Report
Latvia Weekly: How Outrage Is Fueling a Populist Surge
The previously fringe Union of New Latvians party is now polling to pass the 5% threshold for Riga’s city council. Its leaders Glorija Grevcova and Rūdolfs Brēmanis are generating social media engagement through content which can be described as “outrage porn.” They are stirring up outrage in their audience using charged and even fake topics to provoke strong emotional reactions. Guess the populist political party which gained the most engagements for its posts on Facebook, TikTok and Telegram? It was not Roslikovs, the leader of Stability! party. It was not Ainārs Šlesers, Trump-like leader of Latvia First party. It was Glorija Grevcova and Rūdolfs Brēmanis from the Union New Latvians.
Weekly Reports
Lithuania Weekly: Detention of Celofanas
During this reporting week, heated discussions were mainly accelerated by two cases. Firstly, a man carrying a bag with a Wagner group (Russian state-funded militia) badge was detained at Vilnius Airport. While the majority of social media users condemned him for wearing a terrorist badge, others found a way to criticize the officials and Lithuanian police, blaming them for inappropriate behavior or even of violating human rights. Another discussion burst out considering Lithuanians’ willingness to defend the country with a gun, if necessary. Yet again, numerous comments carrying anti-government narrative appeared online.
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Latvia 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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Estonia Weekly: Demonised and controlled teachers
This week there was more talk about the economy, including Estonia’s assistance to Ukraine and its effect on the budget and economy, as well as the salaries of the Estonian politicians and how they are being paid more than teachers and paramedics, even though they do less to contribute to society. A missile attack in Ukraine was also mentioned, as well as America’s and Britain’s assistance with this claimed deliberate strike against civilians that killed and injured many. The switch of language of instruction was also brought up, and some teachers are struggling with learning Estonian and are scared of losing their jobs. Finally, there was a video link posted about the deportation of non-Estonian citizens and how those who are simply expressing their opinions are going to be deported as well.
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Lithuania Weekly: Kidnapping of a girl in Kaunas
During this reporting period, the entire country closely followed an intense drama, namely the search for a missing 9-year-old girl. Fortunately, she has been found alive after a frantic two-day search by officers and hundreds of volunteers. Lithuanian police successfully carried out an operation to free the girl, who was kidnapped and held in a garage in Kaunas. Despite the show of public unity, a well-known anti-government and Kremlin-aligned actor, Antanas Kandrotas (Celofanas [Cellophane]), continued to fuel passions on Lithuanian social networks. Celofanas has repeatedly claimed that he has “non-public information” about the crime and that “police are hiding the real situation”, urging his audience not to trust police officers in general. Right before the victim’s suspected abductor was detained, Celofanas sparked an outpouring of hate by naming and publishing a photograph of a man on Facebook, alleging his involvement in the crime. Turned out that he was not related to the crime at all.
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Latvia Weekly: Brussels dictate and misused donations to Ukraine
In the examined weeks, new disinformation narratives have appeared. The new disinformation narratives have an underlying message of the European Union not being beneficial for Latvia. The content surrounding the Green Deal and global warming does not question global warming as such but rather focuses on how these restrictions imposed by the European union are negatively affecting the Latvian economy and even comparing the European Union to the USSR. Nevertheless, content on such topics is not gaining significant engagement.
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Estonia Weekly: Ukraine and mistrusted politicians
This week there was more talk about the economy, including Estonia’s assistance to Ukraine and its effect on the budget and economy, as well as the salaries of the Estonian politicians and how they are being paid more than teachers and paramedics, even though they do less to contribute to society. A missile attack in Ukraine was also mentioned, as well as America’s and Britain’s assistance with this claimed deliberate strike against civilians that killed and injured many. The switch of language of instruction was also brought up, and some teachers are struggling with learning Estonian and are scared of losing their jobs. Finally, there was a video link posted about the deportation of non-Estonian citizens and how those who are simply expressing their opinions are going to be deported as well.
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Lithuania Weekly: Fire in the Viršuliskės Neighbourhood
During this reporting week, the stories from Lithuania’s remaining Kremlin-aligned media outlets that received the most engagement covered domestic issues. These centred around a fire at an apartment building in Vilnius, in which 15 people were rescued and two died. Malign actors quickly linked the event to different conspiracy theories; for example, referring to it as a terrorist attack, claiming that police knew about the bomb but did not stop the approaching accident, or even assuming that Ukrainian refugees may have brought the bomb.
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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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Estonia Weekly: Centrist party and people of Tallinn at the centre of attention
This week there continues to be a lot of discussion about the politicians who left the Centrist Party, stating that they are liars who went against the will of their constituents. There was also a lot of discussion about Zelensky’s arrival in the Baltics, Estonia’s relations with Ukraine, and about sending Ukrainians back to fight in the war. There was also mention of the economic downturn and the people blaming the richer cities.
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