Twitter Blue accounts spread fake information about war in Ukraine

Twitter subscribers with a blue tick, who pay for their content to be promoted to other users, are spreading disinformation about the Russian Federation’s war against Ukraine.

Source: BBC

Details: The BBC reported that "[m]any misleading posts have been shared online about the recent riots in France, but one viral post last week focused on US military aid to Ukraine."

The post featured a screenshot of what looked like a headline from a news website, and an image of two rifles.

"French police are fired upon with American rifles that may have come from Ukraine," the headline reads.

Several Twitter Blue accounts shared this post, which has been viewed more than one million times.

The BBC found that the post has originated in pro-Kremlin Telegram channels.

The image it uses first featured on a Russian military blog about a shooting competition at a military training grounds on Moscow’s outskirts in 2012.

BBC journalists were not able to find an article with the headline and the image featured in the Twitter post.

Several other Twitter Blue subscribers recently shared a claim that Russia has discovered "baby factories" in Ukraine.

Moreover, after the Russian missile strike on Kramatorsk in June 2023, which killed eight civilians, a Twitter Blue subscriber that claims to be a news source claimed that the attack was carried out by Ukraine and mistakenly hit military barracks that housed NATO troops and foreign mercenaries.

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