Western censorship over social media content reached an all-time in weeks following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022. Since the war began, Big Tech firms were being pressured by western governments, social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube to either throttle or ban any Russian ‘state media’ accounts, as well as cutting off ad sales to any Russian organisations. What’s even more disturbing is now the social media giants opened up a line of communication with Ukrainian government officials, and openly invited them to flag Russian any alleged ‘Russian disinformation’ content which invariably included alleged ‘pro-Russian’ opinion too.
Since that time, Ukrainian officials who have flagged many thousands of tweets, YouTube videos and other social media content, calling it ‘Russian propaganda’ or ‘anti-Ukrainian hate speech.’ It seems that the requests have become so overwhelming that Big tech firms have struggled to response to Kiev’s endless censorship requests of global content.
During a recent interview, a senior Ukrainian official defined “disinformation” as ‘Everything that is against our country, consider it a fake, even if it’s not.’
It seems that the FBI is also involved in aiding and abetting the Ukrainian censorship efforts of internet content.
A truly shocking revelation in normal times, but sadly in the current hyper-politicized deep state dominated environment, it’s hardly surprising…
Lee Fang writes at Substack…
The Federal Bureau of Investigation pressures Facebook to take down alleged Russian “disinformation” at the behest of Ukrainian intelligence, according to a senior Ukrainian official who corresponds regularly with the FBI. The same official said that Ukrainian authorities define “disinformation” broadly, flagging many social media accounts and posts that he suggested may simply contradict the Ukrainian government’s narrative.
“Once we have a trace or evidence of disinformation campaigns via Facebook or other resources that are from the U.S., we pass this information to the FBI, along with writing directly to Facebook,” said llia Vitiuk, head of the Department of Cyber Information Security in the Security Service of Ukraine.
“We asked FBI for support to help us with Meta, to help us with others, and sometimes we get good results with that,” noted Vitiuk. “We say, ‘Okay, this was the person who was probably Russia’s influence.'”
Vitiuk, in an interview, said that he is a proponent of free speech and understands concerns around social media censorship. But he also admitted that he and his colleagues take a deliberately expansive view of what counts as “Russian disinformation.”
“When people ask me, ‘How do you differentiate whether it is fake or true?’ Indeed it is very difficult in such an informational flow,” said Vitiuk. “I say, ‘Everything that is against our country, consider it a fake, even if it’s not.’ Right now, for our victory, it is important to have that kind of understanding, not to be fooled.”
In recent weeks, Vitiuk said, Russian forces have used various forms of disinformation to manufacture fake tension between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the four-star general who serves as commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s military…
Continue this report at Lee Fang’s Substack
READ MORE UKRAINE NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Ukraine Files
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