The victims of war or conflict are not only the peace and stability but also truth and facts as the warring parties wage propaganda war to advance their narratives.
In today’s world this phenomenon has become more powerful and dangerous as millions of supporters of warring parties can fully employ the power of social media to disseminate false and fabricated stories painting them as facts.
The Russia-Ukraine war is no exception. From the day one when Russia attacked Ukraine, both countries, their organisations and supporters across the globe have been waging a war of disinformation to complicate or confuse the truth. Both the countries are levelling charges of spreading fake news on each other while the supporters on the global front also are trading such accusations. A number of videos are being spread through social media platforms in which both the warring countries claim of their victories in the battleground. Some videos on the digital space have been recognised as old videos of different conflicts in the world having no relation at all with the current situation.
Same tactics have already been employed in the past. “Governments during the First World War devoted massive resources to producing material designed to shape opinion and action internationally. The efforts of states to justify their actions, and to build international support, resulted in some of the most powerful propaganda ever produced,” says an article “Propaganda as a weapon: Influencing international opinion” published on British Library website.
The Russia-Ukraine war has also seen imposition of restrictions or closures of media outlets in the West and Russia. Tech companies and telecom providers in Europe, Australia, and Canada are blocking Russian state-controlled media outlets. In the same manner when Russia enacted new law against ‘fake news’ many Western media outlets suspended their operations in Russia claiming that the law was meant to suppress their right to practice journalism.
The war has not only set propaganda machines on high pace but also revealed deep-rooted racism when many refugees of Indian and African origin were not allowed in neighbouring countries as refugees. A UN expert has also condemned racist threats and xenophobia at the borders. The UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, Tendayi Achiume, recently expressed grave concerns about racist threats and xenophobic treatment against non-white people fleeing Ukraine.
“I have joined other independent experts in condemning the Russian Federation’s attack on Ukraine, and urging swift action to protect the millions forced to flee this attack. Since then, Black Africans, Indians, Pakistanis, people of Middle Eastern descent and others have sent urgent reports documenting life-threatening racist and xenophobic treatment as they attempt to flee the violence in Ukraine. Some denied access to bomb shelters within Ukraine, many reports cited border guards preventing them from crossing the border or pushing them to the back of queues for transportation that would grant them safe passage out of the country and in some cases, people being denied access to consulates of their countries of origin in neighbouring countries.”
The international media outlets are extensively covering the ongoing propaganda onslaught by warring parties. The Associated Press in a report “Propaganda, fake videos of Ukraine invasion bombard users” said: “The messages, videos and photos flying across Twitter, Facebook and Telegram far outnumber the airstrikes raining down on Ukraine. They claim to show Russian fighter jets being shot down or Ukrainians dodging for cover in their own homes.”
“Some are real, horrifying images of this war. Others had been lurking on the internet for years before Russia launched the largest attack on a European country since World War II. The invasion of Ukraine is shaping up to be Europe’s first major armed conflict of the social media age, when the small screen of the smartphone is the dominant tool of communication, carrying with it the peril of an instantaneous spread of dangerous, even deadly, disinformation,” it added.
The report further says TikTok videos, propagandised headlines and tweets pinging out across screens around the world are confusing millions about the reality of how this battle is unfolding on the ground. “Across Telegram and Twitter, Russia’s attack on Ukraine was both “unprovoked” and “necessary,” depending on the sender of the message.”
The New York Times in a report ‘Fact and Mythmaking Blend in Ukraine’s Information War’ said: “Experts say stories like the Ghost of Kiev and Snake Island, both of questionable veracity, are propaganda or morale boosters, or perhaps both. Just days into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a pilot with a mysterious nickname was quickly becoming the conflict’s first wartime hero. Named the Ghost of Kiev, the ace fighter had apparently single-handedly shot down several Russian fighter jets.” The story was shared by the official Ukraine Twitter account on Sunday in a thrilling montage video set to thumping music, showing the fighter swooping through the Ukrainian skies as enemy planes exploded around him. The Security Service of Ukraine, the country’s main security agency, also relayed the tale on its official Telegram channel, which has over 700,000 subscribers.
The story of a single pilot’s beating the superior Russian air force found wide appeal online, thanks to the official Ukraine accounts and many others. Videos of the so-called Ghost of Kiev had more than 9.3 million views on Twitter, and the flier was mentioned in thousands of Facebook groups reaching up to 717 million followers. On YouTube, videos promoting the Ukrainian fighter, got 6.5 million views, while TikTok videos with the hashtag #ghostofkyiv reached 200 million views.
