How Russian Propaganda Is Reaching Beyond English Speakers

The Spanish-language arm of Russia's global television network took to Facebook to challenge the facts of the attack on the shopping mall.

The network posted a video statement from a military spokesman claiming that Russia had bombed a weapons cache supplied by the Ukrainians. There was a video released by the Ukrainian government and survivors of the attack were interviewed by The New York Times.

The accounts of the Kremlin's propaganda machine in the West were blocked by social media giants when the war in Ukraine started. The effort has been limited by geography and language and has created a patchwork of restrictions.

In Latin America and the Middle East, there is a constant stream of Russian propaganda that tries to justify the actions of President Putin.

There has been a geographical and cultural asymmetry in the information war over Ukraine that has helped undermine American and European efforts to put pressure on Mr. Putin to call off his war.

The ability of Russia to fight not only on the battlefield, the real battlefield, but also to fight with information and distortion of information is not an "absorbent, worldwide stifling of Russia's notorious ability to fight not only on the battlefield, the real battlefield, but also to

As the war drags on, the failure of social media companies to impose stronger checks on Russian posts in non-English languages is drawing criticism.

A bipartisan group of US senators accused the platforms of allowing Russia to "amplify and export its lies abroad" two weeks ago. The Spanish-speaking population in the United States was also reached by the misinformation.

The companies were urged to block Russia's Spanish outlets, which have been spreading accusations that the US is manufacturing biological weapons in Ukraine. The platforms' international operations often get less resources than those in the U.S., according to information experts.

It is not easy to measure the impact of Russia's propaganda. According to polls, Mr. Putin remains a reviled world leader, suggesting that the Kremlin's efforts have not yet improved global support for the invasion.

The war in Ukraine is viewed in some parts of the world in a different way than it is in the US and Europe.

In these extraordinary circumstances, we must remain vigilant about the ability of Russians to spread false information in Spanish or other languages.

After receiving requests from government officials, Facebook restricted access to accounts in the European Union, Britain and Ukranian. The EU Court of Justice upheld the ban on the network's work in the bloc.

All Russian state media were blocked by Facebook, as well as accounts linked to it. The company said that accounts in other languages are the same as in the US.

Multiple teams are working across the company to limit the spread of misinformation.

The European Union's Russian accounts were shut down days after the war started. According to a written statement, the company announced in April that it wouldn't amplify such accounts.

TikTok said recently that it had removed or labeled tens of thousands of posts in order to protect against fake engagement. It put labels on the accounts of the Ukrainian government.

Western social media is still being used by the Kremlin to reach foreign audiences. As Russian troops massed around Ukraine last winter, its propaganda network went into high gear, trying to build audiences in many languages.

RT en Espaol has more followers on Facebook than CNN does. Traffic to ActualidadRT is driven by the posts.

The engagement of Russian posts spiked in the weeks after the start of the war, according to an analysis.

During the first month of the war, the Arabic-language page of the television network saw a jump in engagements. The accounts in Brazil and Japan had spikes. A surge in link shares of posts by Sputnik andRT in Spanish was shown in an analysis by the firm.

Russia's war is portrayed as a just cause against a fascist regime in Ukraine that sought nuclear weapons and connived with the US to develop biological weapons on Russia's doorstep. In this view of the war, the atrocities in cities like Bucha are exaggerated to make Russia look bad.

The senior counsel at Free Press said that Facebook's moderation policies overlooked harmful misinformation in other languages and other parts of the world.

More than 80% of its enforcement resources are in English.

She thinks that is a form of bigotry that the rest of the world should not be protected from.

The Spanish and Arabic branches of Russian state media were the most influential on social media, according to a senior fellow. Ten of the 10 most-viewed pages on Facebook in Latin America are related to the Spanish language.

Russia tried to get around the restrictions. The research shows that Ahi Les Va was created byRT en Espaol. Groups of new followers are getting Russian misinformation from those accounts.

He said that people in Latin America like to read and trust other media outlets. It is important.

The failure to go after Russian posts in Spanish, Arabic and other languages has left the door open for the Kremlin to win over audiences in parts of the world where the United States is viewed with ambivalence.

The report stated that 42% of traffic to the Spanish network was from countries that supported Russia or were neutral in the war with Ukraine.

Philip Kitzberger, a political scientist at a university in Argentina, said that part of the success ofRT is due to questioning the Western narrative. There is a group in Latin America that is very critical of the U.S.

Ana gave reporting.