DebunkEU.org Analysis: Disinformation Campaign Was Launched Around EU-Belarus Migration

VILNIUS, Lithuania, October 21, 2021 (Newswire.com) - According to a report with the latest analysis carried out by DebunkEU.org, Minsk, Belarus has launched a disinformation campaign aiming to discredit actions taken by Lithuania, Poland and the rest of the EU to grapple with a surge of illegal migration at the border with Belarus.

Senior analyst at DebunkEU.org Laima Venclauskienė, after having analysed 1,638 content pieces from migrant-linked Facebook groups and pages, news portals from the countries of origin of migrants, and Kremlin-affiliated hostile media, said it was clear that the latter spreads the biggest share of false/misleading content.

"The biggest share of disinformation was spread through pro-Kremlin media outlets - in the last two weeks of September, the share of false and misleading content spread through such outlets was higher than 70%," says Ms. Venclauskienė.

The report reviews accusations from top Belarusian officials that blame the Western countries for starting the crisis at the border. The televised statements were then repeated by media sources in Arabic - mostly a branch of the Kremlin propaganda network RT Arabic.

The DebunkEU.org report connects how the disinformation spreads and reaches the largest potential audiences through media outlets and social media. According to DebunkEU.org data, RT Arabic reached the largest potential contact audience when it comes to media outlets from countries of origin of the migrants. No outlets stood out in terms of disseminated content because the same news stories were simply repeated in a wide network of Arabic news websites - similarly to social media.

On Facebook, the largest potential audience has been reached by groups targeting Arabic-speaking audiences. Because of specific settings, most of the content is only available to users from the Middle East. If someone would join this group from Europe or the U.S., they would not see posts related to migration, but instead see content about TV series or animals.

Please find the full article here: https://www.debunkeu.org/post/by-spreading-disinformation-minsk-shifts-the-blame-for-increased-migrant-flow-towards-the-west

For more information please contact:

Head of DebunkEU.org Viktoras Daukšas, [email protected], +370 (615) 57007

Communications Manager Karina Urbanavičiūtė, [email protected], +370 (627) 55538

Source: DebunkEU.org