Michał Marek, head of the external threat analysis team at the NASK National Research Institute, told state news agency PAP that Russian pseudo-fact-checking projects are likely linked to Russia’s intelligence and security services.
Their main purpose, he said, is to portray Russia as the victim of Western information attacks.
“The main goal of these actions is to portray Russia as a victim of Western information attacks,” Marek said. “This narrative is meant to convince people that the West is supposedly flooding Russia with fake news.”
Maksym Aliukov of King’s College London and Margarita Zavadskaya of the University of Helsinki write in their report It’s Not That Simple, We Do Not Know the Whole Truth: The Effects of Disinformation Discourse in Wartime Russia that the Kremlin’s aim is not necessarily to persuade citizens that the official version is correct.
Instead, it seeks to create confusion and uncertainty. This encourages the belief that "real truth" is unattainable, which helps remove responsibility from the authorities for the policies they pursue.
The study was based on a preregistered online experiment involving 3,900 participants in authoritarian Russia.
The researchers examined how sophisticated disinformation techniques affected the credibility people gave to the original story, their broader trust in the media and their ability to assign responsibility for the invasion.
Marek said such techniques are meant to reverse responsibility, where Russia presents itself as a defender of truth, while accusing the West, NATO and the European Union of waging an information war against Moscow.
The most prominent Russian fake fact-checking project is "War on Fakes," launched on the day Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
British technology company Logically found that the site reached 20 million views and gained half a million subscribers within a week.
Logically identified Timofey Vasiliev, a host on Russia’s Channel One and a guest on propagandist Vladimir Solovyov’s talk show, as a figure behind War on Fakes.
Vasiliev also worked on the strategic development at ANO Dialog, a state-funded organization managing digital communication for Russian authorities.
Investigative journalists from the news services Meduza and Important Stories reported in 2023 that ANO Dialog oversaw a wider Russian pseudo-fact-checking network and online influence operations.
These included the Doppelganger campaign, which impersonated Western media outlets and websites.
Marek said such sites can deceive people because they imitate the style and language of legitimate Western fact-checkers.
To users who do not work with information verification, they may appear professional, neutral and evidence-based.
That is the point of the deceit. The manipulation works by giving propaganda the visual form of correction. Genuine photographs or videos can be stamped “FAKE” and paired with fabricated explanations.
The US analysis company NewsGuard has described this as a reversed screenshot method.
The content is then pushed through Telegram channels, as well as Russia's media giants RT (formerly Russia Today) and Sputnik.
The US-based Digital Forensic Research Lab said the method was used after the killing of civilians in Bucha, near Kyiv, was revealed in April 2022.
"War on Fakes" claimed the victims were actors. Independent satellite and newsroom analyses showed that the supposed movement of bodies was an optical illusion caused by raindrops on a car windshield.
Marek said the strongest Russian propaganda is often harder to expose than a single fake image. It works through suggestion, emotion and repeated interpretation.
Examples include claims about the alleged "Ukrainization of Poland" or that Poland is being pushed into war with Russia.
“Demonstrating that they are false requires a lengthy explanation, and the average audience member does not want to spend time on that,” Marek said.
“People are more inclined to accept disinformation emotionally when it is hidden under manipulation or this kind of light, subliminal propaganda messaged," he added.
(rt/gs)
Source: PAP