video of woman pouring bleach on a man for manspreading attracts a lot of attention
https://euvsdisinfo.eu/viral-manspreading-video-is-staged-kremlin-propaganda/turns out it's simply more state sponsored propaganda out of russia to rile up certain demographics and considering that rebel media took the bait i'm guessing a large number of our resident pardians have probably already seen/shared this their echo chamber
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A young woman walks up to a man in a subway train and pours liquid over him from a plastic bottle.
The scene is repeated a number of times with different men who all react with anger and bewilderment. We are told that they are being punished for “manspreading”, i.e. for sitting with their legs wide open.
The video went viral worldwide after it was published by In The Now – an English language social media channel owned by RT (Russia Today), which addresses international audiences. It has so far been seen 6,4 million times under the headline “FIGHTING MANSPREADING… WITH BLEACH!” and with the comment “This is a pretty extreme way to combat #manspreading.”
The scenes have been recorded in the subway of St. Petersburg, Russia, and the female presenter, who speaks Russian in the video, is described as “social activist” Anna Dovalyuk.
Titles in the video explain that the liquid in the bottle is “water mixed with bleach, leaving permanent stains.”
“Some say it’s all staged”
The video also tells that “some say it’s all staged,” and social media users have indeed questioned its authenticity.
The St. Petersburg-based online magazine Bumaga found and interviewed one of the men appearing in the recording, who said that he was paid for acting as a victim.
So, if the video is fiction, and if In The Now even openly states this – what is then the purpose of promoting the story to international audiences? What is in it for a Russian state media outlet?
Provoking a clash of extreme views
The key to a possible answer is found in the reactions the video has been able to spur.
In the comments section on Facebook, users express outrage against the alleged feminist activist, often in strongly misogynic language, with this comment as the most popular, gathering by now more than 14,000 likes:
In other words, the video stages extreme feminist activism and manages to provoke extreme anti-feminist reactions.
Troll factory modus operandi
A central element in the modus operandi of the famous “troll factory” in St. Petersburg has been to promote not just one, but different and opposing extreme views.
During the American Presidential election campaign in 2016, the goal of the operation was to sow discord in the political system, and address divisive issues via groups and pages falsely claiming to represent US activists. Messaging was e.g. not only pro-Trump, but also protesting against Trump, all to drive in wedges.
An investigation from 2017 by the independent Russian news outlet RBC found that “Russian trolls posing as Americans made payments to genuine activists in the US to help fund protest movements on socially divisive issues”.
Echoing Russian state TV
The video and its reactions also echo negative messages about feminism, the MeToo movement and “political correctness” in the West, which Russian state television has repeatedly delivered .
On 5 November 2017, state TV host Dmitry Kiselev, who is under a personal EU sanction, compared the MeToo discussions in the West to Soviet repressions, claiming that they have led to a situation where “there is no such thing as human nature and no romantic adventures anymore”, and where “everything can be misinterpreted as dirty harassment”,
“Is the complainant always right?” State TV Rossiya 1 host Dmitry Kiselev laughs at allegations of sexual harassment in the US.
On 1 October this year, Kiselev lashed out at what he described as “malignant feminism” – accusations of sexual misconduct – in the West, an “infection” which, he said, is moving from the US to Europe and Russia.