Russian Information Disorder in Colombia? The Case of RT’s Inna Afinogenova on Twitter

Abstract

This study examines disinformation in Colombia through the case of journalist Inna Afinogenova from Russian media outlet ActualidadRT, focusing on her Twitter activity. It investigates the role of inorganic accounts in amplifying political disinformation using the "information disorder" framework. Data were collected from her most viral posts over 54 months (January 2017 - July 2021), and users interacting with them were classified as organic or inorganic, with further subdivisions, such as: inorganic, highly suspicious, suspicious, and organic. An unsupervised machine learning algorithm and a theoretical framework jointly identified abnormal behaviour, revealing that 11.25% of users exhibited confirmed inorganic behaviour. This indicates coordinated inauthentic behaviour, a common feature of disinformation campaigns, though the study does not explore any direct connection to RT or the Russian government. Methodologically, the study advances by analysing retweets instead of hashtags and corroborating results through machine learning. It underscores the impact of manipulated traffic on public discourse in Colombia.