How war in Ukraine breeds propaganda and disinformation ― Report
By Niyi Oyedeji on April 28, 2022FOLLOWING the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a report detailing how fictional narratives about Ukraine were created by pro-Kremlin media has been released.
The report was detailed in a research initiated by a fact-checking platform, hibrid.info, in cooperation with the Journalism Department of Hasan Prishtina University, Kosovo.
It showed that online media disseminated most of misinforming and inaccurate information content on the invasion.
“Most of articles published in Kosovo media, that were considered disinformation, were created outside the country and in other languages (non-Albanian). This implies that they were first translated and then disseminated. “
The report revealed that the most frequently used channel for dissemination of these articles was social media, dominated by Facebook, which remains the most used social network in Kosovo.
“A percentage of misinformation content on Facebook is published only as posts created by private profiles, public pages and groups, while the rest as media articles, shared by media Facebook pages.”
The report also revealed that the war in Ukraine was an interesting topic for audiences in some distant countries, particularly in countries such as India and Brazil, which are very far geographically from Ukraine.
“Debunks from India and Spain are at the top of the list, followed by countries that have been affected economically or had security concerns, such as Turkey and Balkan countries.
“This percentage could be representative in terms of number of disinformation debunks/denunciations.”
It also highlighted that misinforming video content remains the most shared content worldwide.
The report also added that disinformation on and around Ukraine has started years ago and long before the invasion.
“According to west organization reports, this disinformation was mostly conducted by Russian, pro-regime media, known as pro Kremlin media and affiliated actors.”
However, the report recommended the need to vigorously apply all steps of source verification by giving more relevance to news accuracy.
“It is recommended to avoid sensationalist headlines, considering that some readers get the news only by reading headlines, not managing to read the whole content.”
