As Russia continues its attack on Ukraine, disinformation continues about the conflict.
“Putin bombs Biden-owned villa in Ukraine while hammering biolabs and pedophilia rings,” reads the headline of a recent short story from Real Raw News, an online page that publishes made-up stories.
And this tale is no other – it was fabricated.
We uncovered no evidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin bombed any assets owned by President Joe Biden or that the president owns villas in Ukraine. Claims about notorious biolabs in Ukraine, some of them so-called “American-owned,” have permeated social media since the Russian invasion. But those claims are also false and from the Russians’ disinformation efforts. And the accusation of “pedophile rings” has not been discovered.
The article was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to fight fake news and misinformation in its News Feed. (Learn more about our component partnership with Facebook. )
A PolitiFact investigation in September found that Real Raw News is written through Michael Tuffin, who in the past ran several other Internet sites and related YouTube channels that also promoted erroneous data and outlandish conspiracy theories. His websites publish data under the pseudonym “Michael Baxter. “.
The online page’s “About Us” page has a disclaimer stating that it “contains humor, parody, and satire,” but the writer of the articles insists in the site’s comment sections that the content is legitimate. Real Raw News stories are republished. through other sites that pass off the data as genuine news.
There are no U. S. -run biolabs. U. S. in Ukraine. Ukraine is one of many republics of the former Soviet Union and other countries that partnered with the U. S. Department of Defense. He worked in the U. S. Cooperative Threat Reduction Program for public fitness laboratories and was spared the risk of infectious diseases. Outbreaks
While the U. S. The U. S. could provide budget to modernize or build labs in other countries, labs run in neighboring countries, and the purpose of the program is to prevent biological threats, not create them.
“These labs have recently played a vital role in preventing the spread of COVID-19,” Andy Weber, an arms control association board member and former undersecretary of defense for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs, said in the past. says PolitiFact.
This effort is a component of the cooperative risk relief program, which began in 1991 to decrease the risk of existing weapons of mass destruction systems in the former Soviet republics.
It’s unclear what the blog post is about in its reference to “pedophile rings. “History claims that Putin is getting rid of the “child trafficking covens” in Ukraine, but we have uncovered no evidence of their existence. “source. “
We have this story Pants on Fire!
This fact-check was originally published through PolitiFact, which is a component of the Poynter Institute. Reposted here with permission. Check the resources of this fact-checking here and other fact-checking here.