10/20/2022
Ukrainian Officials Use NewsGuard Data to Track Russian Disinformation
The Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Licenses NewsGuard’s Russia-Ukraine Disinformation Tracker
(October 20, 2022 — New York, NY) At the request of officials at the Center for Countering Disinformation (CPD) under the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, NewsGuard has licensed its Russia-Ukraine Disinformation Tracker to the CPD for research and analytics purposes.
Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation monitors and publishes data on Russian propaganda narratives being used against Ukraine several times a day, across its various media platforms. The center’s work is available in English and Ukrainian, and its insights are often cited in Ukrainian and international media.
NewsGuard’s Russia-Ukraine Disinformation Tracking Center, which is summarized publicly here, contains a constantly updated list of the top myths related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, including independent debunks from NewsGuard’s journalist analysts. NewsGuard also keep a running tally of the news and information sources it has found spreading disinformation about the war in Ukraine. This now includes 281 websites as of the date of this announcement. The CPD is licensing the full list of sites on NewsGuard’s tracker for internal use in order to enhance its ability to monitor and debunk disinformation about the war. Other government entities that have used NewsGuard’s data include the Pentagon’s Cyber Command and the State Department.
“NewsGuard is happy to contribute to the efforts of the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine by offering our journalistic expertise for CPD’s intelligence gathering and research,” said Steven Brill, co-CEO of NewsGuard. “This is a war of disinformation in addition to being a war of combat, and NewsGuard stands ready to support democratic governments with our real-time insights gathered by trained journalists and Russian language experts.”
“NewsGuard defines our mission as countering misinformation on behalf of news consumers, brands and democracies,” said Gordon Crovitz, co-CEO of NewsGuard. “We are delighted to be able to arm Ukrainian officials with tools to identify and counter Russian disinformation about the invasion of its democratic country. Disinformation remains a key element of Russian war strategy, from false claims that the U.S. maintains bioweapons labs in Ukraine to false reporting by Russian state media denying that the Russian military attacks civilian targets.”
“The Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine is developing a cooperation network to collect and debunk all types of Russian propaganda all over the democratic world. Dozens of volunteers and non-government and government organizations are working on monitoring and countering disinformation and propaganda narratives to stop spreading fake news about the war in Ukraine and to share the truth. We are grateful to NewsGuard’s team for professional cooperation,” said Andrii Shapovalov, acting Head of the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.
To learn more about NewsGuard’s work monitoring disinformation about the Russia-Ukraine war, or to request access to NewsGuard’s data, get in touch here.
About NewsGuard
Launched in March 2018 by media entrepreneur and award-winning journalist Steven Brill and former Wall Street Journal publisher Gordon Crovitz, NewsGuard provides credibility ratings and detailed “Nutrition Labels” for thousands of news and information websites. NewsGuard rates all the news and information websites that account for 95% of online engagement across the U.S., U.K., Canada, Germany, France, and Italy. In August 2022, NewsGuard also launched in Austria. NewsGuard products include NewsGuard, BrandGuard, which helps marketers concerned about their brand safety, and the Misinformation Fingerprints catalog of top hoaxes.
NewsGuard rates each site based on nine apolitical criteria of journalistic practice, including whether a site repeatedly publishes false content, whether it regularly corrects or clarifies errors, and whether it avoids deceptive headlines. It awards weighted points for each criterion and sums them up; a score of less than 60 earns a “Red” rating, while 60 and above earns a “Green” rating, which indicates it is generally reliable.
NewsGuard’s ratings and Nutrition Labels can be licensed by internet service providers, browsers, news aggregators, education companies, and social media and search platforms in order to make NewsGuard’s information about news websites available to their users.
Consumers can access these ratings by purchasing a subscription to NewsGuard, which costs $4.95/month, €4.95/month or £4.95/month, and includes access to NewsGuard’s browser extension for Chrome, Safari, and Firefox and its mobile app for iOS and Android. The extension is available for free on Microsoft’s Edge browser through a license agreement with Microsoft. Hundreds of public libraries globally receive free access to use NewsGuard’s browser extension on their public-access computers to give their patrons more context for the news they encounter online. For more information, including to download the browser extension and review the ratings process, visit newsguardtech.com.