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Reports

October 2nd - October 8th, 2023 by Olevs Nikers

Estonia Weekly: Security, Taxation and Trade Challenges

This week reflects the main processes in the world and national politics. Activity in social media is focused on security challenges within Estonian society, threats were received in Estonian schools, that were directed to physical security, questioning whether if there is relation to the Russian propaganda and other relate forces. A legislation was adopted with regards to the vehicle taxation policy, which is regarded by different opinions in the society. South Korea earned the attention over the social media, that Estonia could benefit to the South Korean and European trade. Many posts are related to the situation in Israel. The main narratives are naming the national security services as incompetent, that national vehicle taxation policy is a fail. and will lead to collapse of the market, US is dominating in the world politics only for its narrow economic and political interests, that Estonian politicians are incompetent in the domain of the world trade and economy, that state of Israel is a fail of US hegemonic policies of the cold war era and Estonian government is working against Estonian people

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September 25th - October 1st, 2023 by Otto Tabuns

Latvia Weekly: Vaccine Anxiety, Education Fears, and Pension Discontent

The majority of content continues to focus on COVID-19, specifically the anxiety surrounding mandatory vaccines. Content in Latvian language reaches a smaller audience compared to Russian, but garners more comments. Interestingly, the same content is received differently by Latvian and Russian-speaking audiences; Latvian responses are more critical, while Russian responses are predominantly supportive.​​

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September 25th - October 1st, 2023 by Olevs Nikers

Estonia Weekly: Estonian Language in the Limelight

This week draw most of the attention towards the education policy in Estonia, which provides, that teaching language in Estonia is Estonian language. This topic was also discussed in relation to the similar developments in Latvia, that also is taking place for some time. These developments are regarded as Russophobic and ultra nationalistic. Among the other topics were raised issue of the ban of the Estonian visas for the Russian citizens, which was regarded as a violation of the basic human rights, and politician Yana Toom elevated this issue on the level of the European Parliament. One of the authors utilized his Facebook account in spreading Chinese narrative towards Europe and USA. In summary, the narratives over this week suggested, that (1) Estonian ban of Visas for Russian citizens is a violation of the basic human rights, (2) the United States utilize disinformation as an instrument to hold its hegemony, (3) in Estonia prevails Russophobia in a massive scale - It is forbidden to be Russian in Estonia, while Ukraine agenda prevails and Ukraine flag is a Nazi Symbol and (3) This is a kind of a tragedy for kids of Russian minority to learn in Estonian language.

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September 18th - September 24th, 2023 by Otto Tabuns

Latvia Weekly: Persistent COVID-19 Disinformation, Corruption Claims, and Waning

Whilst the authors remain the same and try to apply a similar video format and narrative as in previous weeks, the engagement is lower. Additionally, some content relating to corruption and low trust in government is getting more prominent among the opposition political party leaders however engagement remains low. Considering that in prior weeks content relating to COVID-19 was relevant due to members of parliament being required to temporarily wear masks, the low engagement on similar content could be attributed to lack of actual evidence of a reintroduction of restrictions or vaccines.

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