Information and Disinformation about the Ukraine War on Social Media

Abstract

 This multimethod study analyzed information and disinformation in Twitter networks on the war in Ukraine in 2022. First, the study explored four networks of 72,899 users with 124,540 connections from March, April, November, and December 2022. Like all social media networks, the Twitter networks on the war in Ukraine were divided, not centralized, and had low levels of reciprocity. Second, a total of 3,275 unique tweets and retweets were quantitively examined from 104 countries in the four networks and found a significant increase in the percentage of opinion in the last months of 2022 than the first months of war. The percentage of fact and disinformation significantly decreased in the networks in last the months of 2022. While support for Ukraine decreased significantly near the end of the year, the percentage of tweets taking no sides in the war significantly increased. Politicians, organizations, and news media in pro-Ukraine countries were more outspoken about the war in Ukraine than pro-Russia countries.