Critical Thinking

After seeing promising results in Eastern Europe, Google will initiate a new campaign in Germany that aims to make people more resilient to the corrosive effects of online misinformation.

The tech giant plans to release a series of short videos highlighting the techniques common to many misleading claims. The videos will appear as advertisements on platforms like Facebook, YouTube or TikTok in Germany. A similar campaign in India is also in the works.

Five days into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, false or misleading videos and images about the invasion continue to go viral.

Among the things spreading quickly are old videos being depicted as current - along with claims that pictures such as the one above are old, even when they verifiably come from the present conflict.

We've been looking into some of the most viral claims.

Twitter announced that it would label web links to Russian state media so users can identify reliable news sources.

The move to identify Russian propaganda arrives as misinformation regarding the Ukraine invasion has increased on social media and as Russia aims to censor several social media platforms within its borders.

Media literacy is clearly not Joe Rogan’s strong suit. The podcast host recently took to Instagram to share a fake CNN report stating that actor Steven Seagal has joined Russian special forces stationed near Kyiv, Ukraine, noting the absurdity of “this fucked up movie we’re living through.” He later took it down, for obvious reasons.

A team of 13 Ukrainian border guards who were presumed dead after telling a Russian warship to “go f*** yourself” are reportedly still alive and being held captive, according to Ukraine’s navy.

Ukraine’s naval Facebook account published a post Monday morning to confirm the report.

“Regarding the Marines and border guards, who were taken captive by Russian occupiers on the island of Snake, we are very happy to learn that our brothers are alive,” the report said.

Ukraine’s report also demanded the immediate release of the officers.

A viral video from the Ukrainian Ground Forces—one of the branches of the Ukrainian military—claims to show the Ukrainian military destroying Russian military assets.

The video, however, does not show the destruction of Russian military equipment. Instead, it shows a Syrian convoy being attacked by a Turkish drone in 2020.

The video was flipped but is otherwise identical to the 2020 video. 

Social media has been ablaze with outlandish claims of a pilot known as the “Ghost of Kyiv” who is reportedly traversing the skies and taking down Russian jets – but does the Ukrainian flyer really exist?

A number of videos posted to Twitter showed a jet soaring through the sky, amid speculation the pilot downed six Russian planes on the first day of Vladimir Putin’s war with Ukraine.

A photo purporting to show the MiG-29 fighter pilot was tweeted on Friday by former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko, adding to speculation the exploits might be true.

Russia’s effort to spread disinformation and propaganda across the internet and through foreign and domestic media about its invasion of Ukraine started weeks ago — and it’s expected to ramp up now that the conflict has begun.

Disinformation experts say that they have seen a concerted effort from Russian leaders and state-backed media to push a false narrative around the reasons for invading Ukraine, and that they expect that to continue as both international pressure and even some domestic Russian resistance to war grows.

Most of us don’t know what we think, really. Throughout our lives we encounter so many influential entities — from our family, our culture, our schools, by advertising, by the media — that we rarely have thoughts that are totally original. Most are variations of what we already know or have been conditioned to think and feel.

How might we learn which thoughts really belong to us, and which are thoughts planted by others? Which shared thoughts are helpful for social cohesion? Do we have curiosity to explore new thoughts, together?