Kremlin propaganda found new ways to bypass EU ban
russia has found new ways to spread its disinformation after the European Union blocked RT and Sputnik because of its invasion of Ukraine
AP reports.
Note that RT and Sputnik are the two main Kremlin propaganda channels.
As the publication emphasizes, almost six months after the war, the number of sites promoting the same propaganda content has increased dramatically.
The agency reports that some sites have been rebranded to disguise themselves, and the russian federation has transferred part of its propaganda duties to diplomats.
Also, part of the content was published on new websites, which until now had no apparent connection to russia.
New York-based disinformation research and monitoring company NewsGuard has identified 250 websites actively spreading russian disinformation about the war. In recent months, dozens of new ones have been added to the list.
False reports on these sites include claims that the Ukrainian military has staged several deadly attacks against russia to accumulate global support.
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They also report that President Volodymyr Zelensky is faking his appearance in public. And also that Ukrainian refugees commit crimes in Germany and Poland.
Some sites pretend to be independent think tanks or news agencies.
About half of them spread messages in English, and the rest in French, German or Italian.
Many of them were created long before the war and were not connected with the russian government until they suddenly began to repeat the kremlin's narratives.
YouTube, TikTok, and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, have pledged to remove RT and Sputnik from their platforms in the European Union.
But the researchers found that in some cases, all the russians had to do to get around the ban was to post their propaganda from other accounts.
A Europe-based disinformation monitoring center has discovered that some RT video content appears on social media under a new brand and logo.
In a Twitter post, the russian embassy in Britain justified the killing of the "Azov" regiment's soldiers, saying they deserved a humiliating death.
In response to this tweet, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine stated that russian diplomats are complicit in war crimes in Ukraine and should be held accountable.
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