Topline
Twitter deleted a series of Thursday tweets from the Russian Embassy to the United Kingdom claiming an attack Wednesday on a hospital in Mariupol, a city in southeastern Ukraine, was staged, alleging without credible evidence that a widely-photographed pregnant victim was a crisis actor.
An injured pregnant woman walks downstairs in a maternity hospital damaged by shelling in Mariupol, … [+]
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Key Facts
Twitter removed tweets that targeted an alleged victim of the hospital strike from the embassy’s official account at about 11:30 am EST rare a rare move for the social media platform which has long resisted calls to remove posts from official government accounts.
A Twitter spokesperson told Forbes in a statement: “We took enforcement action against the Tweets [Forbes] referenced as they were in violation of the Twitter Rules, specifically our Hateful Conduct and Abusive Behavior policies related to the denial of violent events. “
The Russian embassy tweeted Thursday that the maternity hospital in Mariupol was “non-operational” and thus did not injure any civilians, contradicting Ukrainian authorities’ claims the Russian strike on the hospital left three dead and 17 more wounded, with doctors, expecting mothers and children among the victims.
The New York Times independently verified videos showing the destruction of the Mariupol hospital and injured victims, but Russia contends the strike did not hit any civilians, as Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the Ukrainian military removed patients from the hospital hours before the attack.
The embassy then followed up by identifying a pictured pregnant victim of the attack as Marianna Podgurskaya, saying She wore “very realistic make-up” to embellish head wounds and “played roles of both pregnant women on the photos,” with its sole evidence being that Podgurskaya runs a somewhat popular Instagram account and was photographed twice at the scene of the hospital bombing. .
An Instagram account believed to belong to the victim that has 24,000 followers shows her as visibly pregnant in several posts, tagging Mariupol as her location in several posts.
Chief Critic
Many users called on Twitter to take action to take down the Russian embassy’s account following these posts, including Bellingcat researcher Aric Toler, who tweeted, “The clearly fake information is bad enough, but naming her like this is more than enough to boot the embassy’s account off of the platform. As if her and her unborn child nearly dying isn’t bad enough, she’ll likely be harassed for years now because of this accusation. ” Conspiracy researcher Mike Rothschild joined Toler, writing“Time for Twitter to deplatform all these propaganda accounts.”
Key Background
The embassy’s bizarre accusations were part of a quickly changing Russian narrative on the Mariupol hospital strike. Kremlin spokesman Dmittry Peskov told Reuters Thursday “Russian forces do not fire on civilian targets,” and he did not have “clear information” on the hospital strike. Shortly after, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called claims of the attack “pathetic,” claiming there were no civilian victims because the hospital “long ago became a base for extremists.” Claims of victims actually being so-called crisis actors are a common disinformation tactic, and fake videos of actors supposedly preparing to portray Ukrainian victims on social media circulated earlier this month.
Tangent
Twitter and other social media platforms have responded in a variety of ways to limit the spread of Russian propaganda. Twitter vowed to label links to Russian state-run media, Meta stopped Recommending state media links on Facebook and Instagram and TikTok said it will suspend all content originating in Russia. Still, TikTok accounts linked to Russian state-run RT and RIA Novosti news agencies continue to post on TikTok, Forbes reported Monday.
Further Reading
Two Russian State Media Accounts Keep Posting On TikTok Despite Content Ban (Forbes)
Russia shifts stance on hospital bombing condemned around the world (Reuters)
