Madison Kwiecinski 

News Editor 

Mvk5945@psu.edu 

The current situation in Ukraine is unimaginable, with many refugees fleeing their own country because Russia chose to invade and attack a sovereign nation. However, this war is receiving an unprecedented amount of coverage due to the new era of social media we have found ourselves in. 

Social media has become a double edged sword when it comes to news and information. On one hand, the public is more informed and up-to-date on the situation because the information is constantly at their fingertips. On the other hand, misinformation is easier than ever to spread and people have very limited ways of telling the difference between accurate reporting on social media, and influencers just trying to attain views by spouting information they have not independently verified. 

Even more concerning than the general public spreading misinformation is the idea that Russia could be behind a large amount of the false news stories being reported. Russia has a long history of using misinformation and propaganda to influence the opinions of its citizens and the public, something that is even more dangerous when the false information can be spread so easily. 

The Biden Administration has recognized this issue, and is trying creative news ways to combat the spread of misinformation. For example, around the middle of March the White House invited nearly 30 prominent TikTok content creators to the White House for a briefing on the situation in Ukraine. The creators met with White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki and Communication Adviser for the National Security Council, Matt Miller, and were able to ask them questions to gain a more thorough and accurate understanding of the situation in Ukraine. 

TikTok may seem like a strange place to start with combating misinformation, but a recent study completed by NewsGuard, an anti-misinformation outlet, revealed just how prominent false news is on the app. The NewsGuard research revealed that, “A news account that did nothing but scroll the app’s algorithmically curated For You Page watching videos about the war would be funneled towards false or misleading content within 40 minutes.” 

“Toward the end of the 45-minute experiment, analysts’ feeds were almost exclusively populated with both accurate and false content related to the war in Ukraine – with no distinction made between disinformation and reliable sources,” stated the research team. 

There are several content creators on TikTok who do choose to provide sourcing or facts to back up the statements they make. The prominently recognized Greene brothers, John and Hank Greene, often post informative videos that explain why they think things and give sources. Under the Desk News is a TikTok page almost exclusively dedicated to reporting current news and events to viewers, and is often backed with other news sites and links. However, many TikTok pages do not do this, and viewers cannot simply accept everything they see as fact. 

The researchers have claimed to see fake stories circulating on TikTok relating to US bioweapons in Ukraine, Putin being photoshopped into press conferences, and the “Ghost of Kyiv” shooting down dozens of Russian fighter jets in a single-day. 

Some of these stories, such as the Ghost of Kyiv, may have been circulated simply as morale boosters for those fighting in Ukraine. However, some of the information being spread was identified by the above-mentioned researchers as “Kremlin propaganda” and therefore should be looked at heavily. The hardest truth of media today is that the platform in which you are viewing news on may likely have its own agenda, and taking the time to view multiple different sources is the best way to ensure reliable information.