The war in Ukraine was fomented by disinformation and information warfare will be part of the battle.
In the UK we have seen a little of this, for example after the Salisbury poisonings. In 2018 Russia put numerous narratives into play with the aim of causing confusion and indecision rather than convincing lots of people of one false narrative. You can see that at work in President Putin’s address this week.
Now, our fact checkers are liaising with peers across the world to track and counter false claims. You can help people stop the spread of disinformation by sharing the tips below.
I am glad to report that at the time of writing our fellow fact checkers from Ukraine are safe, though many have left the country. Their losses remind me how important it is that we all can and will keep trying to build a more open and accountable democracy here in the UK.
In Parliament this week the Prime Minister repeated for at least the seventh time a false claim about employment figures. The UK Statistics Authority has written to him calling it wrong and "a selective use of data that is likely to give a misleading impression".
Full Fact is still pushing for Parliament to enforce its own rules, requiring MPs who make false statements in the House of Commons to correct the record.
A post on Facebook claims a video which includes a number of different clips depicts Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It was posted on the morning of 24 February 2022 and at the time of writing has over 19,000 views. The two-minute video contains five different clips. One was definitely not taken in Ukraine, one was not taken during the current invasion, one was taken from a video game, one may have been taken in Ukraine over the last 24 hours and one we were not able to verify at all.
A post shared over 1,000 times on Facebook features three images of explosions, with a caption describing the current invasion of Ukraine and stating: “Explosions have been heard in Ukraine after Russia launched a full-scale invasion this morning.” One of the photographs is of an explosion in Ukraine. The other two show explosions in Gaza.
Our new report this week warned that we must tackle ‘censorship-by-proxy’ in the Online Safety Bill. The most dangerous source of disinformation in any democracy is still the people who run the country.
The Online Safety Bill needs to provide democratic transparent safeguards against government attempts to control what people can see and share online. We’ve set out a ten point plan called Tackling Online Misinformation in an Open Society.
