Scrutinise the Facts

My previous post about media responsibility has triggered a lot of discussion about what we see and hear, particularly from those with personal connections to Ukraine.

My point was to show that there are other sides to the story, and definitely not to side with a dictator nor the West. So, as an appendix to that post, here is Reuters Fact Check reports about some information being bandied about on social media about Ukraine.

Video Game Manipulation Presented as News Facts

Some reports and images are captioned incorrectly date from 8 years ago, some are from other conflicts, not Ukraine and some are even sourced from video games.

Photo by Anna Tarazevich on Pexels.com

SCRUTINISE WHAT YOU READ

Reuters Fact Check

• Fact Check-CNN did not tweet that a journalist was killed in both Ukraine and Afghanistan, claims stem from imposter accounts

Social media users are sharing a fabricated story about a CNN journalist allegedly killed in Ukraine amid Russia’s recent invasion. The posts are claiming CNN shared a tweet about the man’s death amidst the ongoing crisis in Ukraine after sharing the same story during the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021. But no such stories were posted by the news outlet and the screenshotted tweets come from unverified Twitter accounts posing as CNN pages. 12:03pm EST

• Fact Check-Photo of injured girl is from 2018 Syrian war, not Ukraine

A photograph circulating online of an injured girl is from 2018 and was taken during the Syrian war, not Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as users claim. 11:52am EST

• Fact Check-Maidan protest imagery from 2014 miscaptioned on social media

Photos and a video captured during the 2014 Maidan protests in Ukraine have been shared on social media in February 2022 to falsely claim they depict the invasion by Russia. 10:04am EST

• Fact Check-Photo of children saluting Ukrainian tanks dates back to 2016

A photo of two children watching Ukrainian soldiers roll past atop two tanks has been falsely linked to the 2022 invasion by Russia. However, Reuters has traced the photo back to 2016. 7:49am EST

• Fact Check-Video of aircraft firing explosives is from Arma 3 video game, not Ukraine

A military simulation clip from the video game Arma 3 is being shared online alongside misleading captions linking the footage to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Feb 25 2022

• Fact Check-This image does not show Olena Zelenska, the first lady of Ukraine

A stock image described as showing a female Ukrainian soldier has been shared on social media, with users falsely claiming it is Olena Zelenska, the first lady of Ukraine. 10:52am EST

• Fact Check-Animation mis -captioned as if to show video of Ukrainian fighter jet shooting down Russian plane

A clip from the video game Digital Combat Simulator has been miscaptioned online, with social media users claiming it shows a Ukrainian fighter jet shooting down a Russian plane. Feb 25 2022

• Fact Check-Video of artillery fire near a tent dates back to at least 2019, doesn’t show Russian invasion of Ukraine

A clip of artillery fire from what looks like a military camp in low light is unrelated to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and dates to at least 2019, despite the clip being shared widely by social media users online. Feb 25 2022

• Fact Check-Video of warehouse explosion is from Beirut in 2020, not Ukraine

A video shared online of a warehouse exploding was captured in Beirut in 2020, in an incident that killed more than 200 people. Contrary to claims being circulated, it does not show events from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Feb 25 2022

Then there was the Why Ukraine Matters Facebook post that went viral that listed more than 30 reasons in the world economy as to “why Ukraine matters., listing significant mineral and resources weath..

Why Ukraine Matters Viral Post

Snopes.com reported:

Much of the data included in the viral “why Ukraine matters” posts were true. Some of the items on the list had become outdated, but more recent numbers still showed that the country had a strong standing in various categories of reserves, production, and exports. However, we were unable to find figures to confirm a few of the claims, and a small number of them were flat-out false.

Snopes.com

I love comments from anyone but would dearly love this forum to be respectful of others’ opinions, even if you do not agree with them, so please bear that in mind if you are feeling especially emotional. If you are a troll or repeatedly rude, your comment will, unfortunately, have to be trashed.

Something to Ponder About

Declare War on Plagiarism – Stop the rot!

So you get a great idea, and it doesn’t happen all the time, does it? I mean, as much as we want them to, those moments of brilliance don’t come around every day, (at least not for me), so we should capitalize on them where we can.

How do we do that? We go ahead, publish our idea on the net, maybe even market it a bit, and if you are an amateur blogger, usually without thought of monetary compensation, in that the idea is free in the name of sharing information. You feel secure in the knowledge that the world is happily benefiting from your idea and being morally upstanding in proliferating it, right? Well……

Then one day, you google it, or explore a tag …. Bingo!!!! Someone else has taken your idea and claimed it as their own, with no credit, no ping-back, or acknowledgement what so ever that I had the original idea!

The first time it happened I thought it was flattering –

Second time, nah, must be a coincidence –

Third time, I am a little concerned –

Fourth time, I am really cheezed off!

Do people have no moral backbone? No sense of copyright?  Perhaps they simply trawl the net and regurgitate ideas from others?

What do I do in response? Rant on in the privacy of my home about plagiarism, copyright infringement, or attempt to report them? But what about the ‘community’ one builds around our ideas?

The ideas are not just stolen, but potential community members too are lost to other groups. Groups that I am excluded from due to ignorance of their existence!

But my twenty something highly computer literate son tries to placate me with:

“Mum, reality check: it is the internet!” (like somehow this makes it ok) “Request a take down notice or report them”

Okay! Let’s see how that worked for me:

Reporting them to Youtube/ Facebook or the net: zero results.

Direct contact via email – one positive result

This eventually resulted in the removal of a video from youtube, only because the film maker claimed he did not have time to check the validity of my claim! Time!!! Not because it might have been an error, morally reprehensible, legally wrong, or anything else, but in the interests of time alone! Ha!

Some victims  of cyber harassment take to facebook and contact the parents of these youth who indulge in this kind of intimidation, so is this the approach the internet users of today understand?

Somehow, approaching their mothers about copyright infringement is doomed to failure, as these kids are not familiar with the values of ownership, and generally speaking these values come to us from our parents, so I doubt I will find any joy there.

I do lay the blame, to some extent, on the sharing mechanisms for leading the youth to believe it is okay to take and not give credit. Hey, it is nice to share, but we don’t share everything, and, if we do, we don’t then claim it as our own!! Give credit where credit is due, comprende? It doesn’t take much time, but means a lot.

Then I found this wonderful little cheat sheet from digital cameraworld.com , that is incredibly useful in untangling the whole copyright issue, at least in regard to photography use. It makes for something interesting to ponder about.

Here it is and please note that this is digital camera world.com’s work!!

A Must to Ponder About