The number of websites spreading Russia-Ukraine disinformation has more than doubled since Russia's unprovoked invasion was launched in late February, says a New York-based group that rates trustworthiness across media.
NewsGuard said on August 9 that its experts have identified 250 websites publishing disinformation related to those two combatant states, versus 116 in March.
It said digital platforms like Google, Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok have imposed "temporary measures in some countries against well-known Russian propaganda outlets such as RT and Sputnik News, after the European Commission prohibited distribution or advertising support for these Kremlin-funded and operated propaganda sites."
"However," it added, "the large number of other sites identified by NewsGuard continue to spread myths freely on the Internet."
It cited 54 leading myths being spread by those outlets about the five-month-old conflict or its roots in eight years of fighting between Ukraine and Russia-backed separatists.
They include "claims that the U.S. operates labs in Ukraine to develop bioweapons, that Russian troops were not responsible for the massacre of civilians in Bucha in March, and that Russian did not attack the railway station in Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine," the group said.
Many of the sites avoid disclosing ownership or control but claim -- without evidence -- to be independent think tanks or other nonprofits.
European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova recently described disinformation as "a growing problem in the EU, and we really have to take stronger measures."
NewsGuard launched a Russia-Ukraine Disinformation Tracking Center in March, days after tens of thousands of Russian troops rolled across Ukraine's border.
