Facebook and Twitter removed all the conspiracy theory posts from Russia across the globe within this week – an effort to curtail the spread of disinformation campaigns regarding the Ukraine hospital bombing.
As many as 20 Russian embassies had posted different videos, pictures, and texts on social media platforms claiming that Russia did not attack the hospital.
In reality, the children and maternity hospital was badly struck by Russian troops last week which resulted in the death of a child and 2 adults.
The atrocity on the Ukraine hospital is a war crime according to international laws, yet there were claims made by the Russian media that the pictures circulating from the Ukraine hospital are fake or bogus.
There were claims regarding the authenticity of a woman who was carried out of the hospital on a stretcher – a reality of war-stricken Ukraine that shook the internet.
An Israeli research group had originally spotted the disinformation by someone called FakeReporter.
During the Russian incursion of Ukraine, there have been tons of inaccurate and misleading information circulating on different social media platforms mainly being distributed by the Russian authorities. Often these misleading information posts are circulated from the official leadership accounts of Russia.
Social media platforms continue to struggle to combat this disinformation being spread from the government-backed accounts as some of these tweets actually cause immense harm to the war-stricken community of Ukraine.
This Russia Ukraine war has reinstated questions about the government official accounts on different social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as their credibility.
The government accounts are held responsible for sharing authentic news and information and are also held at the highest standard, as much as possible.
This also triggered the debate of suspension and later on banning former president of America, Donald Trump from Twitter and Facebook back in 2021. Even the highest authorities and government officials tend to misuse the power they have in their hands.
Facebook and Twitter are trying to limit the reach of outlets from Russia so that the disinformation can be curtailed.
“We’re focused on keeping people safe, remediating abuse, and elevating reliable information,” a Twitter spokesperson says.
Facebook did not make a comment regarding this.
After the 9th March attack on the hospital in Mariupol, Facebook and Twitter came into action and phase-wise removed the posts from the Russian embassy about the denial of shelling on the hospital.