Facebook and Telegram become tools of Russia-themed misinformation during Ukraine invasion

Misinformation on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine spread across Telegram and the game streaming section of Facebook, which has long struggled to moderate fake news

Many videos on Facebook Gaming described footage as live attacks on Ukraine but were actually gameplay from the military-themed video game Arma 3

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Published: 10:38am, 25 Feb 2022Updated: 1:32pm, 9 Mar 2022

Misinformation focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine flooded social media conversations Thursday, from pro-Kremlin conspiracies spreading across Telegram to videos described as live attacks proliferating on Facebook’s gaming platform.

The top videos on Facebook Gaming were described as footage of live attacks on Ukraine by Russia, some complete with red “breaking news” banners. But the clips were actually gameplay from the military-themed video game Arma 3. Meanwhile, more than 100 channels on the messaging app Telegram – totalling hundreds of thousands of followers – were filled with posts promoting talking points from Russian President Vladimir Putin as his forces invaded Ukraine.

The Facebook videos, watched by more than 110,000 concurrent viewers and shared more than 25,000 times, were pulled down after Bloomberg News approached Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc for comment.

Meta has long struggled to moderate misleading or fake news, including stories about elections and Covid-19. Experts say it is more challenging to moderate video than text – particularly live video, as it is difficult for artificial intelligence to analyse as it plays.

“In response to the unfolding military conflict in Ukraine, we have established a Special Operations Center to respond in real time,” Nathaniel Gleicher, Meta’s head of security policy, said on Twitter, adding that the centre will be staffed with native speakers.

Launched in 2018, Facebook Gaming is Meta’s answer to Twitch, Amazon.com Inc’s popular game live-streaming service. On Thursday, the service was overrun by more than 90 Arma 3 videos with titles referencing the crisis in Ukraine – some of which were live for as long as eight hours.

Earlier that day, all five of Facebook Gaming’s most-viewed videos on the platform depicted a video-game rendition of military assault in Ukraine. Some of the videos’ titles, many of which were in Arabic, read, “Russia fighter jets on Ukraine” and “Live scenes of the Russian bombing of Ukraine”.

The top-viewed live-stream was in fact a pre-recorded video of a plane shelling a shoreline in the game Arma 3. Fifty-two thousand live viewers tuned in. In the accompanying chat room, the channel owner, who goes by Naruto, repeatedly asked the viewers to subscribe.