The five disinformation narratives about the war in Ukraine
A MALDITA.ES investigation reveals that from the 28 most impactful social media accounts and channels that promoted the “It’s not our war” demonstration in Spain, that took place on Sunday 9th of March, 82% had already spread some relevant pro-Russian disinformation in recent years.
This article was originally published by MALDITA.ES.
In just 24 hours, 28 profiles on social networks and Telegram channels that have over 2 million followers got 800,000 impressions to promote the “Peace and neutrality, not our war” demonstration around the Spanish Congress, which took place on Sunday 9th of March in Madrid. An analysis by Fundación Maldita.es found that at least 82% of these accounts have previously participated in the dissemination of pro-Russian or anti-Ukrainian disinformation .
For this analysis we have verified how many of those accounts had participated in the dissemination of 10 unequivocally pro-Russian hoaxes, such as lies about the massacre of Bucha or the false accusations that the Ukrainian president and his wife had bought a casino in Cyprus with Western aid money . 82% of these accounts (23 out of 28) had spread at least one of those hoaxes and, among that group, 91% (21 out of 23) had spread at least two of the hoaxes.
Although disinformation about the war in Ukraine is the one that has received the most support from this network (60% who promoted the demonstration also spread false information, for example, about the Bucha massacre), the group has also participated in the dissemination of disinformation about Spain: half of the accounts had promoted hoaxes about the DANA natural disaster in Valencia, such as conspiracy theories about an alleged concealment of victims in the Bonaire car park (35%) or those about the King’s alleged police escort in Valencia (25%), which were amplified by Russian networks.
A demonstration against “the warmonger drift” about Ukraine
Last Monday, March 3, Rubén Gisbert published in his Telegram channel and in X a call to demonstrate this Sunday in front of the Spanish Congress under the slogan “It is not our war” and to protest “against the warmongering drift of the European political class in relation to the war in Ukraine” and demand neutrality because “we cannot remain idle while Spain is involved in a conflict far removed from our national interests.”
Gisbert himself has spread pro-Russian hoaxes in the past like Bucha’s or the video of Ukrainian children going to the front , But his publication of the demonstration’s poster on Tuesday meant that another 27 profiles that accumulated more than 2 million followers quickly joined the dissemination, generating more than 840,000 impressions. Among them are accounts like VerdadesOfenden, which has spread 90% of the pro-Russian or anti-Ukrainian hoaxes that we took as examples, or the Albatros Telegram channel, which has promoted 70% of them.
Beyond these accounts there is, Spanish News Pravda , which is a network of websites dedicated to disinformation and propaganda according to the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) , and that also promoted the demonstration in two different articles .
82% of the accounts had already published pro-Russian misinformation in the past
23 of the 28 accounts that promoted the demonstration for “Spain’s neutrality in the war in Ukraine” have amplified pro-Russian hoaxes or misinformation. Among other examples, the conspiracy theory of an alleged trafficking network of Ukrainian minors , an alleged ovation in the European Parliament to the launch of American missiles against Russia, or a video that states without evidence that USAID has paid for celebrities to visit Ukraine to increase the popularity of the Ukrainian president.
Among the 23 accounts that had spread any of the 10 pro-Russian misinformation stories in the sample, 91% had promoted more than one and 39% had amplified at least half of them , as can be seen in the graph.