The Fact-checking Observatory is an automatic service that collects misinforming content on Twitter using URLs that have been identified as potential misinformation by fact-checking websites. Using this data, the Fact-checking Observatory automatically generates weekly reports that updates the state of misinformation spread of fact-checked misinformation on Twitter.

This analysis is limited to URLs identified by Fact-checking organisations. The collected data only consist of non-blocked Twitter content and may be incomplete.

This report updates the status of misinformation spread between Monday 29 August 2022 and Monday 05 September 2022.

864,246 Misinforming Tweets
New:+31,532 Trend:-5,517
78,654 Fact-checking Tweets
New:+144 Trend:-41
4,366 Fact-checks
140 Fact-checking Organisations

Key Content and Provenance

During the period between Monday 29 August 2022 and Monday 05 September 2022, 31,532 new URLs have been identified as potential misinforming content. Out of the 254 domains identified by Fact-checking organisations (Figure 1), most of the new shared URLs were from facebook.com with an increase of +31,466 compared to the previous total spread for the same domain The domain that saw the least increase in spread compared to the previous period total spread was 15min.lt with a change of +0 compared to the previous total spread for the same domain

In relation to the previous week, the domain that saw the biggest relative spread change was NA.NA with a change of +15 compared to the previous total spread for the same domain whereas the domain that saw the least relative change was facebook.com with a change of -5,447 compared to the previous period.

The all time most important domain is facebook.com with a total of 649,533 URL shares and the least popular domain is 24-post.com with 1 shares (Figure 2).

Figure 1: Domain importance.

Figure 2: Amount of domains shares per week.

The top misinforming content and fact-checking articles shared since the last report are listed in Table 1 and Table 2.

Misinforming URL Fact-check URL Domain Current Week Previous Week Total
https://www.facebook.com/watch VoxCheck facebook.com 31466 36913 649236
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJkOeE6ES7U euvsdisinfo.eu youtube.com 16 0 16
https://odysee.com/@RTFRANCE:a/cest-cash-emprunts-etat-indexes-inflation-scandale-15-milliards-euros:6 euvsdisinfo.eu NA.NA 15 0 15
https://ria.ru/20220829/ukraina-1812729313.html euvsdisinfo.eu ria.ru 7 0 7
https://ria.ru/20220904/frantsiya-1814290410.html euvsdisinfo.eu ria.ru 6 0 6
https://thefauxy.com/pakistan-imposes-economic-sanctions-on-russia-refuses-to-repay-loans Taiwan FactCheck Center thefauxy.com 5 8 4063
https://twitter.com/liliaragnar/status/1564390298746331137 Facta.news twitter.com 5 0 5
https://unser-mitteleuropa.com/hollaendische-regierung-zwingt-kuenftig-buerger-zu-migrantenaufnahme-in-den-eigenen-vier-waenden/ Correctiv unser-mitteleuropa.com 2 2 1125
https://ria.ru/20220828/nato-1812555144.html euvsdisinfo.eu ria.ru 1 30 31
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LQSYmda0Sc LeadStories youtube.com 1 9 8930

Table 1: Top misinforming content.

Fact-check URL Domain Current Week Previous Week Total
https://www.stopfake.org/en/photofake-defense-ministry-secret-document-reveals-real-ukrainian-armed-forces-losses/ stopfake.org 9 0 9
https://www.stopfake.org/en/fake-kyiv-cancels-heating-season-because-of-russia-sanctions/ stopfake.org 8 0 8
https://euvsdisinfo.eu/report/during-german-occupation-of-ukraine-the-nazi-bandera-contributed-to-the-genocide-of-his-own-people euvsdisinfo.eu 7 12 37
https://factual.afp.com/doc.afp.com.32HK22D afp.com 7 0 7
https://www.stopfake.org/en/fake-ukraine-cancels-15-million-hryvnia-payment-to-fallen-soldiers-families/ stopfake.org 7 0 7
https://correctiv.org/faktencheck/2022/08/29/video-zeigt-dreharbeiten-zum-ukrainischen-spielfilm-region-of-heroes/ correctiv.org 6 0 6
https://www.stopfake.org/en/fake-arms-supplies-to-ukraine-are-a-black-hole-americans-say/ stopfake.org 6 0 6
https://www.stopfake.org/en/fake-ukraine-shells-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-power-plant/ stopfake.org 6 0 6
https://www.stopfake.org/en/manipulation-pentagon-says-ukraine-should-no-longer-expect-himars-and-missiles/ stopfake.org 6 0 6
https://fullfact.org/news/ukraine-land-sales-zelenskyy/ fullfact.org 5 8 45

Table 2: Top fact-checked content.

Fact-Checkers and Spreaders Location

The data used for creating the Twitter dataset is obtained from 140 fact-checking organisations.

The largest amount of fact-checked content comes from euvsdisinfo.eu (388 fact-checks) and the least from Verify Sy (1 fact-checks). Most fact-checked content are from VoxCheck (350) followed by LeadStories (255) and AFP fact checking (207) (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Amount of fact-checks by fact-checkers.

Figure 4: Identified location of users spreading fact-checks and misinformation.

Locations and Mentions

Using automatic entity extraction methods, we identify key locations and persons mention in the fact-checking articles in order to identify what location and person are the most discussed in misinforming content.

The top mentioned locations and persons are listed in Table 3 and Table 4.

Location Description Current Week Previous Week Total
Ukraine Country in eastern europe. 123 162 151200
United States of America Country located mainly in north america. 29 66 34290
Russia Sovereign state in eastern europe and northern asia. 21 49 24931
Germany Country in central europe. 19 45 14413
France Sovereign state with mainland in western europe and several overseas territories. 15 15 3184
Europe Continent. 10 48 35972
Poland Sovereign state in central europe. 10 20 5144
United Kingdom Country in north-west europe. 8 24 31078
Moscow Capital and most populous city of russia. 8 15 10705
Turkey Sovereign state spanning europe and asia. 8 13 30012

Table 3: Top locations mentioned in misinforming posts.

Person Description Current Week Previous Week Total
Volodymyr Zelenskyy Sixth and current president of ukraine. 31 32 52047
Vladimir Putin President of russia (1999–2008, 2012–present). 11 17 57142
Vitaliy Klitschko Ukrainian boxer and politician. 9 0 508
Petro Poroshenko President of ukraine from 2014 to 2019. 7 0 727
Sergiy Kyslytsya Ukrainian diplomat. 7 0 9
Adolf Hitler Austrian nationalized german politician, leader of the national socialist party and dictator of germany (1889-1945). 3 16 193
Hanna Malyar Lawyer, deputy minister of defense of ukraine. 3 1 7
Olena Zelenska Ukrainian architect and screenwriter. 2 16 391
Benito Mussolini Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the national fascist party. 2 16 18
Eva Braun Longtime companion and later wife of adolf hitler. 2 16 18

Table 4: Top people mentioned in misinforming posts.

Demographic Impact

Using automatic methods, Twitter account demographics are extracted for user age, gender and account type (i.e., identify if an account belong to an individual or organisation).

Figure 6 displays how misinformation and fact-checks are spread by different demographics.

Figure 5: Misinformation and Fact-check spread for different demographics. Top: Gender, Center: Age group, Bottom: Account type.

Data Collection and Methodology

The full methodology and information about the limitation and dataset used for this analysis can be accessed in the methodology page.