Ukraine-Russia conflict clocks higher interest than UP, Punjab elections; social media swamped by misinformation

Image: Reuters

Fact-checking platforms in India have spent a hectic fortnight trying to combat misinformation originating from two big events: assembly elections in key Indian states and the intensifying conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine that started on February 24 has aroused higher interest than the state elections in the past few days,

Take for instance Koo, India's Twitter clone. In Koo, of the top 20 trending hashtags, 11 were related to the war and evacuation of Indian students from Ukraine on March 2.

In ShareChat, while there weren’t trending hashtags on the crisis, there were multiple videos related to the conflict viewed by thousands of users of the platform.

The interest is so high that it has overshadowed election-related content from five Indian states -- Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur.

To debunk misinformation, fact checkers have reorganised  their work force and prioritized the content to focus on as the Russia-Ukraine crisis unfolds and the elections head to a climax.

Events like elections are breeding grounds for misinformation campaigns because they attract more people online who try to stay abreast of events on the ground.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the conflict in eastern Europe has been a trending topic with many handles offering updates on the situation. As many Indian students were caught in the crossfire between the two countries, content on the conflict has only gained traction. According to reports, about 18,000 Indian students were enrolled across universities in Ukraine.

Misinformation included a 2017 video of an explosion in Ukraine was being passed off a film of  one caused by the Russian invasion. Old pictures of Ukrainian women soldiers donning military outfits were re-shared as new. A 2016 image of a food truck bearing the name Guru Nanak’s Langar GoodBye Hunger from Canada was being reshared as that of a community kitchen in Ukraine.

There are several such images and videos circulating on the media platforms. making the task difficult for fact checkers.

Ruby Dhingra, managing editor and head of Newschecker.in, a fact checking platform, said it is tough to quantify the spike in content, but it is much more than the platform can handle even if works round the clock.

Rakesh Dubbudu, founder of Factly, said his platform too found such a spike in content around the war that the virality of election-related misinformation had diminished although production of it continues.

Factly gets around 15-20 fact-checking tips a day during elections, but the number has now increased to 30-35, Dubbudu said.

Some 60 percent of the tips received by Newschecker.in are related to the Russia-Ukraine crisis, Dhingra said.

A Koo spokesperson said in a statement to Moneycontrol that social media, like traditional media, witnesses significant traction over events that carry monumental importance, as users often engage in discourse and share their thoughts, be it elections, the Indian Premier League or the ongoing conflict.

“As a social platform, Koo reflects the sentiment of India. As the nation begins to react to events - both local and global -- those topics tend to gain importance on the platform. Koo users actively share their thoughts and opinions -- in a language of their choice -- and on a topic of their interest,” the spokesperson said.

There are a few key reasons for this phenomenon. One is the evacuation of Indian students in Ukraine who are now posting videos on social media platforms talking about their plight after returning home.

According to reports, hundreds of students in the region have been evacuated and efforts are underway to ensure that the rest reach home safely. “A section of the interest will go down once the Indians in the region are evacuated,” Dubbudu said.

The other reason is the role the media is playing in all this. This war, from the beginning, was never just about Russia and Ukraine, but also about global powers coming together in support of the latter.

Shivam Shankar Singh, a former political consultant for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and director of Riply Analytics, explained that this is a global war with the European Union, the US and other countries coming to the aid of Ukraine, which is being portrayed as the clear victim.

“This is the first time in a war where we have a clear victim,” Singh said.

This is in large part thanks to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his social media posts that have garnered people's support. As one of the fact checkers pointed out, he has won the information war with Russia.

Two, the possibility of World War III, and the far reaching consequences it could have beyond Russia and Ukraine, obviously has captured people’s imagination.

“People are talking about World War III. There are a lot of things that are adding up,” Dubbudu said.

As with any large event, it also becomes a tool for politicians to fit their own agenda. There are enough examples of this already happening although it is yet to dominate the narrative.

Many videos of Indian students returning home carry images of local politicians giving press conferences, handing flower bouquets and extending a warm welcome to the evacuated students at the airport.

There are several posts on social media where users have pointed out how Prime Minister Narendra Modi was working round the clock to evacuate stranded Indians. Some have also taken a dig at the opposition for criticizing such efforts.

According to fact checkers, the next few days will determine the narrative of the whole conflict from the perspective of India. In the meantime, addressing misinformation issue is the key focus area for these platforms.

In a recent interaction with Moneycontrol, Ankush Sachdeva, CEO of ShareChat, said the company works with independent fact checkers who make sure that during sensitive times like these, there is a strong neutral point of view on what fake news is, and what is not.

“We get regularly flagged by these guys and then we take the appropriate action,” Sachdeva said. During special events like elections, Sachdeva said, Sharechat has shorter SLAs (Service Level Agreement) to ensure that things are brought to public notice faster.

Big tech is also reacting to the situation on many fronts. Meta, formerly Facebook, is cracking down on accounts that are spreading misinformation. Google paused monetization of Russia-funded media outlets on its platform. Twitter has temporarily paused advertisements in Russia and Ukraine to ensure public safety.

ShareChat and Meta work with multiple fact checking platforms including Newschecker.in, Factly and Boom Live.

Unlike the larger platforms, Koo does not work with third-party fact checkers. Instead, it lists the fact checking sites on the platform where people can access information.

On the fact checkers’ side, despite the increase in the volume of information, it does not make sense for them to hire more people for the duration of a single event. So, many of these companies are restructuring their work flow and finding other ways to work around the problem.

Dubbudu said: “We are a team of about 10. You can’t hire people for just a single event.” He has re-organised his team to get a better handle on the situation. This includes restructuring the team based on categories of content such as conflict images or human interest stories.

Given the increase in volume, the company is also prioritizing some content over others. “There is no point in debunking each and every content. So we prioritise based on the seriousness of the situation,” he added.

Dhingra of Newschecker.in said the company has restructured its workflow; employees are working in shifts round the clock. The platform is also working with the global fact-checking community to keep tabs on the misinformation around the conflict, and also to avoid duplication.

Even so, there are multiple challenges.

Language is a key barrier. While English and regional language posts are easier to debunk because of Indians’ familiarity with the languages, posts that are in Ukranian aren’t always easy to make sense of.

Claims made by individuals are also tougher to debunk. The last few days have seen individuals sharing their stories on the situation in Ukraine on social media. While it may be easy to find the identity of the person, it might not always be easy to debunk the claim they are making since it is based on their personal experience.