The Disinformation Reaction to the Russia–Ukraine War

Abstract

The beginning of the war in Ukraine generated a wave of disinformation in Europe. Our research intends to cognise the reaction of disinformation agents to the outbreak of war, analysing publications checked by Iberian fact-checkers during the first ten days of the conflict. Specifically, we used Voyant Tools online software to perform a quantitative textual analysis, which allowed us to survey the most relevant topics, formats for spreading disinformation and media platforms. We also analysed the presence of political leaders, countries and military terminologies. Our findings indicate that video is the most common format to disseminate disinformation content, namely, to illustrate war scenarios. In addition, our research also showed that online video platforms, especially YouTube, are closer to terms that portray military actions. This may have implications for fostering a warmongering feeling. Finally, we found that the fake content checked was mostly favourable to Ukraine, which raises new poignant arguments for the contemporary debate about disinformation in war.