Why did Russian social media swarm the digital conversation about Catalan independence?
On Oct. 1, the hashtag #Catalanreferendum took you to the world’s most popular conversation on Twitter. For more than 12 hours, Catalonia’s independence referendum became a trending topic worldwide. As would be expected, links, posts and articles from two Spanish media companies were the most virally distributed in the digital conversation. More surprisingly, the Russian media conglomerate formed by RT and Sputnik was the fourth most-used source, its content virally distributed as part of the digital debate.
How did RT and Sputnik manage to invade a digital conversation about a regional political crisis in Spain? Analysis of the 100 accounts that were most active in spreading the Russian media link reveals a disturbing figure: Eighty-four percent of those accounts are anonymous, and most of them appear to be controlled by digital bots.… Seguir leyendo »