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
, 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
