Big Tech platforms have allowed reported hoaxes about the Ukrainian war to spread, even as they consistently censor users for posting actual facts about COVID-19.
Which is more dangerous, questioning COVID-19 narratives or pushing reported hoaxes that could lead to nuclear war? Carlson called out the reportedly exaggerated or entirely false information on the war in Ukraine propagating on the internet. “Just the other day, [Rep. Adam] Kinzinger [R-IL] posted images on Twitter of Ukrainian Air Ace called the ‘Ghost of Kyiv,’” Carlson explained during a Feb. 28 broadcast of Tucker Carlson Tonight. “Well, turns out the whole thing was a hoax, but of course, Adam Kinzinger had no idea because he knows nothing.” Carlson went on to hammer “buffoon” Kinzinger’s blunder:
“Kinzinger then attached an obviously photoshopped image of the comedian, Sam Hyde, sitting in the cockpit of a fighter jet. Sam Hyde, for the record, is not a Ukrainian fighter ace. He is, once again, a comedian. That was Adam Kinzinger. These are the people pushing us toward a new world war.”
Carlson wasn’t the only one to call out reported misinformation.
Women’s publication Evie Magazine also called out the reported rise of hoaxes amid the war in Ukraine in a powerful piece: “We're Being Bombarded By Old Photos And Fake Videos Of The Ukraine Invasion, And We Need To Ask Why We're Being Lied To.”
Kinzinger wasn’t alone in propagating apparent falsehoods about the “Ghost of Kyiv.” Gaming outlet Kotaku on Saturday noted that footage shared of the possibly mythical Ghost of Kyiv pilot was a hoax as well: “A clip of a Ukrainian fighter jet blowing up a suspected Russian aircraft started trending on social media yesterday. Many believed it was proof of the exploits of a mysterious and unverified ace pilot called the ‘Ghost of Kyiv.’ It was actually fake footage from the 2013 PC game, Digital Combat Simulator: World.”
The verified account of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine posted the video, which Twitter has since flagged as “media presented out of context.” The fact-checkexplained: “A clip from Digital Combat Simulator, a flight simulation game, has been miscaptioned on social media, fact-checkers say. The clip does not show a Ukrainian fighter jet shooting down Russian planes, Reuters reports.”
Big Tech platforms have a history of being inconsistent when it comes to misinformation. The COVID-19 pandemic was a crisis where users were censored for so-called misinformation that turned out to be true, meanwhile verified institutions were left untouched for posting factually incorrect information. On Jan. 14, 2020, the WHO acted as a mouthpiece for Chinese authorities to misinform nations around the globe as to the nature of the virus. WHO claimed in a tweet:
“Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China.”
The tweet has been allowed to remain even in 2022. Meanwhile Big Tech, which has taken the WHO as a trusted source, has been called out by multiple sources for censoring the Wuhan lab leak origin theory of the COVID-19 pandemic that went from banned misinformation to likely explanation in a matter of months, all while disgraced fact-checkers have brought upon themselves a crisis of credibility.
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