A Year of Collaborative Journalism to Face the War of Disinformation Since the Invasion of Ukraine

Disinforming narratives that cross borders, decontextualized images, hoaxes that target the victims of the war. Facing the constant wave of disinformation that a war has unleashed, which has left thousands dead and injured, achieves greater reach if there is collaboration with the community and other organizations. This February 24 marks a year since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and from Maldita.es we have verified and demonstrated that coordination and cooperation are the most effective approach to combat global disinformation.

An entire team dedicated to debunking more than 170 hoaxes about the war in Ukraine

Just a few minutes after the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, officially announced the start of the attack on Ukraine, a flood of shocking images began to circulate on social networks, moving from one chat to another, even being broadcast on television.  Except some were real… and others were hoaxes .

In the early moments of the war, it was common to come across videos of conflicts that occurred in previous years, recorded in other countries, and even screenshots from video games. Therefore, the Maldita.es team set out to debunk hoaxes relentlessly, in a task especially intense in the first few weeks that evolved over time towards other types of more sophisticated disinformation, as we have described in this evolution of the hoaxes.

Among all the content you have consulted us on our WhatsApp chatbot (+34 644 22 93 19) and those we have been able to catch, in a year more than 170 hoaxes about the war in Ukraine have been dismantled, which we have compiled to understand their operation.

#UkraineFacts: a collaborative database among international fact-checkers to face a global disinformation campaign

All these lies, half-truths, and unproven disinformation have circulated around the world since February 24, 2022; and many of them were exactly the same but in different languages. The idea that this wave of disinformation would also be registering in other countries led Maldita.es to open a database and give access to more than 100 fact-checkers in 88 different countries to start collaborating, avoid duplicating efforts and analyze the phenomenon from a global approach.

But not only there; If you are a regular at the daily twitcherias on our Twitch channel, you may remember a special resource to help you not get fooled by the hoaxes about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. And I’m sure you already know this, but we are very present on TikTok. So is the disinformation related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as this NewsGuard study warned about how this platform shows these contents to new users within minutes.  Therefore, in the midst of a wave of lies, half-truths, and decontextualized virals, the team got to work to spread the debunkings when we exceeded 100 hoaxes or in five compilations [which you can see here: 1 , 2 , 3, 4 and 5 ]. Remember! In crisis situations, do not share if you are not sure and send us everything that comes to you that makes you doubt at+34 644 229 319.

Collaboration network among organizations to study, understand, and fight disinformation

With all this background work, life continued at Maldita.es. The birth of the European Fact-Finding Standards Network (EFCSN) and its European Code of Professional Standards was formed precisely in the context of the war in Ukraine.  In this context, contacts with organizations based in Central and Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, have been strengthened, thus creating a dynamic of support for other verifiers, promoting the development of technical capabilities and training in skills (e.g. outreach) to strengthen the fight against disinformation in the region.

Maldita.es also participated in the working group of the European Union Disinformation Observatory, EDMO, on disinformation and the war in Ukraine. Here we have shared our daily observations, general trends and narratives, as well as recommendations to continue the fight against disinformation about the conflict. This exchange of views resulted in the final report published online.

During this crisis, platforms relied on content created by Maldita.es for dashboards or third-party checks (for example, Meta’s 3PFC). Better access to data for platforms that have signed the code is necessary to better understand the threat. We have contributed to the crisis response subgroup of the Code of Conduct on Disinformation by sharing information with the European Commission, ERGA, and other signatories, such as major online platforms, civil society organizations, and others.