Pro-Ukrainian content floods the webs
For eleven days, pro-Ukrainian content has flooded the web: a passerby tries to stop a Russian tank, locals scream with joy when helicopters presented as enemies crash.
They mock atomized tanks marked with “WITH” white of the invader, mock their corpses.
“In the first phase of the conflict, for international opinion, the Ukrainians are clearly ahead in the information“says Baptiste Robert, founder of Predicta lab, a French company fighting disinformation.
“On TikTok or Telegram, it’s crazy, it’s mad“to see the number of content hostile to Russians, opines Damien Bancal, cybersecurity researcher.
In recent days, however, as Russia has bombarded Ukrainian cities, sobs have supplanted bravado.
“What’s strongest is that it’s organic“, analyzes Baptiste Robert. “There is a real will of the Ukrainians to document this war. When something happens, they pull out their phones.“The Ukrainian army also posts the damage inflicted on the enemy.
‘Organic’
If the published videos”are pretty legit“, according to Mr. Robert, some stories were built on the wind, as demonstrated by the AFP fact-checking cell.
Thirteen Ukrainian border guards had been declared dead”as a hero“by Kiev after sending”fuck off“a Russian military boat came to take the tiny islet they were defending. They were fine”living“, finally agreed the Ukrainian authorities, as Moscow claimed from the beginning.
In Paris, the Ukrainian embassy denies any manipulation. “We do not produce fake news“, say its diplomats. Disinformation is a Russian weapon, which Moscow “affine“Since 2014 and the capture of Crimea, they continue.
In 2016, his trolls were even accused of influencing the US presidential campaign. Their strategy isto infiltrate groups“discussion to develop their participants, decrypts Emily Harding, researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, an American think-tank.
A technique requiring time which they do not have in Ukraine. Especially since for having underestimated the Ukrainian resistance, Moscow completely failed to enter the war, according to Western military experts interviewed by AFP.
The glorious tale which was to accompany his “special military operation” of liberation of the country was invalidated by heavy losses.
Or “it is very difficult to counter the truth with lies“, observes Ms. Harding. Especially when, at the top of the state, Vladimir Putin claims to want “denazify“Ukraine, in defiance of all reality.