There was just one problem: The Ghost of Kiev may be a myth. While there are reports of some Russian planes that were destroyed in combat, there is no information linking them to a single Ukrainian pilot. One of the first videos that went viral, which was included in the montage shared by the official Ukraine Twitter account, was a computer rendering from a combat flight simulator originally uploaded by a YouTube user with just 3,000 subscribers. And a photo supposedly confirming the fighter’s existence, shared by a former president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, was from a 2019 Twitter post by the Ukrainian defense ministry.”
Another story in The New York Times “An ‘IT army’ is fighting Russian propaganda” narrates how a 22-year-old Ukrainian in a red beanie and big black headphones is helping take down some of Russia’s most powerful websites — including state media and even the official page of the Kremlin.
“The attacks he and others are helping to carry out on Russian websites are part of a wide information war in the background of the much larger conflict here, as Ukrainians target Russian websites to rewrite the narrative Moscow is presenting to Russians back home. “We are creating an IT army,” Ukrainian Vice- Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov tweeted. Horlan is a cybersecurity expert who recently launched an app called ‘disBalancer’ that helps take down scam websites by overwhelming them with online traffic. He has redirected his team’s efforts in recent days to instead target Russian websites he says are spreading dangerous disinformation about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
As the speed of fake news and disinformation is high and many avid social media users tend to share them without checking the facts, some media outlets are sharing tips with people on how to spot the disinformation. Stanford News published an article ‘Seven tips for spotting disinformation related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict’ for the same purpose. “Social media is a well-established source for first-hand accounts of breaking news, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been no exception: As the conflict continues, Ukrainian citizens are using platforms like Twitter, Facebook and TikTok to show the world what is unfolding on the ground.
Amidst the deluge of authentic reports have been a spate of misleading news and disinformation – narratives intended to discredit or cause harm – related to the conflict, says Shelby Grossman, a research scholar at the Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO), an interdisciplinary programme run under the auspices of the Cyber Policy Center at the Freeman Spogli Institute of International Studies (FSI).”
The Russian Government has also introduced new laws to discourage spread of what they call ‘fake news’ in the country. “The bill, adopted after a third reading, sets out jail terms of varying lengths and fines against people who publish “knowingly false information” about the military. Russian lawmakers on Friday approved legislation providing up to 15 years in jail for any publication of fake news about the Russian armed forces, one week after Moscow invaded Ukraine,” AFP reported.
ABC article “Fact checkers have been busy debunking Russian misinformation related to Ukraine, but that’s not the only place it has come from” says: “From old Russian narratives about the nationhood of Ukraine, to feel-good (but potentially fake) stories of heroic Ukrainian fighters, fact checkers around the world have already published close to 500 articles debunking claims made about the conflict. Adding further confusion, the overwhelming volume of information coming out of Ukraine has led to instances of misreporting, even by legitimate and trustworthy news sources.”
In an article “War via TikTok: Russia’s new tool for propaganda machine” AP says: “In 2014, Russia flooded the Internet with fake accounts pushing disinformation about its takeover of Crimea. Eight years later, experts say Russia is mounting a far more sophisticated effort as it invades Ukraine. Armies of trolls and bots stir up anti-Ukrainian sentiment. State-controlled media outlets look to divide Western audiences. Clever TikTok videos serve up Russian nationalism with a side of humor.”
Regarding racism linked to refugees, Brookings highlighted the issue in an article “The Russian invasion of Ukraine shows racism has no boundaries”. It writes: “There are many reports of Black people being refused at border crossings in favour of white Ukrainians, leaving them stuck at borders for days in brutal conditions. Ukraine stated they would first allow women and children on trains and transport out of the country to flee the Russian invasion. However, it seems they meant Ukrainian and European women and children. Videos show Black people being pushed off trains and Black drivers being reprimanded and stalled by Ukrainians as they try to flee. There are even reports of animals being allowed on trains before Africans.”
CNN also reported in a story titled, “Foreign students fleeing Ukraine say they face segregation, racism at border” that foreign students attempting to leave the country say they are experiencing racist treatment by Ukrainian security forces and border officials. “One African medical student told CNN that she and other foreigners were ordered off the public transit bus at a checkpoint between Ukraine and Poland border. They were told to stand aside as the bus drove off with only Ukrainian nationals on board.”
