Note: The views and opinions expressed in blog/editorial posts are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the views or opinions of Misbar.
Experts who have been following the Ukrainian-Russian conflict have noticed many social media accounts and websites spreading Russian propaganda to discredit Ukraine.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs promoted the website www.waronfakes.com, claiming the unprecedented flood of fake news about Ukraine was designed to stir emotions and shut down rational thinking. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs tweeted that a group of experts and journalists are using their expertise and common sense to debunk the most egregious claims about the website.
Russian institutions, embassies, and state-backed platforms have also promoted and featured screenshots from the website on their official social media pages, especially on Twitter.
The website, which describes itself as a fact-checking platform, features articles written in various languages, including English, French, Spanish, Chinese, and Arabic. It aims to reach a global audience due to the absence of a Russian language version of the website.
The website mainly focuses on war information and news against the Russian government and its decisions.
According to reports, the Telegram channel Война с фейками (“War on Fakes”) appeared online on February 23, 2022, before the website was registered on March 1. The channel gained 161 subscribers on its first day and grew to over 625.000 subscribers in two weeks, with a daily reach of more than 30 million views. The Telegram channel described itself as a platform for “debunking the information war against Russia.”
Experts have confirmed that the Telegram channel was spreading disinformation and Russian propaganda under the façade of a fact-checking platform.
According to who.is.website, the website was launched on March 1, 2022, as a website focusing solely on war information and using a number that was a scam number in 2019. Website analysis and scanning revealed that the website contains sensitive content that should be treated with caution.
As many social media users have expressed their curiosity about the platform's origins, there has been a lot of debate about who runs the websites.
The recent events in Ukraine, according to Muhammed Khamaiseh, an editor at Al Jazeera Media Institute, "have driven a huge amount of visual content on social media." He also stated that many social media users have shared sensational content in order to increase their followers. Meanwhile, numerous state-sponsored websites have disseminated propaganda and distorted narratives about the Russian invasion in order to discredit Ukraine.
Media experts stated that War on Fakes website is not objective at all. The fact-checking articles on the website support Russian state-media narratives; the website refers to the war in Ukraine as the “special operation in Ukraine” following the Kremlin policy. The website also promoted stories about hiring “crisis actors” as victims and staging atrocities.
The website falsely claimed that Russia has not launched airstrike attacks on Ukrainian cities. Multiple news reports have revealed that the Russian military has targeted cities, killing at least 406 civilians.
It's been over two weeks since the Russian-Ukrainian war began, and many false and misleading stories have surfaced, especially on social media platforms. In addition to spreading misinformation about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Instagram, Facebook, and Telegram have become powerful tools of political activism and propaganda.
Misbar’s Sources:
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Medium
United Nations
TIME
