🚨🇩🇪“RUSSIAN ELECTION INTERFERENCE” — BUT THE CHANNEL HAD JUST 351 SUBSCRIBERS? German MEP Petr Bystron raises serious questions about the narrative used to describe alleged Russian interference ahead of the European Parliament elections. He describes a Prague-based news operation that authorities alleged was being used as a vehicle for... Russian influence across Europe. So Bystron says they looked at its actual reach. According to him, its English-language YouTube channel had just: 351 SUBSCRIBERS. And videos receiving, he says, an average of only: 4 OR 5 LIKES. Yet Europeans were being warned that an operation of this kind represented an attempt to manipulate elections across the European Union. Then Bystron makes the much bigger allegation. He says that during the political campaign surrounding these accusations, the conservative grouping he is discussing ultimately lost 27 seats. That does not by itself prove the campaign caused those losses. But it raises a question worth examining: WHO WAS ACTUALLY INFLUENCING THE ELECTION? A tiny media operation allegedly pushing Russian propaganda? Or the enormous political and media response generated around the allegation itself? If governments are going to invoke “foreign interference” during an election campaign, the evidential threshold should be exceptionally high. Because accusations of election interference can themselves influence voters. And once that happens, the institutions claiming to protect democracy risk becoming participants in the political process. 351 SUBSCRIBERS. 4–5 LIKES PER VIDEO. AN ALLEGED THREAT TO ELECTIONS ACROSS EUROPE. Petr Bystron asks whether the real manipulation was somewhere else entirely. WATCH AND DECIDE FOR YOURSELF. Petr Bystronshow more

Jim Ferguson

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