When Russian Disinformation 'Fact Checkers' Become Part of the Problem

Emil Filtenborg and Stefan Weichert are independent journalists based in Ukraine. In a weekly series for IranWire, they examine the landscape of disinformation in Russia and some of the false information that has emanated from the country since the outbreak of coronavirus.

 

Combating disinformation and propaganda is an increasingly difficult task. Though disinformation has always existed to some degree, the apotheosis of social media and the internet's fast-paced bombardment of information on readers has made it more visible and dangerous than ever. To mitigate this, governments have adopted two core approaches: shutting down channels of disinformation on the one hand, as Latvia recently did with Russia’s RT channel, and trying to debunk false information on the other.

The media has, to some extent, traditionally held the fact-checking role. Lately the New York Times has been prominent in extensively fact-checking the claims of American politicians, particularly President Trump, while in Denmark, the Danish Broadcasting Company runs a dedicated fact-checking program called Detektor. But at the same time, a new generation of fact-checkers has emerged outside of traditional media channels.

One of these is StopFake, a Ukrainian organization initially established by teachers and students at the Kyiv-Mohyla School of Journalism to combat Russian disinformation after the war broke out in Eastern Ukraine and the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.

StopFake’s trajectory has been an interesting one. While it started well, the last couple of years have seen a rising degree of politicization of its output, according to experts cited in an article by the Russian-born, but Ukrainian citizen journalist, Katerina Sergatskova, who has also written in-depth analyses on the Ukrainian far-right. Sergatskova’s explosive article links StopFake, who was initially sponsored by the British Embassy among other Western actors, with C14: an alt-right youth group linked to attacks on Roma camps near Kyiv and other racially-motivated crimes.

As Anton Shekhovtsov, an expert in right-wing groups in Eastern Europe, asserts: "Earlier, in 2014–2015, StopFake was really very useful, but then in the following years, the project became politicized. Now, they have a national-patriotic discourse.”

Buzzfeed journalist Christopher Miller, who lives in Kyiv, is also very critical of what StopFake has become. In the same article, he states: "StopFake co-founder Yevhen Fedchenko saw criticism of far-right groups by international and Ukrainian journalists as 'fake news' and 'echoes of Russian propaganda'."

These and other analysts believe that StopFake has moved from a pro-truth standpoint to an anti-Russia one. The British Embassy in Ukraine stopped sponsoring StopFake in 2018. This was not related to any alleged ties to right-wing groups, but according to the embassy, came about because StopFake had reached a size where British support was no longer necessary. But StopFake still has allies in the West, among them Facebook. The tech giant has selected StopFake as one of its two partners combating fake news on the social media platform in 2020.

Mark Galeotti, an expert on Russian politics and disinformation who has frequently contributed to IranWire, notes that this is not a standalone example of anti-fake news organizations gradually absorbing a political stance. He levels the same charge at EUvsDisinfo: an organization formed to combat disinformation in the European Union. "If you look at organizations as EUvsDisinfo or StopFake, they usually start as idealistic fact-checkers but end up like information warriors themselves,” he says. “They will say everything coming out of Russia is a lie, and that is a problem, because sometimes Russia actually tells the truth.” The EuvsDisinfo service is helpful for tracking disinformation, but the website is very Russia-focused in its front-page reporting – at the time of writing, 9.5 out of 10 articles on EuvsDisinfo’s main page were about Kremlin-backed narratives – which means disinformation originating from other countries is not afforded the same public scrutiny.

Today, Katerina Sergatskova has exiled herself and moved away from Kyiv because of threats made against her. IranWire sought a comment from StopFake, but the organization declined, citing an ongoing legal case. Plenty of the content on StopFake is credible, but the website has a strong pro-Ukrainian standpoint that muddies the waters.

 

Did Russia Meddle With the Brexit Vote? 

In Britain, concerns are rising about Russian interference in public affairs. A report by The Intelligence and Security Committee, a committee of the UK Parliament, has been released after six months of suppression and states that the British government and intelligence agencies "badly underestimated" the threat from Russian interference in British democracy.

The 47-page report accuses the British government of "actively avoiding" a rigorous investigation into Russian interference in British politics, and the MPs who sit on the committee have told Prime Minister Boris Johnson to order an assessment of “potential” Russian meddling in the Brexit referendum.

The government “did not want to know” if there been interference in British political life, the report claimed – and had “actively avoided looking for evidence”. An “influence campaign” in the context of an election, the report states, “may use the spreading of disinformation, but may also encompass other tactics such as illicit funding, disruption of electoral mechanics or direct attacks on one of the campaigns (such as 'hack and leak'). Equally, the spreading of disinformation is not necessarily aimed at influencing any individual outcome; it can simply have broad objectives around creating an atmosphere of distrust or otherwise fracturing society."

Many of what might have been the more telling parts of the report were redacted. But it supports some of the harsher critiques of Russian foreign affairs to have emerged in recent years. “"The security threat posed by Russia is difficult for the West to manage,” it states, “as, in our view and that of many others, it appears fundamentally nihilistic. Russia seems to see foreign policy as a zero-sum game: any actions it can take which damage the West are fundamentally good for Russia."  

 

Also in this series: 

Missing Data, Mud-Slinging and “Miracle Cures”: Why Disinformation Is Bad For Your Health

Iranian Online Network Still Peddling Coronavirus Disinformation

Putin’s Domestic Problems Eclipse Russian Disinformation Campaigns

Russia Bans Coronavirus "Fake News" and Slams US Over Press Freedom

From Coronavirus to the Second World War: On the Frontlines of the Russian Disinformation Battle

Russia Blames West for Propaganda While Reporting Unlikely Number of Covid-19 Deaths

Guest Post From Russia: How do You Put the Brakes on a Fake News Machine?

Russian Disinformation Back to Targeting Ukraine as Putin Declares Covid-19 Peak has Passed

Coronavirus: An Opportunity to Advance Russian Interests in Latin America

Covid-19 and Black Lives Matter Unrest Targeted by Russian Disinformation

Putin Tries to Rewrite War History to Assert Russia's Position on the World Stage

Kremlin Has the Upper Hand as Covid-19 Puts Independent Media Under Pressure

As MH17 Trial Gets Under Way, Russian News Channels Muddy the Waters