As Russia claims to have shot down two drones over the Kremlin on May 3, speculation abounds on social media about a possible nuclear escalation between Moscow and kyiv. YouTube and Twitter accounts spread nuclear war rumors, media reports Vice.
On Twitter, Twitter Blue accounts, which therefore have a blue tick, convey this information. Initially, the blue mark gave a guarantee of confidence to the user. But with the paid subscription introduced by Elon Musk, now anyone can pay to get this blue mark and the billionaire has dispersed the moderation teams of the social network. Therefore, this operation has been observed to increase the spread of false information on the platform.
Thus, verified Twitter accounts warned that Russia was preparing a nuclear response. Like the DEFCONWarningSystem account tweeting: “We are currently evaluating rumors about the nuclear threat in Russia.” The account has a blue check mark and features some sort of official logo which can be quite confusing. And to add more doubt, DEFCON is the code name used for the Pentagon’s warning system to signal that they are ready for nuclear war.
An hour after his first tweet, DEFCONWarningSystem added a comment. “We are currently evaluating the rumors about the nuclear situation in Russia. Please note that these are just rumors without verification at this time.”
Accounts promoted by Twitter
OSINTdefender, another verified Twitter account, also said it had heard rumours, though it stated these were not “confirmed” but provided the type of weapons used and the staging locations on the Russian side.
But the most surprising tweets come from the pro-Ukrainian account of one Igor Sushko who posted a series of tweets about the charge of nuclear weapons, including photos and personal information of the Russian pilots. She even streamed a live YouTube video about it.
It should be noted that Twitter’s paid certification benefits Russian propaganda since the blue mark placed on Russian Twitter accounts allows them to spread their messages massively and be featured on the platform and thus register strongly rising tweet impressions.
Source: BFM TV
