State broadcasters abroad: How Russia circumvents the blockades

Russian propaganda stations have been banned in Germany. The Kremlin is trying to circumvent the bans – with new playout channels, mirrored content and useful supporters.

Following reports of the Bucha atrocities, Russian propaganda is in full swing. Staged images are mentioned, among other things. So far, Russian state broadcasters such as RT have played a central role in spreading the Kremlin’s narratives internationally.

RT DE – formerly RT Deutsch – developed into one of the most important keywords for the “lateral thinker” movement during the corona pandemic, as analyzes showed.

Official channels jump in

But now there is radio silence on the previous channels through which RT DE and other state broadcasters sent their messages to the world. Instead, the social media channels of the Russian embassies have developed into important distribution channels. For example, after the pictures from Bucha caused international horror, various Twitter accounts of the Russian Foreign Ministry spread their crude claims of staged crimes. These included, for example, the Russian Embassy in Germany on Twitter and the Facebook account of the Russian Embassy in Slovakia.

Konstantin von Notz is demanding consequences: The operators of the major platforms would have to react just as they would with targeted false reports about Covid-19, the Green politician wrote on Twitter.

Twitter responds

Twitter has since restricted the reach of numerous Russian government accounts. This includes official profiles from ministries and embassies, as well as the accounts of top Russian officials. However, it is a comparatively mild reaction, because the affected accounts are only no longer recommended.

There are clear violations of the Twitter rules. For example, on March 10, the Russian embassy in London claimed that the bombing of a maternity hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol was faked. The claim was wrong. Twitter later removed corresponding tweets.

Research by the BBC revealed more misinformation circulated by official Russian government accounts. Also, according to the BBC, it was coordinated activity across multiple accounts, which violates the Twitter Rules.

Alternative channels and useful supporters

However, Russia is also trying to spread the content of its state broadcasters. There are several Internet addresses via which the content of RT DE is played out. These are similar to the known addresses, but run over other domains – such as “.team”.

According to an evaluation with the “CrowdTangle” analysis tool, these mirrored pages are repeatedly shared by individual users in certain Facebook groups on large platforms. For example, in “peace initiatives” or groups in which “responsible citizens” assembled.

Schiffmann distributes RT content

Bodo Schiffmann, who is popular with corona deniers, also takes content from the new RT channels and distributes it via Telegram, where the corresponding reports are seen by tens of thousands of users. Schiffmann even temporarily streamed the RT DE program continuously via Telegram. Apparently there was little interest.

At the beginning of February, the Commission for Licensing and Supervision banned RT DE from broadcasting due to a lack of a broadcasting license. At the beginning of March, the ban on all transmission of RT content came into force across the EU to protect citizens from “spreading lies” about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Severe censorship in Russia

For its part, Russia banned the broadcasting of Deutsche Welle – and after the invasion of Ukraine drastically restricted both independent media and social networks.