Before I start, a quick introduction is in order. My name is Jetze, and I am the CTO of Bywire and responsible for developing the technology necessary to deliver truth, trust, and accountability in our news ecosystem. In this blog I would like to share the exciting concepts and ideas we use in combating fake news and the blockchain technology we developed. In this way we can lift the hood on the engine powering our news platform, and I hope you will find this informative and interesting.
Since my mind can sometimes be all over the place and some posts might be highly theoretical, I will try to label the content with either #theory if it is very theoretic, #explainer if it is a simple explanation of concepts, and #FakeNews if I discuss specific articles or news items.
One advantage of occupying yourself with fake news is that you do train yourself to spot it, even if you sometimes have to navigate through some of the darker corners of the internet. Today I want to talk a bit about fake news surrounding the current Ukraine crisis, which has the potential to become one of the worst human tragedies of our generation. Along with the human suffering, wars also present a vast amount of fake news and disinformation from all sides. This is because opposing forces are working hard to spin the narrative they would wish to present. Of course truth is objective, but the presentation of an alternative version of truth, is not.
Russia, of course, loves nothing more than disinformation. Their media is full of it. However, you can see plenty of other articles debunking their propaganda elsewhere in the media and I suspect we’re going to see plenty more examples. Instead, I’d like to shine a light on our own media, and a couple of outlets which most would consider to be relatively reliable and trustworthy (yes, we investigate media from all different political flavours).
The article in question runs with the alarming headline: “Russia is creating lists of Ukrainians ‘to be killed or sent to camps’, US claims”, as reported by the Guardian, CNN and many other sources. While I do not know if this is true or not (and it is certainly very disturbing news) there are some very strong indications why we might question the trustworthiness of this story.
First, let’s look at what they got right. Credit must be given to the Guardian and CNN for reminding the reader that these are claims rather than facts. Even so, the article is much more heavily focused on the possible outcome rather than the proviso that this is just a claim. The assertion made in the tone of the author is fact, yet the caveat that there is no evidence to justify such an assertion is presented almost as a disclaimer.
Let’s dive in a little deeper.
The first paragraph in the Guardian reads:
Russian forces are “creating lists of identified Ukrainians to be killed or sent to camps” in the event of an invasion, according to a letter sent by the US to the UN human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet.
Straight out of the blocks, there is one small red flag here. The only source mentioned here is a letter from the US to the UN human rights chief Michell Bachelet. There is no other source at the moment which we could verify. Since this is a claim that could impact the stance of other EU countries (looking at you France and Germany) I would say the absence of a concrete document, is reason for caution. Typically, a story like this should not even be published without at least two independent sources.
Another paragraph reads:
It will be a war waged by Russia on the Ukrainian people, to repress them, crush them, to harm them,” he said.
This plays exactly into our fear that if the US does not intervene, thousands of innocent people are going to be killed, a precise repetition of the brutal acts under Stalin of the Soviet Union in the 1930’s and 1940’s. We have seen it all before, that’s why it is so effective. But it is important to remember that was 70 years ago. Things might have changed since then, and I wonder if Putin has the same iron grasp on his country as Stalin. This is a full-blown red flag for me.
Another paragraph specifically mentions the targeting of LGBTQI+ people and religious minorities.
and vulnerable populations such as religious and ethnic minorities and LGBTQI+ persons”.
These are very hot topics on both the left (LGBTQI+) and the right (religious freedom). This is important because the left, in particular, can be difficult to motivate for intervention.
Finally, the title gives a very strong clue.
Russia is creating lists of Ukrainians ‘to be killed or sent to camps’, US claims
It contains an apparent quote (‘to be killed or sent to camps’), which makes it look like it is text cited from an original document. However, the original document is not public at the moment. At the same time, it is overly emotional, even evoking the Gulags. That would be another red flag for me. We typically see fake news or disinformation created with an overly emotional tone, repetitive, and light on facts, details, and sources.
I can’t say until there is more evidence whether the letter is factually correct, exists, or is a fabrication, but equally, I wouldn’t trust a country planning a “humanitarian intervention” led by tanks and missiles to liberate the people of Ukraine.
Even so, this article seems to me engineered to garner support for US intervention on the left side of the political spectrum, and should we really believe state propaganda without corroboration? If it was from the Kremlin, we certainly would dismiss it, yet the Washington war propaganda, without any verification, carries more weight in corporate and state media outlets.
It reminds me of the similar claims made to justify war in Iraq. Like today, they were repeated dutifully by the press and, as we know now, they turned out to be false. Times of war encourage all sides to twist the truth to a greater or lesser degree. And while we certainly can’t trust anything coming out of the Kremlin, we should remember that our own side has a long history of disinformation, false flags, and even alleged war crimes.
Judgement:
3.5 red flags: Not trustworthy.
(Writing by Jetze Sikkema, Tom Cropper and Michael O'Sullivan, editing by Michael O'Sullivan)