Translation from Spanish: “Never forget who’s the real threat to the planet,” is the headline. This article was originally published in February by RT en Espanol on Twitter. It is meant for an audience half a globe away from the fighting at Mariupol and Kyiv.
Russia is spreading lies to social media users who speak Spanish in countries that have a history of distrusting the U.S. as that war rages. This is done to win support in these countries for the Kremlin’s war and to stoke resistance against America’s response.
Although many of the claims are now discredited they are still spreading throughout Latin America, helping to make Kremlin-controlled outlets the most important Spanish-language sources of information about the war. RT en Espanol, a Russian outlet, is the third most popular Twitter site for Spanish-language information on Russia’s invasion.
Samuel Woolley, a University of Texas professor specializing in disinformation research, said that “RT’s success should concern anyone concerned about democracy’s success.” “RT is geared towards authoritarian control, and depending on the context, nationalism or xenophobia. Russia could gain control over an increasing market share of eyeballs. This is what we are at risk of.
U.S.-based tech firms have attempted to limit the ability ofRussian outlets to spread propaganda after the invasion by banning apps that are linked to them, degrading the content, and labeling state-run media outlets. The European Union has bannedRT, and the Russian state-owned Sputnik.
The content is still popular on Spanish-language websites and message boards, as well as social media pages. Although Russia can also produce propaganda in other languages, such as English, Arabic, French, and German, the content has been particularly successful with Spanish-speaking users according to Esteban Ponce De Leon’s recent research. Esteban is a Bogota-based analyst at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. This Washington think tank receives funding from the U.S.
Russia’s discredit claims regarding Ukraine and the U.S. include the claim that the invasion was necessary to confrontneoNazis or that the U.S. secretly supported biological warfare research in Ukraine. The U.S. has long publicly funded Ukrainian biological labs that study pathogens in the hopes of reducing dangerous disease outbreaks.
This type of disinformation flows easily from Latin America to other countries, including the U.S., which have large Spanish-speaking populations. It can sometimes be passed between relatives, who may share the claims across continents. This is another entry point for Russia and a reminder about the sophistication of Russian efforts.
Jacobo Licona, a researcher from Equis Labs, stated that there are many avenues through which RT can engage communities in Latin America and the United States. “That’s why RT has been so successful, they’ve been building these networks or communities ahead of time.
Spanish, one of the most spoken languages in the world, is of obvious importance to any government or organization that wants to influence global public opinion. Analyst Ponce de Leon, of the Atlantic Council, stated that Russia’s attention on Spanish speaks to the strategic and historical importance of South and Central America during the Cold War.
The Soviet Union tried to exploit tensions between the U.S.A and Latin America for decades by supporting communist groups and larger allies like Cuba. While Russia has tried to paint the U.S. colonizing empire, the Kremlin has been working to strengthen its ties with the hemisphere.
The Spanish language service of RT was launched in 2009, four year after the English version. It has quickly gained popularity and is far more popular than the English version. RT en Espanol boasts more than 16,000,000 followers on its Facebook page. This is nearly twice the number of its English counterpart.
In some cases, RT has been aided by high-profile Latin American personalities. Rafael Correa, an ex-President of Ecuador, began hosting a weekly talk show on politics for RT in 2018, just one year after he had left office. He was convicted in corruption cases and forced to leave Ecuador to seek asylum in Europe. He was also accused by Ecuadorian authorities of trying to undermine his successor’s government.
According to the Equis Institute (a Democratic research and polling company), RT en Espanol’s March Facebook page saw a surge in interactions. It generated approximately 75,000 likes and reactions daily. Even after Meta , a tech company, announced that it would degrade Russian-state media pages on its platforms (including Instagram and Facebook), the engagement surged.
RT and Sputnik receive help from Russian diplomats on Twitter and a network that includes other accounts, which researchers claim artificially increases the popularity of their posts. This has made RT the third most shared website for Spanish-language information about the Ukraine war on Twitter. It outperforms both local news sources and international outlets such as CNN and BBC.
Ponce de Leon analyzed thousands of accounts that reposted or posted content from RT and Sputnik to Twitter. He found that 171 accounts accounted for 11% of all engagement. These accounts averaged 155 tweets per account over a period of eight days in March. This is significantly higher than the average user.
Ponce de Leon stated that the suspect accounts were used to spread the content to real users in an effort grow RT’s already large Latin American audience.
He said that Russia is trying to keep its popularity in Latin America. Sputnik and RT already have a large audience in the region. Do we need to be worried? “Yes.”