Distorted Chinese, Russian virus news takes root in West: study

https://news.yahoo.com/distorted-chinese-russian-virus-news-takes-root-west-103134774.html

Jitendra JOSHI
,AFP•June 29, 2020


Coronavirus misinformation spread by Russian and Chinese journalists is finding a bigger audience on social media in France and Germany than content from the European nations' own premier news outlets, according to new research.

Whether it is distorted coverage or outright conspiracy theories, articles written in French and German by foreign state media are resonating widely on Facebook and Twitter, often with their origins unclear, the Oxford Internet Institute said in a report published on Monday.

The institute, which is part of Oxford University, looked at content generated by leading media outlets from Russia and China, as well as from Iran and Turkey -- all of which are state-controlled or closely aligned to regimes in power.

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In their French, German as well as Spanish output, state media groups have "politicised the coronavirus by criticising Western democracies, praising their home countries, and promoting conspiracy theories about the origins of the virus," the institute said.

"A majority of the content in these outlets is factually based. But what they have, especially if you look at the Russian outlets, is an agenda to discredit democratic countries," Oxford researcher Jonathan Bright told AFP.

"The subtle weave in the overarching narrative is that democracy is on the verge of collapse."

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The institute's previous study in April found that in English, heavily politicised news stories from the same state media groups could achieve as much as 10 times the level of user engagement as more sober sources such as the BBC.

Bright added: "A significant portion of social media is people consuming content that is directly funded by foreign governments, and it's not very clear to the reader that that's the case."

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it said that Russian, Chinese and Iranian media all promoted baseless theories, including that the US military unleashed the coronavirus, which originated late last year in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

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