By Maayan Lubell
JERUSALEMMarch 16 – Facebook on Wednesday removed official Russian posts falsely claiming reports of the bombing of a children’s hospital in Ukraine were a hoax, according to a company spokesperson, even as similar messages appeared on other social media platforms.
The disinformation, on the Russian embassy’s Twitter, Facebook and Telegram accounts, circulated even after Twitter Inc and Facebook’s Meta platform removed the posts from the Russian embassy in the UK for breaching its rules against denial of fact. violent, an Israeli watchdog found.
A study by the watchdog, FakeReporter, and verified by Reuters, showed that the messages continued to circulate in at least 18 Twitter, Facebook and Telegram accounts of the Russian embassy or ministry.
A spokesman for Meta confirmed that the company had removed the messages after they were contacted by Reuters early on Wednesday.
Twitter and Telegram did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. The Russian embassies in Costa Rica, Denmark, Greece, Iceland, Jamaica, Japan, Mexico and Tunisia did not immediately respond to a request for comment on their Facebook posts.
At least three people, including a child, were killed in the March 9 airstrike on the mother and child hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Russia has changed its stance on the hospital bombing, with a mix of statements on Thursday that ranged from aggressive denials to a call from the Kremlin to establish clear facts. The Defense Ministry at the time denied bombing the hospital, accusing Ukraine of staging the incident.
Posts on official Russian social media accounts claimed that reports of the bombing were a hoax.
Moscow has clamped down on tech platforms during the Ukraine invasion, which it calls a “special operation,” including restricting Twitter and blocking Facebook.
Twitter has also launched a privacy-protected version of its site, known as an “onion service” for its hidden status, that can be accessed through the “dark web” (networks that require specific software or settings to access). and that it could circumvent such restrictions.
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