UPDATE: Friday, Jun 14, 2024 · 12:27:41 PM EEST · KyivGuy
Big thanks to everyone for supporting and commenting on this diary. I made some stylistic edits and updated PayPal donation information. We had another air raid this night, so I had some time to post replies to the early commenters. Enjoy your reading!
Ukraine has a great small journalism outlet called Texty.org.ua. Or just “Texty”, which literally means “Texts” in Ukrainian. For several years, they have been specializing in data journalism, writing about local Ukrainian problems. And they were really good at it, winning a respectable list of international journalistic awards and honors.
When Putin escalated his war in Ukraine to a full-scale invasion in 2022, they, like many other Ukrainian media, began to write about the war. In particular, they put their data analytic and visualization skills to work to monitor and combat Russian propaganda in the internet, visualize the process and amounts of the grain Russia stole from Ukraine, reconstructing and mapping Russian war crimes, etc. All was well-done, well-researched stuff.
A screenshot of another Texty material describing the history of the area around the Kakhovka Dam
As Ukraine greatly depends on international support in its defense against Russian invasion, Texty put some effort into identifying, mapping, and visualizing anti-Ukrainian politicians, organizations, and other figures in the European Union.
Published last year, “The Germs of “Russian World” listed and identified “over 1,300 individuals and some 900 organizations [based in Europe] that met the following criteria: voting for pro-Russian decisions and issuing statements in support of the war or calling to drop the sanctions, taking part in pro-Russian propagandist shows, partnering with the institutions which facilitate Russia’s cultural expansion etc”.
Again, the research is fact-based, with full methodology presented and available for examination. The material, as any proper research, is actually quite boring – it is essentially a spreadsheet identifying the person or organization and proof of their support to Russia. Or just support to cutting military aid to Ukraine — many of the listed subjects pose as “pacifists”.
It was a really boring stuff, and, actually, nobody was surprised – everybody knew who these people were, and, in most cases, none of them was hiding their sympathy for Russia or antipathy to Ukraine. As I said – BORING. People specializing in Russian influence in Europe read the paper, thanked the Texty team for their hard work, and went on.
This month, Texty did similar research about the US. “Roller Coaster. From Trumpists to Communists. The forces in the U.S. impeding aid to Ukraine and how they do it” is solid research covering 388 US individuals and 76 US organizations and describing their behavior related exactly to what the title says: impeding aid to Ukraine.
The US opponents of the military aid to Ukraine are not called “germs”, as the main criteria for getting into the list is not a direct affiliation with Russia, as it was in the research about Europe, but opposition to the US aid to Ukraine.
The research methodology statement says: “We analyzed statements and publications from influential public figures and organizations in the United States, using internet and social media content since February 24, 2022. Our study included reading articles, monitoring social media posts (mostly X), watching videos, and listening to podcasts where Ukraine was mentioned. [...] Inclusion in our study required at least one piece of content or action that aimed to reduce or halt support for Ukraine”.
The data set includes active politicians (Congress members), political activists, media personalities and bloggers, political organizations, “experts”, think tanks, and businessmen.
Texty mentioned, among other things, that some of those people and organizations openly cooperate with Russia (like Tucker Carlson) and many spread the same lies about Ukraine as Russian propaganda does or voice concepts and opinions on the war and/or Ukraine that are similar to or the same as the concepts and opinions promoted by Russia (MTG).
All information has been obtained from public sources, so, again, nothing new here.
But somehow, the subjects of that research got an enormous butt hurt!
Marjorie Taylor Greene, Elon Musk, Daniel McAdams from the Ron Paul Institute, and other public figures and politicians mentioned in the research went just mad!
Further is a quote from today’s Texty’s call for support:
On June 11, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene called our publication a list of enemies and claimed that President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine was behind it.
On June 12, FOX News reported that Senator J.D. Vance and Congressman Matt Gaetz called on U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to send them information about the Ukrainian non-governmental organization Texty.org.ua by June 28. The letter's authors also urged the House Appropriations Committee to halt U.S. support for Texty.org.ua. On Tuesday, the committee approved such a resolution.
On June 13, Elon Musk, the owner of social media platform X, who was also mentioned in our research,responded to the call from a Republican congressman to strip us of any donor support by calling for our organization to be listed as a terrorist group.
Suddenly, the data analysis and the spreadsheets are not boring anymore.
I have read a part of the Texty report and research, and, so far, it looks like a big piece of well-researched journalism. I assume they might have issues with the usage of certain terms in English, or with the style of their reporting, as their English translation may be not perfect (the original language of the research is Ukrainian). However, they definitely try to do their best, and what they say is based on publicly available facts.
Of course, you can judge for yourself:
*Part of Texty’s work is funded by the USAID program supporting Ukrainian media during the war. It appears that the GOP immediately moved to defund the Ukrainian media specifically for what they were given money for – doing quality independent journalism for the benefit of the Ukrainian public.
If you wish to support Texty, you can:
- Spread their materials and cite them as widely as you wish;
- Spread their call for support;
- Donate to them. Update: thank you for reporting PayPal payment problems. Texty team is working on that. In the meantime, you can donate to roman.kulch@gmail.com (Texty’s chief editor) or use other ways of support listed on the donation page like buymeacoffee.