Russian propaganda outlets have amassed a huge audience in Spanish-speaking countries

• Spanish versions of Russian state-owned outlets have amassed huge following on social media.
• RT en Español is pushing baseless conspiracy theories to its Spanish-language audience.

Spanish-language versions of Russian state-controlled media outlets like RT and Sputnik have amassed large followings on social media platforms, experts told Insider, outpacing their English-language counterparts and spreading disinformation to millions.

Kremlin-backed media has spent weeks pushing baseless conspiracy theories to Spanish speaking audiences about the invasion of Ukraine. Even as these accounts' engagement rate has decreased as major platforms take action against state controlled outlets, experts say that they have shaped the discourse around the war.

The biggest Spanish-language Russian outlet is RT en Español, which has over 3.5 million followers on Twitter and 18 million on Facebook. Both accounts, which were already popular before the invasion, have more followers than their English-language RT counterparts.

On Facebook, RT en Español has more than double RT's English-language account. Sputnik News' Spanish sibling Sputnik Mundo, meanwhile, has hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter and Facebook.

Both RT en Español and Sputnik Mundo are in the top 15 most-shared domains for Spanish posts about the invasion on Twitter, according to recent research by Esteban Ponce de León, a Research Assistant at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensics Research Lab.

"Once there is a new conspiracy theory," these outlets "basically amplify the same theory in Spanish," Ponce de León said. "The audience of these channels in Latin America is actually huge."

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, RT en Español has consistently pushed baseless conspiracy theories to its Spanish-language audience. These include articles claiming the Ukrainian military created a "staged recording" of civilian deaths in Moschun, a town near the capital city Kyiv, and that Russia was not involved in the massacre in Bucha, in which hundreds of Ukrainians died.

The outlet has also sought to inflame tensions between Latin American communities and the U.S., experts say, portraying the latter as an oppressive force in the region. In February, RT en Español shared an article on Twitter with a headline about how the U.S. was a "real threat" to the world, part of what Andrew Gonzalez, a geopolitical analyst at the DC-based anti-disinformation firm Omelas, told Insider is a long-standing narrative for the Russian government.

When Russia released a list of "unfriendly" countries in March, it named all of the European Union, the U.S., and many other countries, but did not add any Latin American countries.

The engagement rate sinks as bans force Russian Spanish-language outlets to use alternate platforms

During the early days of Russia's invasion, outlets such as RT en Español saw a massive spike in engagement, according to Gonzalez. The engagement rate, which factors in likes, comments, and shares, was around 500,000 a day for all of Russia's Spanish language outlets then, Gonzalez said.

But since then, he said, the engagement has plummeted.

In the last few weeks, these Russian outlets have started shifting their attention to alternative social media platforms, Ponce de León told Insider. The move follows YouTube outright banning numerous state-backed media accounts and Meta, the owner of Facebook, demoting and blocking some access to the pages. Ponce de León pointed to RT's accounts on the messenger app Telegram and the video sharing platform Odysee as examples of the outlet's efforts to expand its reach. On Odysee, RT en Español posts new videos every 15 minutes with updates on the invasion and other news.

But Gonzalez said these alternate platforms can't match the crowd on mainstream sites, and these accounts lack the size of audiences or engagement that they enjoyed on other platforms.

"In the last month, that peak has dropped to just over 175,000" engagements a day, Gonzalez said, "and has dramatically decreased in just the last week and a half to merely a couple thousand, maybe 8-10,000 at most per day."

Russian Spanish-language outlets have impacted the conversation in Latin America

Although Western outlets like Spanish-language versions of CNN and BBC are also popular in Latin America, Ponce de León said he believes the pro-Russian content has seeped deeper.

"Since the Russian propaganda aims to push specific narratives, I think those are the ones that are affecting the most in the region," he said. "I think people also get more attracted to those types of headlines and content and information."

One thing helping to boost and legitimize the Spanish-language Russian outlets, Ponce de León added, is that they are being retweeted by official Russian government social media accounts. The RT en Español Twitter account has been retweeted by verified Russian embassy accounts in multiple Latin American countries, including Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile.

RT en Español and Sputnik Mundo's social media influence has significantly affected the discussion surrounding Russia's invasion of Ukraine in Latin American communities, said Ponce de León, who is based in Colombia.

"The real impact of Russian propaganda is shifting the conversation, not only on social media," he said. "Right now, you can hear those narratives on the street, in the coffee shop, in the restaurants."