![]() And then people think twice about sympathizing with Ukraine. And this - the Telegram and the fake fact-checking through this is just a bit of an extension of that.ĮSTRIN: Well, the end result is if you flood the zone with a lot of fake news, you create doubt. So just a few hours ago, the People's Daily in China is very specifically calling it a Ukrainian Special Operation. And you see that parroted by Chinese state media. ![]() They call it a Ukrainian Special Operation. ![]() A really good example of this is Russia has very specific language about how it frames this invasion of Ukraine. I mean, we've seen fake fact-checkers before, fake media outlets before, but it's - in terms of how it's getting other outlets to report on it as well, Russian state media has been very effective over the past couple of years of actually getting a lot of other people to run their lines of rhetoric. NGUYEN: This is a tactic that's kind of emerged. It's that Russian officials - other accounts are taking these exact claims and running it as well.ĮSTRIN: Well, Kevin, what is the goal? I mean, are they trying to convince Russians with these fake posts or are they trying to dupe, you know, people around the world? The issue with Telegram is not just that you're going to this group and that's all you're seeing. Telegram's a bit harder to read than, say, Twitter in terms of its reach or its impressions. NGUYEN: Yes, it's just unilaterally false information.ĮSTRIN: So these fake fact-check channels we're seeing primarily on Telegram.ĮSTRIN: Well, how much traction do these fake fact-check channels get? Isn't that suspicious? And here's a picture of Google Maps showing you that it's quite close to each other.ĮSTRIN: So the claim was that Ukrainians allegedly had brought bodies in from the morgue to stage that there were deaths in that attack? Look how close the morgue is to this TV tower. Look how strange these bodies are positioned. NGUYEN: One example I looked at was the attack of the TV tower in Kyiv, which is the Ukrainian capital. But if you were to go into them, what you're going to find is exclusively anti-Ukrainian, what appears, or what it positions itself, as sophisticated forensic analysis of events, of specific videos and of specific events within the Ukrainian invasion.ĮSTRIN: So give us a specific example of one of the fake fact-checking channels that you've been looking at. If you are using it to follow the invasion of Ukraine and you're following these kind of fake fact-checking outlets, you would never know that they're actually - they don't specifically tell them - tell you that they're Russian-aligned. NGUYEN: So Telegram is a encrypted messaging app. Welcome.ĮSTRIN: Can you briefly walk us through this? When someone opens up their Telegram app, what are they seeing? Kevin Nguyen has written about the latest front in the information war for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and he joins me now. Several channels on the messaging app Telegram look like independent fact-checkers, but if you look closer, you see they're actually pro-Russian propaganda outlets spreading fake news about the invasion. You've probably seen real fact-check articles online, news organizations debunking rumors and fake news circulating on social media. Now it's even worse with the rise of fake fact-checkers. Disinformation was a big problem before the war in Ukraine.
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