Reports
Estonia Weekly: Economy and high taxes
This week, many posts focused on the economy, raising taxes and the budget. Several posts claimed the misuse of state funds by politicians for political advertising. Posts contended that the higher taxes are what is causing the economic downfall. Some posts centred around the Ukraine war, as well, with claims that Kaya Kallas cannot guarantee that Estonian soldiers will not be sent to Ukraine. there was also a story about an Estonian ambassador who was removed from a delegation flight to Japan because he was supposedly drunk, but no one will explain what happened.
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Latvia Weekly: Media and Trump
During the examined week, the content primarily surrounded previously mentioned narratives, such as the need to support Donald Trump, corruption within the coalition government, the Istanbul Convention, and potential threats by Russia. A video published on Tiktok regarding a German warship in Riga garnered 740k views and 1,5k comments. The opinions expressed in the comments show two things: first, there is trust in the effectiveness of NATO and second, there is a brief that Russian threats might materialise shortly. Regarding the form of the content, TikTok remains the platform that creates the most engagement and reaches a larger audience. Some of the examined content creators are increasingly more active on Twitter, and engagement is not as high as in TikTok, but it is now comparable to that of Facebook.
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Latvia 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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Lithuania Weekly: Two years on since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine
During this reporting week, Kremlin-aligned media were mainly concentrated on the upcoming Presidential elections and continued to spread anti-government sentiments. Even though this narrative is well-established, the current intensity of this narrative is remarkable: this may be directly associated with the Lithuanian elections due to take place later this year. Because of bypassing the years mark of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine during this reporting period, Kremlin-aligned outlets also discussed Russia’s war in Ukraine, claiming that “Lithuania will enter the war in Ukraine together with the Poles by sending their troops”. Articles criticised the government, stating that “Lithuania does not need the war with the Russians that this traitorous government is preparing “ and broadly portraying Ukraine’s victory as elusive and its government as “untrustworthy”.
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