Thread by @CraigSilverman

NEW: Over a dozen Russian-language videos spreading on social media claim to debunk Ukrainian disinfo.

But they’re actually part of a disturbing campaign that spreads disinformation by disguising it as fact-checking.

A story & 🧵on debunks-as-disinfo: propublica.org/article/in-the…

Here’s a viral tweet with a video claiming to expose Ukrainian disinfo that had mislabeled a military vehicle as Russian. The video also spread widely on Telegram. But it’s nearly impossible to find an example of the supposed Ukrainian fake being shared anywhere.

Here’s another example from a Russian government account. And another where an official with the pro-Russian separatist Donetsk People’s Republic claims to show “How Ukrainian fakes are made.” Good luck finding these supposed “Ukrainian fakes.”

Researchers at @clemsonhub and ProPublica identified more than a dozen videos that purport to debunk apparently nonexistent Ukrainian fakes. They don’t show up in reverse image searches, and the Russian debunking videos fail to cite a single example of them circulating.

@ClemsonHub Metadata from two videos reveals how they were made. Simply put, whoever created the videos duplicated the original footage to create the alleged Ukrainian fake. They added different captions or visual elements to fabricate the Ukrainian version. It’s a fake fake.

@ClemsonHub “If these videos were what they purport to be, they would be a combination of two separate video files, a ‘Ukrainian fake’ and the original footage…. Whoever crafted the debunking video created the fake and debunked it at the same time,” said Clemson's @DarrenLinvill

@ClemsonHub @DarrenLinvill Why make fake debunks? The goal is to inject doubt among Russian-language audiences as they encounter images of wrecked Russian vehicles and of the destruction in Ukraine. “It’s sufficient to make people uncertain as to what they should trust,” said @plwarre of Clemson.

@ClemsonHub @DarrenLinvill @plwarre It’s unclear who is creating the videos, or if they come from a single source or many. They have well over 1 million views on Telegram, thousands of engagements on Twitter, and have spread to Facebook and TikTok. The videos have Russian captions, but can transcend language.

@ClemsonHub @DarrenLinvill @plwarre On March 1 Russia's state-controlled Channel One aired a screenshot from one of the videos. It was shown as a warning to “inexperienced viewers” who might be fooled by false images of Ukrainian forces destroying Russian military vehicles, the BBC reported bbc.com/news/world-eur…

@ClemsonHub @DarrenLinvill @plwarre Joan Donovan @BostonJoan of Harvard's Shorenstein Center called the fake debunking videos “low-grade information warfare." She said they're particularly effective domestic propaganda when the videos get cited by state TV.

@ClemsonHub @DarrenLinvill @plwarre @BostonJoan A few days after the Channel One segment, footage from one of the fake debunks appeared in a video shared by the Russian government account on Twitter. “Western and Ukrainian media are creating thousands of fake news on Russia every day,” the video said.

@ClemsonHub @DarrenLinvill @plwarre @BostonJoan Of course, old footage of military vehicles and explosions *is* spreading with false/misleading info. And journalists try hard to debunk it.
But now we have to watch for fact-checking-as-disinfo. Tip: Credible fact-checks cite where a falsehood has appeared. Check the checkers.

@ClemsonHub @DarrenLinvill @plwarre @BostonJoan Read the full story, and be sure to follow @darrenlinvill @plwarre and @clemsonhub. They do great work.

propublica.org/article/in-the…