Europe

The Challenges Of Fake News

The Ukranian Embassy invites us to discuss the project stopfake.org: how can we prevent the distribution of fake news in civil society?

November 25th, 2019
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In the run-up to the Crimean crisis, people in the eastern areas of Ukraine were informed by various media outlets about increasing violence and vandalism by extreme-right thugs in their country. Only months later did it become clear that these stories were not true. Digital disinformation campaigns had been deliberately staged, paralysing Ukraine's capacity to act and further reducing confidence in the elected government.

As a result of the misinformation, which was being circulated in the media, lecturers, graduates and students of the Kyiv Mohyla Journalism School launched the project Stopfake.org, a fact checking website for verifying and refuting disinformation. Over these past years, they have grown not only a massive archive of propaganda and fake news stories but also an array of techniques for identifying fakes, which they use for training various media stakeholders.

Hosted by the Ukrainian Embassy, “Role Model Ukraine? Civil society dealing with the challenges of fake news will bring up the issues and consequences” introduces and explains the story behind stopfake.org, and its crucial importance. There was a panel discussion on insights into the chosen countermeasures with Yevhen Fedchenko, co-founder and Chief Editor of StopFake.org.

During the discussion, interesting perspectives were brought up. With the spreading of misinformation and fake news, the effects of soft power measures of cultural diplomacy such as building strong intercultural relations can be inhibited. Consequently, it is necessary to develop solutions to prevent such actions, like stopfake.org have, and as a result ensure the further development of intercultural relations.

References and Links

Victoria Rochelois


Berlin Global, News from Berlin