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: Discussions about Country’s Security
During this reporting week, heated discussions were mainly accelerated by two cases. Firstly, a man carrying a bag
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Latvia Weekly: Zelensky and Istanbul Convention
In the examined week, there was significantly lower activity in the disinformation channels examined. Similarly as last week, central topics are corruption and the Istanbul Convention. As seen in prior weeks, there is more activity in X which has also started to gain engagement. Nevertheless, the form of the content that reaches the highest engagement remains to be in video format and is reached in Tiktok or Facebook platforms.
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Estonia Weekly: Vaccines, Centrist Party and Russian Language
This week there were claims that the centrist party members moving to the socialdemocrat party is causing the centrist party to lean more eastward and the politicians who left are doing to be a bigger part of the government and advance their careers even though it goes against the wishes of the people. COVID vaccinations were also claimed to have been lied about in the beginning of the pandemic and stated that western leaders said they took the medicine but 17000 people who took it, died. There were also articles about the Estonian Language Department and their erasure of Russian language from old mechanics, because they believe that it may threaten the Estonian language.
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Lithuania Weekly: Major Wars Discussed
Kremlin-aligned media outlets still operating in Lithuania continued to cover the wars in Ukraine and Occupied Palestinian Territory in a highly biased manner. Outlets kept harshly criticising Jews and accusing them of mass killings, and condemning Ukrainians for their ‘own negligence’, by all means discouraging support for them. Specific outlets, as most of the time, further spreade the anti-government sentiments.
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Latvia Weekly: Russian Language, Passports and Threat of Muslim Immigrants
From the findings of the examined week, the main narratives concerned domestic issues such as corruption, life quality level, and Russian language use, remaining similar to the prior examined week. The content regarding the increase in passport prices, Russian language use, or potential migration often refers to the elderly population or children as social groups less protected within society. Moreover, some channels examined try to appeal to both Latvian and Russian-speaking audiences by simultaneously criticizing Russia yet encouraging Russian language use. Similarly, as in the prior weeks, the comment section is becoming more critical of the narratives expressed. However, regarding corruption, the expressed narrative is more highly supported by the audience and often includes hate speech towards leading politicians. The form of the content that reaches the highest engagement remains to be in video format.
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Estonia Weekly: School System, Languages and Radio
This week there were several posts about the government changing the language of instruction for all schools to Estonian and how this is not possible because the children who attend the Russian schools do not speak Estonian well enough to be able to learn using the language. This lack of learning Estonian was blamed on the government and how they have failed to integrate more Estonian into the Russian schools. There were articles written about the former “Russian radio” changing its name to “Super radio” and these changes implied Russophobia. Several posts also mentioned the corruption of the Estonian government.
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Lithuania Weekly: Anti-Ukraine Sentiments
During this reporting week, Kremlin-aligned media outlets focused on criticising Ukraine and everything that’s related to this country. Outlets kept on minimising Ukraine’s capacities, proposing an incoming loss in the battlefield, blaming the country’s officials and armed forces for corruption and generally discouraging support for Ukraine, basing it on the fact, that, allegedly, it’s ineffective and other countries have already made the ‘smart and reasonable decision’.
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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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Estonia Weekly: Mobilization, Censorship and Sports
This week there was a lot of talk about the 2024 Estonian budget and how this new budget will create more poverty and monetary hardships for the Estonian people. There was also a lot of mention of Prime Minister Kaya Kallas, her meeting with Ukrainian president Zelensky, and how many other politicians agree that her resignation would help the political situation in Estonia improve.
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