Like the devil reads the Bible
“Danish scholars conclude that RT has ‘exceptional influence’ in social media.”
This was the title of a recent story published by the Russian state-controlled news agency RIA Novosti. A similar story was run by Sputnik, also in Russian.
The sensational headline about the “exceptional influence” looks like a pat on RT’s back; however, it’s a piece wishful thinking.
Read also: Three things you should know about RT and Sputnik
What researchers at the University of Copenhagen had in fact detected was that RT is popular among a very special and narrow group of social media users, namely people who are likely share disinformation.
“We found RT to be the most important profile among the top 50 profiles […] in the disinformation network,” the researchers stated in the abstract of their study, which was published in International Affairs.
Illusion of RT popularity for domestic audience
RIA Novosti, Sputnik and RT all have the same editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan.
RIA’s manipulation of the Danish study was also analyzed by Ukrainian counter propaganda media outlet Stopfake.
Read more:
- Inside RT and Sputnik: What is it like to work for Kremlin’s propaganda
- Seven things you should know about pro-Kremlin disinformation
- KT – Kremlin Today
- Komsomolskaya Pravda, Russia Today – leading outlets for anti-Semitic and anti-Israel propaganda, Israeli researchers say
- In the depths of disinformation: this is how RT propaganda works
- Former RT anchor: I became the target of a Russian propaganda conspiracy theory
- RT goes beyond the pale
- Seven strategies of domestic Russian propaganda
- Fake Western experts as a propaganda tool on Russian TV
- Irrelevant questions as a pro-Kremlin propaganda tool to distract the audience
- How pranksters are used as a pro-Kremlin propaganda tool
- “Russophobia” as a Russian propaganda tool
- 15-point checklist of Putin regime’s propaganda techniques
- Intimidation as a propaganda tool in the Nordic countries
- Email chains and other Russia’s propaganda tools in central and eastern Europe
- How Russian propaganda uses the victim-blaming strategy against Ukraine
