Is Hungarian social media dominated by Russian propaganda?
Although Hungary is part of NATO, before the outbreak of the war, social media views were more sympathetic to Russia and more critical of NATO. There are, of course, several reasons for this, the appearance of Russian opinions being just one of them.
Of course, the Hungarian government’s policy of opening to the East and keeping a distance from the West has certainly played a significant role in this issue. HVG wrote an article about the analysis.
Television and newspaper reports about NATO
An analytical firm called Political Capital examined Hungarian media and social media between September 1, 2021, and January 14, 2022. Analysing the media coverage in detail, they concluded that during this time, the Hungarian press, including government-run newspapers, had a largely positive or neutral attitude towards NATO.
Although there are anti-NATO views in the political elite, they come primarily from more radical individuals, so NATO has not even become the subject of daily political conflicts.
On the issue of Russia, however, there is no consensus between the government and the opposition
However, the ruling party has developed and communicated a positive, friendly image of Russia to voters, which is in total contrast with the views of the opposition. The opposition has been advocating for distance from Russia for years and is essentially a proponent of Western-oriented integration and federal systems.
In recent years, the Hungarian government has launched several joint deals and projects with Russia or with Russian companies or entrepreneurs with a high number of contacts.
Respectively, Russian President Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán seemed to have a much better friendship than Putin had with other European Union countries, meeting regularly and talking positively about each other’s work.
Russian opinions appear in Hungary
Although, as mentioned at the beginning of our article, the media broadcasted a positive image of NATO, it has also happened that reports from the Hungarian News Agency went viral.
The News Agency often seems to be pro-Russia or pro-Kremlin.
News with a Russian ‘background’ could easily spread to the rest of the Hungarian press as they use the News Agency as a source of news. This way, Russian ideas are becoming part of the narrative. This mainly means attitudes, points of view, or topics to be highlighted.
Social media was also examined, with not so surprising results
Most of the comments in the Facebook database collected by Political Capital through the SentiOne media monitoring program are anti-NATO. 58 per cent of comments on NATO were critical of the organisation’s activities.
The debates are dominated by anti-NATO narratives on the platform, including the comment sections of the mainstream Hungarian news portals. In these comments, all the common pro-Kremlin narratives appear: NATO and Washington want to wage war on Russia, or they call the Kremlin’s policy on Ukraine legitimate, which they say wants to prevent the United States from taking control of Kyiv.
This social media activity may play a role in spreading NATO-skeptical attitudes. Not only are simple users and enthusiastic pro-Kremlin activists helping to spread the narratives, but fake profiles often appear as well.
Read also“You will only have peace in the grave!” Ukrainian ambassador warned Hungary hysterically
Source: hvg.hu
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6 Comments
The answer to the question is easy: yes, it is, entirely.
Mario, Funny you should speak about social media being dominated, yes, it is dominated by US CIA operatives such as yourself plus all the Soros NGO T rollers
Great read: summary of Mr. Putin and Mr. Orban’s meeting last month: http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/67682 – no spin …
One guess who Mr. Putin is rooting for, this election? Hint: read the article!
Why not? The EU has done nothing but disparaged Hungary. Hungarian population is thankful for the oil and gas supply from Russia. It is interesting that cars and semis close to the Hungarian border crossed into Hungary for cheap gas. These people were quite happy to elect socialist governments yet wanted to take advantage of a conservative pro populous decision. Hungary is cooperating with NATO but it will not help to kill the mistreated Hungarian community in Ukraine.
The comments on social media are pro Hungarian rather than pro Russian. The leftist media will lie about anything to hurt Hungary.
@Tividar
You’re right, a great read! No spin!
Left wing MSM are a bigger danger than pro Putin bloggers- the Ukraine people are paying the price. Ukraine is a source of money and power and corruption to the left. The Clinton’s/ Obama – Biden’s / Soros play major role what has happened to this poor country. I moved here 10 years ago with the Ukraine revolt to come- it has become clear who was responsible- seems o be little coverage of what and how it happened. I guess the man who came to power wasn’t following their orders and also needed to be replaced. I was outraged when Crimea was taken, but after living here it became clear why it happened, but you would never know by the MSM. How crazy is it that the US president and his family are major players in the corruption and have been for years.
Makes Soros look like a two-bit player.