Marta Farion: Facebook steps up fact-checking in Ukraine

As Russia steps up its disinformation during the coronavirus pandemic, Facebook announced increased vetting of information.

Facebook’s Ukraine representative released an announcement on March 27, 2020, confirming that the company will partner with the projects StopFake and VoxUkraine to intensify its fact-checking for posts on its social network pages.

Finally, the time has come when Facebook will focus on the use of their platforms as vehicles for disinformation campaigns. The timing of this decision by Facebook is probably tied to the coronavirus pandemic. For the last six years, as Ukraine was attacked by a blitz of Russian lies in an information war during Russia’s military invasion of Donbas and Crimea, calls for blocking Russian bots and disinformation were unsuccessful.

But Facebook’s recent decision to engage Ukraine’s two fact-checking organizations – StopFake and VoxUkraine, is good news. The bad news is that there has been a deluge of fake news related to the coronavirus.

Coronavirus seized by Russia for disinformation

Russia, as well as China, have seized on the coronavirus pandemic to wage disinformation campaigns to influence populations, sow doubts about the handling of the pandemic by governments, and use the virus for geopolitical purposes for their own advantage, simultaneously deflecting their own weaknesses.

“The Kremlin has been waging a hybrid war using various types of instruments, including information tools, … the aim is to destabilize other countries,” stated Stanisław Żaryn, spokesman for Poland’s security services chief in a recent interview.

The fact that the Kremlin captured the coronavirus issue as its partner in attacks on the EU is well understood in Brussels. On March 18, during a press briefing, EU spokesman Peter Stano stated that much of the EU-related coronavirus misinformation comes from providers located in the Russian Federation or from sources related to the Kremlin.

A current false message disseminated by Russian bots includes propaganda that the European Union is unable to cope with the pandemic, that there is a lack of assistance to the most affected countries – Italy and Spain, and that it is time for the final breakup of the EU.

A case in point is the Kremlin’s widely publicized so-called “humanitarian assistance” to Italy, which demonstrates the perfidy of information manipulation through an endless stream of false stories.  Soon after the delivery of the so-called charitable aid, the Italian publication La Stampa reported the truth, revealing that Moscow’s “humanitarian” motives are far from benevolent. It turns out that 80% of Moscow’s “philanthropy” was “absolutely useless and unhelpful”, as revealed by an investigation by Italian journalists.

The fact that the so-called rescuers who arrived in Italy are Russian military personnel, and the operation itself is coordinated by the Russian Ministry of Defense, not the health ministry, is an indication of the use of the coronavirus pandemic for political purposes and demonstrates how the use of Facebook for propaganda purposes legitimizes lies.  Russian military officers are moving freely through Italy, just steps from NATO bases. The situation is similar to the Russian convoys of so-called “humanitarian aid” coming to Ukraine’s Donbas in vehicles packed with weapons and Russian military personnel.

Many “fakes” have been posted about the United States related to the coronavirus as well. Before the active phase of the spread of the virus in the United States, Russian disinformation centers and bots were using social media to claim that the coronavirus is an American biological weapon and that America is benefitting from the pandemic to shield news of its own economic crisis.

Facebook responds to dangerous disinformation

Now that the coronavirus pandemic has become a global threat, and the disinformation about it can destabilize the world, Facebook, as the leader of social networking, made the right decision to prioritize a new fight against information abusers on its network.

Ukraine became the first victim – the first responder of modern-age information aggression in 2014 when Russia actively used the most devastating information technologies to destabilize daily life, to discredit and demoralize the military, and to counteract the new government’s pro-Western policy.

Kateryna Kruk, Facebook’s Public Policy Manager for Ukraine, said: “We are excited to launch our Fact-Finder in Ukraine with Vox and Stop Fake. We take the fight against fake news seriously, so we are constantly working on ways that will help stop misinformation on our platform. ”

Ukrainian partners selected for fact-checking

To strengthen the fight against fakes and misinformation in Ukraine, Facebook selected StopFake and VoxUkraine as its partners, – two organizations certified by the independent International Fact-Checking Network.

VoxUkraine is an independent analytical platform founded in 2014 by a team of experienced economists and lawyers based in Ukraine and abroad. They check the statements of politicians, experts, and facts that were broadcast and published.

It is gratifying that the intellectual capacity of the National University “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” is again at the forefront of national and international issues.  StopFake was established on March 2, 2014, by faculty members and students of the Kyiv-Mohyla School of Journalism to refute Russian propaganda and expose false news.  Its team of journalists, editors, IT specialists, and translators exposed more than 3,000 Russian fakes. StopFake has been cited and featured by major international newspapers, such as the New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian. The StopFake team has repeatedly been invited to participate in international conferences and participated in media programs as experts.

StopFake’s deputy editor-in-chief and producer of Ukrainian language television programming Viktoriia Romaniuk is currently working on the development of a new government communications program in the United States. The project is being implemented in partnership between the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and University of Indiana in Bloomington.

As a communications expert, she commented: “Without exaggeration, StopFake is a leader in fact-finding in Ukraine. We debunk false information in thirteen languages on our webpage and publish a television program in English, Ukrainian, and Russian. We are delighted that the experience of our team will help Facebook combat targeting lies at such a difficult time for us all. ”

Marta Farion of Chicago, Illinois, is president of the Kyiv-Mohyla Foundation of America.