significant decrease in engagement with content published on Facebook. Although some of the examined content creators are increasingly more active on Twitter/X, engagement remains low.
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