Facebook and Twitter took down posts from almost 20 Russian embassies across the world this week, efforts to stop a Kremlin disinformation campaign about a Ukraine hospital.
The embassies had used the social media sites to post videos, text and photos claiming Russia hadn’t attacked the facility, which was struck by Russian forces last week, killing at least two adults and a child. Among other claims, the faked content questioned the authenticity around a picture of a dying woman carried on a stretcher, a photo that has rapidly become one of the war’s most iconic images. This disinformation was originally spotted by FakeReporter, an Israeli research group.
An onslaught of misleading or inaccurate information has flooded onto social media during Russia’s invasion into Ukraine, at least some of it distributed by Russian authorities—often directly through official accounts. The social media sites have struggled to know what to do with government accounts, usually concluding that the newsworthiness of those tweets outweigh any potential harm.
Generally, they’re no more regulated than another user’s account, but the Ukraine war has reignited questions about whether a government account should be held to a higher standard, similar to the debate around the platforms’ decision to ban or suspend President Trump in 2021. Both Facebook and Twitter have already limited the reach of Russian state-affiliated media outlets, reducing the circulation of their stories.
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