Facebook content disputing violence in Bucha shared more than the truth: Study | Arab News

DUBAI: A new study by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue has found that 27.5 percent of the Facebook posts it analyzed “cast doubt on the legitimacy of images from Bucha used by Western mainstream media,” and even more importantly, gained “significantly more traction online than those that did not question the mainstream narrative.”  Russian troops withdrew from the Ukrainian city of Bucha on March 30. As international media outlets reported their departure, footage of destruction, deaths and testimonies emerged. News media including the BBC, The Guardian and the New York Times reported witness testimony from survivors in Bucha, and Human Rights Watch documented several cases of Russian forces committing “laws-of-war violations against civilians in occupied areas” of Ukraine. “The cases we documented amount to unspeakable, deliberate cruelty and violence against Ukrainian civilians,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at HRW. “Rape, murder, and other violent acts against people in the Russian forces’ custody should be investigated as war crimes.” Russian state media and officials quickly and profusely offered their version of events, claiming that the dead civilian bodies were fake and accusing Ukraine of staging the situation in Bucha in a bid to tarnish Russia’s reputation. They took…
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