Thread by @jessbrandt

For @BrookingsInst's #TechSTream, @vwirtschafter and I document the spread of the Kremlin's preferred narrative of the NordStream sabotage (the US did it) spread across popular political podcasts in the US

🧵👇

brookings.edu/techstream/u-s…

Upshot:

Following the explosions, 12 popular political podcasts have devoted 18 episodes to the theory.

Less than one quarter of these episodes refuted the baseless theory.

Nearly 40% fully blamed the United States.

That is to say, over the past week:

14 episodes in our dataset shared content about the explosions that was conspiratorial in nature

Of them, 7 wholly endorsed that idea that United States is the most likely culprit

Only 4 episodes sought to refute the claim

The explosions occurred on 9/26. That day two episodes linked the United States to the incident.

After a 9/27 episode of Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox News, in which the television host laid the blame on Washington...

The theories align w/Kremlin messaging. Over the past week, Russian state media and diplomats have argued that the pipeline leaks were the result of a U.S.-led terror attack

Moscow has cited as evidence:

👉President Biden’s criticism of the pipelines and a vow to “bring an end to” them

👉The fact that the CIA warned Berlin about the possibility of such an attack earlier this year.

Russian President Vladimir Putin himself has repeated the claim. reuters.com/world/putin-ca…

The spread of this narrative, on Twitter and elsewher, follows a familiar script.

Conspiracists in both Russia and the US each for their own purposes, seize on a news development ripe for spin. Both set to work and their ideas reverberate.

As I've argued elsewhere, what follows is more akin to a game of mutual improv than formal coordination.

That's in part because the Kremlin has an interest in amplifying the Western influencers (“fellow travelers") that make conspiratorial claims, since their voices are likely to appear more credible to target audiences and therefore may earn wider reach.

tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108…

For this reason, Kremlin-backed media and diplomats have boosted Carlson’s segment on the explosion multiple times.

It's a familiar dynamic.

One recent example is the biolabs conspiracy theory, as @vwirtschafter and I documented for @BrookingsInst, here:

brookings.edu/techstream/pop…

And which I discussed with @OnPointRadio at the time 🎧🎙️

wbur.org/onpoint/2022/0…

What are Russia’s goals?
✅Dent US soft power
✅Divert blame
✅Divide the transatlantic partnership
✅Ding Biden/ratchet up partisanship ahead of the US #midterms

Podcasts play an important yet understudied role in spreading conspiratorial narratives.

This work was made possible by @BrookingsInst's new dashboard and database, which you can access too.

brookings.edu/techstream/a-n…

Thrilled that this work is part of @BrookingsInst's Global Forum on Democracy and Technology. Check out everything we have going on, here:
brookings.edu/global-forum-o…