Source: AFP
Ahead of the June 9 European elections, a deluge of disinformation reinforcing the Hungarian government’s main talking points about the war in Ukraine has flooded the country’s social media platforms.
Content creators linked to Hungary’s opaque Megafon Center are behind a wave of well-made video clips being distributed online.
Megafon was created in 2020 with a mission to “amplify the voice of the right and counter the dominance of the leftist mainstream on the internet,” according to its website.
But critics say he has become the latest mouthpiece for nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party, reinforcing its narratives while criticizing those who criticize the government and more recently the EU.
Since the beginning of the year, Megafon has allocated more than HUF 650 million ($1.8 million) to promote its content on Facebook, according to estimates by platform owner Meta.
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No other political party in the EU has spent as much money as Megafon in the same period, according to AFP.
While some videos accuse European leaders of “wanting nuclear war”, others suggest women may soon be forced to produce weapons in factories and children sent to the front lines.
Several videos also featured comments by French President Emmanuel Macron about the possibility of sending Western troops to Ukraine and the proposed debate over the role of the country’s nuclear arsenal in Europe.
However, Macron’s remarks were taken out of context and twisted to portray European leaders as wanting “a third world war”.
A supporter of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia and the Kremlin’s closest ally in the EU, Orban described the upcoming European Parliament election as a referendum on war, saying he was now “fighting alone for peace” in the bloc.
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“Seemingly infinite” funding
During Orbán’s 14 years in power, Hungary’s media landscape has been transformed, with public media long a government mouthpiece and large parts of the private media sector owned by pro-government allies.
However, the nationalist leader still had to win the electoral support of younger, urban citizens, who increasingly turned to the Internet, even for news.
In the wake of the opposition’s surprise victory in the capital Budapest and other major cities in 2019, Megafon was born.
“Huge amounts of money poured into mainstream social media platforms” as if Megafon had “seemingly infinite” resources, Kata Horvath of the Mertek Media Monitor told AFP.
Unlike other “grassroots” influencers, Megafon’s content creators “owe the majority of their views to advertising,” he explained.
The source of Megafon’s funding remains unclear.
In recent weeks, Megafon “has spent so much money that I can’t imagine a Hungarian who hasn’t seen it on their Facebook feed,” said analyst Robert Laszlo of the Political Capital think-tank.
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Megafon says it is funded by private donors, rejecting claims by independent media that taxpayer money channeled through various organizations is involved.
In the past, Megafon director Istvan Kovacs, a former Fidesz candidate, has said the center has no “official relations” with any political party.
Megafon did not respond to an AFP interview request.
“Digital Freedom Fighter”
According to expert Laszlo, Megafon is just “another tool for the government” to “convey the ruling party’s key messages louder and more simply.”
“Snippets of real speeches and videos are manipulated to appeal to emotions” in order to forge “hostile narratives, where there is always someone to blame,” he said.
Through the Megafon clips, Orbán’s Fidesz aims to reach more Hungarians who don’t follow politics closely “but can still be persuaded to lean towards the party,” Laszlo added.
In addition to its expensive political campaigns, Megafon offers free four-day training seminars to anyone who wants to become a “right-wing digital freedom fighter.”
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More than a thousand people have already attended the training courses, according to the center.
Among them are dozens of Fidesz candidates running in local elections on June 9, an investigation by AFP partner Lakmusz recently revealed.
In early May, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto praised Megafon’s efforts at a public event organized by the center, calling on them to “fight a tough online battle” in the coming weeks.
Source: AFP