The water service in Odessa, a port city in southern Ukraine, was suddenly overrun this week with calls from worried residents with a peculiar concern.
Were officials really planning to run an antiseptic solution through the city’s taps instead of water?
The calls were sparked by a message on social media claiming that: “Today, from 11pm until the morning, antiseptic will be distributed” in the water system.
The antiseptic supposedly included several different whiskies — a brand for each district.
However outlandish the claim, Odessa’s water agency, Infoxvodokanal, still issued a clarification.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, false news stories have spiked in Ukraine, fueled by mistrust of authorities and of Russia, which Kiev says wants to sow instability.
“Before the pandemic, we received seven or eight requests each day to verify information,” said Alyona Romanyuk, the founder of a platform that debunks false stories online. “Now there are around 100.”
Among them, the Ukrainian security services denied rumors that authorities planned to douse the capital with disinfectant by helicopter.
Another claimed that medical services for pregnant women and people with cancer were disrupted due to the pandemic.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy himself denied “horror stories” that 400,000 Ukrainians were infected.
“False information spreads much faster than the virus,” Zelenskiy said on television last week.
According to official statistics, Ukraine has confirmed 156 cases of the virus and five deaths.
Yet some Ukrainians worry that the government tally is far lower than the real number due to a lack of testing. Rampant corruption has left many people suspicious of official statements, too.
Disinformation usually begins with a post on Facebook, which is then shared over Telegram or Viber, two online messengers popular in Ukraine.
However, the effects can be felt offline too. Last month, 72 people were evacuated from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the center of the pandemic, and quarantined in Novi Sanzhary, a small town in central Ukraine.
Social media messages claimed the evacuees were infected and local residents clashed with police escorting those brought from China to the medical center.
A report this week by the European External Action Service, which cited the incident, accused Kremlin-run media of spreading misinformation about the coronavirus.
Moscow has rejected the accusations.
Yet Ukraine says it has become a regular target of Russian misinformation since 2014, when Moscow annexed the Crimean Peninsula and threw its weight behind separatists in eastern Ukraine, a conflict that has claimed more than 13,000 lives.
From a variety of genres of misinformation, Romanyuk singled out one designed to “spread panic.”
“And there you can clearly see the hand of Russia,” she said.
Without citing Russia, Ukraine’s security services last month said that they had detected e-mails sent from abroad with the forged signature of the Ukranian Ministry of Health that spread false information on the coronavirus.
The ministry, which recently has boosted its visibility on Telegram and Viber, on Wednesday said that it had reached an agreement with Google to prioritize official sources in search results.
Several activists have started YouTube and Facebook accounts to broadcast reliable data and Romanyuk has launched a platform dedicated to debunking coronavirus misinformation.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest
RSS