This Week in Misinformation: Russians in the Dark, Big Tech v. Wartime Disinformation, Tucker v. the U.S., Fake Fact-Checks, Convoy/Gematria
10 March 2022
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Reliability scores for media outlets cited in the summary are in parentheses for each, courtesy of the terrific folks at Ad Fontes Media.
Now, on to our top three stories.
Russia’s leaders are doing all they can to keep Russians from knowing what is happening in Ukraine.
We know that thousands have been arrested in Russia for protesting this unprovoked war of choice, but many other Russians, including some who have relatives in Ukraine who are telling them otherwise (BBC, 46.14), don’t believe reports of massive Russian violence against Ukrainian population centers (New York Times, 44.46). CNN (42.95) asked Russian people in Russia what they thought of Putin’s war, only to hear the Kremlin’s disinformation about a “special military operation” dutifully--and unironically--parroted back. According to the Atlantic Council, most Russians generally favor what Russia is doing in Ukraine.
And this all makes sense when you consider how Russians have almost no alternatives left (Columbia Journalism Review, 43.60) to the state-run television apparatus that rarely deviates from the party line (Daily Beast, 35.73). The Atlantic (39.53) featured a deep dive on what it’s like to watch Russian TV these days, as did The New York Times (44.46), and they go a long way toward illuminating the workings of domestic information control.
The “fake news” law we wrote about last week has gone into effect (Nieman Lab, -), with predictable chilling effects on media organizations that had been covering the war for Russian audiences (New York Times, 44.46). Some outlets have altered their coverage to protect reporters and maintain their operating status (Washington Post, 43.22). Many foreign outlets (Forbes, 43.71), though, ultimately closed their Russia operations altogether (Washington Post, 43.22).
Where Russian authorities have struggled more is in the digital realm, where tech companies have been able to push back on Putin’s information operations targeting their users.
Russia is having relatively less success spreading its disinformation about Ukraine on social media (Nieman Lab). As a result, authorities have resorted to outright blocking Facebook for everyone in Russia (NPR, 44.68).
Twitter was also blocked, and the platform rolled out a version that it says can bypass Moscow’s restrictions (Associated Press, 48.82). On the content moderation and policy enforcement side, Twitter banned several large accounts that coordinated to promote a pro-Putin hashtag (The Hill, 43.58) and took down tweets by the Russian Embassy in the United Kingdom because they were lying about a Russian strike against a hospital in Mariupol (BBC, 46.14).
TikTok, which as with other conflicts (@abbieasr via Twitter) has seen an avalanche of videos synced to recycled, misleading audio about Ukraine (Poynter, 41.01), went so far as to prevent all Russian users from uploading new videos as a temporary measure (The Verge, ). Twitch has also taken wartime measures (Washington Post, 43.22) to exclude repeat misinformation offenders from its platform (New York Times, 44.46).
We wanted to cover something besides Russia this week, but unfortunately Tucker Carlson made that impossible when he wilfully amplified egregious falsehoods about the U.S., Ukraine, and biological laboratories. Buckle up.
First, it’s important to understand that this is a false thing (The Dispatch, ), known by Fox News reporters to be false (@acyn via Twitter), and that it has been around for a while, except before it was in reference to a lab in former Soviet republic Georgia (Associated Press, ). And that in this instance, it got traction after a QAnon influencer tweeted a map purporting to show that Putin was a good guy for bombing bioweapons labs in Ukraine (@Justin_Ling via Twitter).
QAnon absolutely loves this conspiracy theory (Foreign Policy, ), which is unsurprising given how eager that crowd is to make excuses for almost anything Vladimir Putin does. They also love that this story made the bigtime this week and would like to share in the credit, please. (@pokerpolitics via Twitter)
The bioweapons lab narrative worked its way up the misinformation food chain, starting with Russia-affiliated media and official Chinese accounts kicking the concept around for a few days (@RVAwonk via Twitter). It later worked its way into monologues by podcaster Steve Bannon, and the right’s favorite liberal, Glenn Greenwald, then picked it up (@Justin_Ling via Twitter). At this point Tucker Carlson, who surely knows the difference between biological research and biowarfare development, regardless blasted it out to his enormous primetime Fox News audience (Fox News, ) using clips of Russian and Chinese officials saying things (@acyn via Twitter)--and accused the U.S. Government of “mounting a disinformation campaign” against Russia, for good measure (Media Matters, ).
Alongside all this, there was also a flurry of boosting on social media by smaller accounts that aren’t (that we know of) governments or cable news channels. Recommend to you analyses by @katestarbird and @marcowenjones for two empirical angles on the spread of the narrative online. Love this kind of thing!
The White House refuted the false claims being made about the U.S. Government role and suggested the disinformation might be intended to help set up a false flag attack by the Russians (via Twitter). But this isn’t the end. In addition to my expectation that Tucker will make this a part of his schtick for the next several weeks, Russian news outlets have been finding it (idiotically?) useful to weave clips of Tucker talking about this into its own broadcasts (@JuliaDavisNews via Twitter), and this will surely continue. And that’s how Russia, China, and the Tucker-led right wing of American media found common cause this week.
I’m ready for some grab bag. You? Prism’s thread of the many fake things being said about Ukraine and Russia; a video of captured Russian soldiers explaining Russian disinformation; Russia is using fake fact-checks to spread disinformation; new conspiracy theories about the Biden administration and electric vehicles; the trucker convoy in Maryland is taught gematria by Q-splinter cult leader Michael Protzman and welcomes Ted Cruz to their cause; a Washington Post exposé on Roger Stone; election truther Tina Peters is indicted for tampering with voting equipment; a billionaire is sending Trump fans to hunt, badly, for voter fraud; the first January 6th defendant to go to trial is found guilty on all counts; and COVID misinformation bots may be enjoying a ‘holiday’ as social media activity pivots to Ukraine.
That, and a lot more, below. This is This Week in Misinformation.
-- Kevin