Reports
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.
Read moreLithuania 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”.
Read moreLithuania Weekly: Weekly: Death of Alexei Navalny and undermining trust in NATO
Kremlin-aligned media outlets broadly commented on NATO and its possible faith. Outlets emphasised the questionable future of the organisation if Trump becomes the President, foreseeing that "it would be over for NATO". Outlets also pictured Ukraine's victory as impossible and ensured that "US and Europe have lost the war to Russia in Ukraine, and Crimea and Donbas will remain Russian territories". Outlets also speculated the reasons behind the death of “the US-funded and Western-praised” Alexei Navalny, seeking conspiracy theories of whom to blame and calling him “a Western puppet”.
Read moreLatvia Weekly: Friendship with China and faults of the USA
In the examined week, the main disinformation narratives discussed surrounded the cooperation between Latvia and China as well as potential war with Russia. Familiar to all content was to portray that media in Latvia does not provide impartial information and that the Western world and Globalists. In terms of platforms, most engagement is reached in TikTok. In comparison to prior months, content on Facebook is reaching less engagement.
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