The main aim of the study was to determine the degree of disinformation taking place in the context of the war in Ukraine. According to the principle attributed to various authors, “the truth is the first casualty of war”; this rule takes on a new dimension in an era in which, for many people, unverified information appearing on social media (half-truths, conjectures and confabulations) is the main source of knowledge about the world. Additionally, some actors intentionally introduce disinformation into the public sphere, and the war causes much news to be censored. Information about the war appears within a social context, so we supplemented the questions measuring the scope of disinformation with questions about the causes of the war, as well as the perceived consequences of one of its main outcomes – the mass influx of refugees from Ukraine.
By Michał Wenzel, Institute of Social Sciences, SWPS University; and CEDMO Poland
Read the study here.