Do you believe everything you see online?
You may consider yourself to be educated on the signs of misinformation, or discerning enough to question the validity of everything you see on social media, but think again.
A study conducted by Ofcom showed that 30 per cent of adults who go online don’t question the truthfulness of the information they see, with a further 6 per cent believing everything they see online.
Furthermore, although 74 per cent of children aged 12-17 claimed they were confident in identifying misinformation, only 11 per cent were able to correctly identify signs of a genuine post.
The issue of being unable to decipher fake news has been brought to light recently after BBC Verify discovered that thousands of Russian trolls are using popular social media platforms like TikTok and Facebook to spread anti-Ukrainian propaganda.
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Russia’s Invasion Of Ukraine Was An Act Of Tyranny
With other major events happening across the globe, from natural disasters to the Hamas-Israel conflict, the war in Ukraine has begun to slip from the public consciousness. But we must not let it.
Since February 24th 2021, armed forces of the Russian Federation have been engaged in an unprovoked military aggression against Ukraine. As well as armed conflict, there have also been a number of cyber-attacks believed to have been orchestrated by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Hundreds of TikTok Fakes
Since July, the BBC has uncovered over 800 fake accounts on TikTok which have been built to spread propaganda against Ukraine and members of its government.
The findings of this research, conducted by BBC Verify, were published on 15th December 2023.
The accounts, which are confirmed to be of Russian origin, usually only post one video to simultaneously avoid detection from TikTok while also trying to reach as many of its users as possible.
They utilise AI in order to create vague bios and generate images which can be used as profile pictures, including stolen images of celebrities like Emma Watson and Colin Farrell.
In addition, the accounts have also targeted multiple Ukrainian officials, including former Ukrainian defence minister Oleksiy Reznikov, 57, and his daughter Anastasiya Shteinhauz.
One video accuses the pair of purchasing a €7m villa in Cannes, France, while another claims that Ms Shteinhauz bought a mansion in Madrid during the Russia-Ukraine war, both of which BBC Verify have proven to be false.
But what is even more unsettling is the fact that these videos have thousands of likes.
