Reports
Latvia Weekly: Green initiatives - a threat to Latvian economy
During the examined week the disinformation narratives were comparatively diverse in comparison to prior weeks. Nevertheless, the primary issues discussed are domestic, such as corruption, societal values and language. From the examined platforms, most engagement is reached on TikTok and Facebook, where content is posted in video format. In the prior weeks, there had been a noticeable trend of disinformation channels being more active on Twitter, which is starting to reach significantly more engagement. Nevertheless, the engagement is highly critical.
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Latvia Weekly: Corruption and Hate towards LGBTQ
In the examined week similarly as prior weeks the content was centered around domestic issues with main narratives being corruption within the Latvian government, the life quality level and the issue of Russian language use. The topic of Istanbul Convention or Covid-19 which have been prominent in the prior weeks is being less discussed with less content adressing the issues. Moreover, content which does adress the latter topics is receiving significantly less engagement as before. In regard to overall engagement, similarly as prior weeks the comment sections are significantly more critical by calling out the author on not refering to legitimate sources or overall being logically inconsistent. The form of the content that reaches the highest engagement remains to be in video format.
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Latvia Weekly: Istanbul Convention and LGBTQ
From the findings of the examined week, similar disinformation narratives to prior weeks have been followed. The main topic discussed throughout the content of various authors across several platforms is the Istanbul Convention. As the Latvian parliament moved closer to allowing the registration of same-sex partnerships, disinformation from authors close to the opposition parties or within the opposition parties themselves followed. The content examined tends to group the Istanbul Convention and same-sex partnerships under one roof despite the former addressing issues of domestic violence against women which has nothing in common with the latter. The main narratives include that the Istanbul Convention will somehow affect children's teaching, which will be harmful. Additionally, a common narrative is that the United States is paying for the "lgbt propaganda" which is reflected in same-sex partnerships and the Istanbul Convention. However, when examining the sources to which the authors making such posts refer they lead to the United States government sites in which they talk about the budget given to fighting inequality of gender pay which has nothing to do with the lgbt movement.
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Latvia Weekly: Border Security Concerns, Linguistic Polarization, and Political Critique
In this week, the disinformation primarily addressed domestic issues, such as polarization between Latvian and Russian speakers, the ratification of the Istanbul convention, and the influx of illegal migrants at the eastern border of Latvia. Content on Twitter reached a significantly lower audience compared to other platforms, with video content showing higher levels of engagement.
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