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As the war in Ukraine began, Russia added to the disinformation conversation with their propaganda machine.

Despite platforms like Twitter and Instagrams guidelines indicating the absolute ban on false and misleading information, Kremlin-backed media users continued to post on social media.

In May 2020, Twitter began to add warnings to posts containing information about COVID-19. The company released a statement on their website stating, You may not use Twitters services to share false or misleading information about COVID-19 which may lead to harm.

The warnings came following the spread of COVID-19 misinformation from former President Donald Trump and some senators and house members.

After the Jan. 6 insurrection in 2021, former President Trump was removed from Twitter, and his official account was censured as well. Many other platforms followed and permanently suspended Trump and began working toward new information policies.

Despite the suspension of these accounts, the damage had already occurred. Trumps legion of misinformation spread like wildfire, and thousands of users post misinformation about COVID-19 and other topics daily.

Twitter and other platforms have a hard time combating these issues because of the idea of free speech. Legally, users do not have a right to free speech on private social media platforms. Even though the law is on the medias side, misinformation and fraud continue to spread.

On Feb. 24, Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in Ukraine. Shortly after, multiple missile strikes occurred across the country. This invasion caused thousands of Ukrainian citizens to flee toward Poland and other surrounding countries.

Now more than ever, Ukraine is in dire need of the world knowing what Russia is concocting, but the media still holds multiple errors.

Russian state-affiliated Twitter accounts continue to post misleading biased information after Twitter promised they would prohibit Kremlin-sided advertising.

One major account, RT News, is controlled by the Russian government and posts updates on Putin and the recent activity in Ukraine. The account has over 3 million followers, and users frequently interact with posts. A post made on Feb. 28 showed a video of a Ukrainian residential building, which the Russian media claimed Ukraine had shelled. Later, multiple media outlets confirmed Russia had shelled the neighborhood.

Accounts from TikTok have made revenue from the creator fund off of old videos and films from video games, reposting a piece from Arma 3, a realistic-based war game. The post has been shared over 12 thousand times from TikTok and has crossed over to Twitter and a Spanish news broadcast. Because this video has gained traction, many are falsely informed of the fighting tactics and methods in Ukraine.

Another large account, Sputnik, posts misleading information in the form of journalism, not only leading on the citizens of Russia but also harming perspectives of factual journalism and media. Twitter allows posts to be made from this account saying West carrying out massive propaganda to portray Russia as enemy.

A video of a man jumping from a plane in tactical gear has been reposted on TikTok to depict the war in Ukraine, but was found to be from an Instagram video made in 2015. The TikTok video was posted across multiple accounts, raking in over 200 thousand views and 12 thousand shares.

Russias long history of propaganda bled into its conflict in Ukraine. Putin released two pre-recorded videos on television on Feb. 21 and Feb. 24.

The first video was a long-winded rant on the genocide Ukrainians were enforcing upon Russian speakers in the country. In the second video, Putin makes his case for a war on the West. Both were filled with lies that sought to bring people to Russias side and create a propaganda storm across the world.

Twitter allowed for this to happen by missing clips of the video posted in which Putin calls Ukrainians Neo-Nazis and Oligarchic. These clips began to spread and caused #DestroyNato and #DestroyUkraine to trend on Twitter. Once these videos were shared, many impressionable users viewed skewed parts of a war cry. The Russo-Ukraine conflict is already hard for many to understand, so throwing in clips of a notorious leader calling out Nazis doesnt help any cause but Russias.

Twitter has recently added multiple new sources to combat misinformation. They began to do what is called data dumps, which are the release of misinformation found across the platform including the tweeters information in large data sets. But one crucial data point missing is who views the tweets.

Without this crucial part of the puzzle, Twitters viewer algorithm cannot be changed to block misinformation from at-risk viewers.

If Twitter and other social media sites want to continue to say they are actively disputing misinformation, they need to do more than ban large, official accounts. In a platform as large and open as Twitter, one single tweet can account for thousands of pieces of propaganda.

The International Rescue Committee allocates donations to help provide food, medical care and emergency supplies to refugee families in countries like Ukraine, Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen. If inclined, please donate to help Ukrainians with the fight against Russia.

Edited by Sarah Rubinstein | srubinstein@themaneater.com

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Propaganda in the age of no-nonsense Twitter - The Maneater