New studies by disinformation-monitoring think tanks have noted that alternative social media platforms such as Parlor, Rumble, Gap and Odyssey are increasingly being used to spread Russian lies. Facebook and Twitter are more likely to control Moscow’s propaganda.
Pro-Russian messages about the war’s economic costs resonated with far-right Republicans such as Marjorie Taylor Green, Scott Perry, and Paul Kosar. They have now questioned whether to provide more military aid to Ukraine.
Right-wing media figures are also targets of disinformation campaigns, studies show. Fox News host Tucker Carlson and Trump ally Steve Bannon have promoted baseless claims supporting the Kremlin’s aggression. For example, Bannon’s “War Room” podcast in February 2022 featured an interview with Eric Prince, the wealthy American founder of Blackwater, in which they both excitedly claimed that Putin had an “anti-insurgency” policy, and Putin’s homophobia and transphobia.
On the anniversary of the invasion of Moscow, Carlson falsely claimed that Biden’s goal was “to topple Putin and put American tanks in Red Square.” Analysts who monitor Russia’s disinformation see parallels between the Kremlin’s campaign and that of America’s far-right. “Russia is compounding existing animosities and political divisions with its most outlandish disinformation,” concludes Jessica Brandt of the Brookings Institution, which tracks disinformation and foreign interference.
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