(Translated by https://www.hiragana.jp/)
Blocking the information war? Testing the effectiveness of the EU's censorship of Russian state propaganda among the fringe communities of Western Europe
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/zbw/iprjir/300751.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Blocking the information war? Testing the effectiveness of the EU's censorship of Russian state propaganda among the fringe communities of Western Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Santos Okholm, Christiern
  • Fard, Amir Ebrahimi
  • ten Thij, Marijn

Abstract

In response to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the European Union banned or geo-blocked Russian propaganda media fearing the effects of the Kremlin's information warfare on internal public opinion during the largest security crisis in modern history. We investigate the blocks' effectiveness in limiting the sharing of Russian propaganda media content among vulnerable Western European fringe communities. By studying posting patterns on Facebook three months before and after the geo-block, we find that the geo-block successfully reduced the sharing of Russian propaganda media content among fringe communities and did not increase the sharing of other non-banned pro-Russian media. Furthermore, we found the geo-block increased sharing of content from alternative platforms, while the share of pro-Russian content doubled among these posts. These findings show the effectiveness of censorship in limiting foreign influence campaigns on major platforms, but they also show how alternative platforms allow for the continued spread of banned content.

Suggested Citation

  • Santos Okholm, Christiern & Fard, Amir Ebrahimi & ten Thij, Marijn, 2024. "Blocking the information war? Testing the effectiveness of the EU's censorship of Russian state propaganda among the fringe communities of Western Europe," Internet Policy Review: Journal on Internet Regulation, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG), Berlin, vol. 13(3), pages 1-21.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:iprjir:300751
    DOI: 10.14763/2024.3.1788
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/300751/1/1897500327.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.14763/2024.3.1788?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kristoffer Holt, 2018. "Alternative Media and the Notion of Anti-Systemness: Towards an Analytical Framework," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 6(4), pages 49-57.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. James E. Katz, 2018. "Commentary on News and Participation through and beyond Proprietary Platforms in an Age of Social Media," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 6(4), pages 103-106.
    2. Mats Ekström & Oscar Westlund, 2019. "The Dislocation of News Journalism: A Conceptual Framework for the Study of Epistemologies of Digital Journalism," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(1), pages 259-270.
    3. Sue Robinson & Yidong Wang, 2018. "Networked News Participation: Future Pathways," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 6(4), pages 91-102.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:iprjir:300751. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://policyreview.info/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.