Spot the bot: How to navigate fake news about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

Here are the tools experts say you should use to wade through the waves of misinformation -- and disinformation -- that are emerging as Russia attacks Ukraine.

As Russian troops descended on Ukraine, the internet lit up with footage said to be from the region — destroyed buildings, planes lighting up the night sky, and air raid sirens ringing in the background of live streams.

There’s just one problem: not all of this footage was real.

Some videos amassed hundreds of thousands of views on social media, only to be revealed as video game graphics, old combat footage, or even proven to show another country altogether.

“It’s very difficult at times to figure out whether something is factual,” said Mary Blankenship, a University of Nevada researcher who looks at how misinformation spreads through Twitter.

“A part of what makes this so difficult is because the situation is changing, literally by the minute.”

Here are the tools experts say you should use to wade through the waves of misinformation — and disinformation — that are coming from the region.

Misinformation and disinformation are not the same thing. Misinformation is untrue information shared by someone who mistakenly believes it to be factual. Disinformation, however, is deliberately spread.

In the case of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the world is seeing a lot of both.