Google, Facebook, Twitter must combat Ukraine fake news – Polish Baltic Leaders

So much information has been published, shared, tweeted and speculated through the various social media platforms since the recent attack against Ukraine. From the news flying around causing scares and unrest around the world, It has also become a debate ground as people are questioning their government on how to get their citizens trapped in Ukraine back to their various countries. This is because different videos and information have surfaced the social media platforms on how people are so eager to elope the war zone for survival.

A subsidiary of YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Alphabet Unit Google must join hands to tackle misleading information concerning the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Premiers of Poland and Estonia. In a joint letter, the Chief executives of the Four companies stated the four Prime ministers criticized the U.S Tech Giants, insinuating that the steps they have taken so far in curtailing misinformation aren’t enough. Not minding the role the social media platforms have played towards making a significant effort to tackle the Russians Government’s decision over the invasion of Ukraine by stating it as unprecedented and an assault on truth. According to the letter, it stated that “Russia’s disinformation has been tolerated on social media platforms for years, making them been seen as an accessory to the criminal wars of aggression, which the Russian Government has done towards Ukraine and the world at large.

They further proceeded that these social media platforms should ensure that accounts denying, glorifying and justifying wars of aggression, crimes or war crimes against humanity should be suspended or removed. Also called the tech giant’s attention to removing the official account of Russian and Belarusian government institutions, State-controlled media and personal funds of the country’s leadership and their associates constantly misleading the world about the ongoing situation in Ukraine. The call also to prevent the Russian State-controlled media from venting restrictions enacted by various National regulators against them. The social media platforms should regulate their search engines and recommendation algorithm to educate and properly inform their audience of disinformation and quickly demonetise all the accounts controlled by the Russian and Belarusian governments.

Nick Clegg, the Vice president of Facebook, reviewed other government requests to cut off the Russian state’s controlled media and will keep labelling the fact check these outlets as well as prevent ADs and completely demonetize their current account globally. Google and Twitter, their response concerning this is yet to be confirmed. According to the Russian State Controlled News Services, Sputruk stated that its Polish site had been taken down, and users could no longer access it, YouTube also subsequently banned its account in Poland.

As this will create the awareness that the world is standing in solidarity with Ukraine over the unfair and unjust attack from the Russian Government, Nick Clegg, made it clear that Facebook is earnestly working and has succeeded in implementing certain measures to contain Misinformation.

He said, “We have established a particular operation Centre, handled by various experts and native speakers, to swiftly respond to hate speeches or any written content that invites violence or otherwise breaks our rules.

Twitter has also said its safety and integrity team is closely monitoring the potential risk connected with the conflict to protect its services, including identifying an attempt to increase false and misleading information. Twitter also said they are monitoring in case of any emerging narrative that projects or violates any of the Twitter rules, which includes avoiding or manipulating media policies or the situation as it unfolds.

Since the conflict, several posts from Russia has generated up to 4 million engagement, likes, comments and shares on their Facebook page. With the narrative of the Russian government’s post trying to blame Ukraine for killing civilians by saying that the Ukrainian army was attacking them, the founder of the Ukraine Centre of Strategic Communication, Liubov Tsybulska, also tracks the hybrid threat of both cyber attacks and disinformation. This is why lawmakers in the US and Europe are keenly paying attention to the new social media platform’s content rules completed by Europe and American lawmakers to ensure that the social media platforms all have their hands on deck in disseminating the right information and also protecting their audience online.

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