The war in Ukraine is the subject of much online disinformation and propaganda but fact-checking organisations are tracking down how social media posts spread and debunking them
Technology
14 March 2022
Firefighters try to extinguish a fire after a chemical warehouse was hit by Russian shelling near Kalynivka village in Ukraine on 8 March Chris McGrath/Getty Images
The fog of war makes it difficult enough to know what is going on in Ukraine, but deliberate disinformation being shared by the Russian government and pro‑Russian social media users is tinting our view of events.
“Tidal waves of disinformation accompany crisis,” says Joan Donovan at Harvard University. For example, the Russian Embassy in the UK claimed in social media posts on 10 March, without providing credible …