Sanctioned Russian propaganda websites available in EU under new names

In defiance of the imposed sanctions, the Russian propaganda outlets RT and Sputnik persistently disseminate disinformation within the European Union by utilising mirrored resources on platforms that have been blocked.

Source: European Pravda, citing Bloomberg

Research group Reset reports that one of them is the portal Swentr, which was registered three days after the announcement of sanctions against RT and uses at least 19 websites to reach an EU audience. Sputnik also operates through mirror sites such as sputnikglobe.com.

Researchers say that Russian disinformation platforms have proved more flexible than EU attempts to rein them in, appearing under new names and providing links for their authors and other users blue-ticked on Twitter (X) to promote the Kremlin's agenda by driving a wedge among NATO members and fuelling confusion about the war in Ukraine.

The article reads that the problem is that while the European Commission provides guidance and oversight, the enforcement of sanctions is largely up to EU member states, which further complicates the situation.

Věra Jourová, the Vice President of the European Commission, said that the European Commission knows about mirror sites and works with member countries to apply sanctions effectively.

"I want to stress that despite some bypassing attempts, the sanctions are effective. No one can find those outlets by flipping through channels randomly. Online, news search engines and aggregators do not show results from those outlets," she said.

These measures have some success in marginalising Russian disinformation. Traffic counter Semrush reported that Swentr received almost 3 million visits in October, far from the 141 million that RT.com had.

Earlier, the European Commission's communications department asked all EU executive services to stop running ads on social network X, formerly Twitter, due to concerns about the spread of misinformation.

Background:

• Earlier, there were reports that Elon Musk allowed the blocking of the service in Europe in response to the new regulation of Internet platforms by the EU.
• The European Union's Digital Services Act, which took effect for the largest social networks on 25 August, requires major platforms to assess the risk of spreading false information, prevent the promotion of harmful content with the help of algorithms and submit their activities to audits.

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