The trend is worrying. Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, disinformation articles on the coronavirus have been much more shared, and therefore more read, on social networks than the contents of major newspapers, according to a study conducted in France and Germany.
On Twitter and Facebook, French and German-language articles shared by media such as RT or Sputnik have more resonance than those of the daily Le Monde or the magazine Der Spiegel, according to this report from the Oxford Internet Institute. The institute examined for three weeks the content generated by the main Russian and Chinese media, as well as by Iranian and Turkish media controlled by the state or closely linked to the ruling regimes.
Conspiracy theories and politicization of the virus
The study focused in particular on the Russian TV channel RT, the Sputnik news agency, the China Global Television Network (CGTN), Radio Chine Internationale (CRI) and the news agency New China. In their publications in French, German or Spanish, these media "politicized the coronavirus by criticizing Western democracies, praising their countries of origin and promoting conspiracy theories on the origins of the virus", according to l 'institute.
The report measures user engagement, based on the number of times a user shares or likes an article on Facebook, comments on it or retweets it on Twitter. The study covers the 20 most popular articles from each news outlet between May 18 and June 5. RT's French content gets an average engagement of 528 on Facebook and Twitter, and Chine nouvelle scores 374, compared to 105 for Le Monde.
Content funded by foreign governments
In German, RT articles score 158 on Facebook and Twitter, compared to 90 for Der Spiegel. “Most of the content in these media is based on facts. But, especially if you look at the Russian media, their goal is to discredit democratic countries, "said Jonathan Bright, a researcher at Oxford. "The subtle thread of the general point is that democracy is on the verge of collapse," he adds.
Previous research by the institute, published in April, had already highlighted the penetration of these media in the English-speaking markets, revealing that some of their articles could reach levels of engagement up to ten times higher than those of the BBC for example. "A significant part of the content consumed on social networks is directly funded by foreign governments, notes Jonathan Bright, and it is not very clear to the reader that this is the case."
China threatened to retaliate last week after a US decision to classify four of its media outlets - China Central Television (CCTV), China News Service Agency, The People's Daily and the Global Times - as "Foreign diplomatic missions". These titles join China Global Television Network, Radio Chine Internationale and Chine nouvelle, already designated by Washington as state-sponsored actors.
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