Our work in Ukraine

Putins war in Ukraine is a war against democracy. Like you, we are angry and heartbroken over the Russian invasion. Here you can find out more about how we are working to support democracy in Ukraine.

We #StandWithUkraine.

Supporting Ukraine's tech community

We reached out to our Democracy Tech Fellows based in Ukraine, and asked what we could do for them. They requested to use our platform to be able to tell personal stories directly from inside Ukraine. Since the 24th February we have held regular Twitter Spaces to platform their voices and experiences.

Follow us on Twitter to join our next one.

Podcast

Listen in to our first #DefendDemocracy Podcast series featuring Ukrainian members of our Democracy Tech Entrepreneur Fellowship program. Hear powerful statements from members of our community as they give us regular accounts of the situation in Ukraine and what the global community can do to help.

How to fight disinformation

Since 2018, our Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity (TCEI) has been advocating for increased awareness that the integrity of democracies around the world is regularly manipulated on elections through the targeted spread of disinformation and cyber-attacks. As of this week, the most extreme form of undermining democracies has been added: military intervention!

In the coming weeks and months, we will be confronted with a huge number of images, videos, reports, opinions, and social media updates regarding Russia's war against Ukraine. But the factual situation at wartime is extremely difficult. Much will be true, some will be distorted, and some will be deliberately fabricated to reinforce certain narratives and purposefully sow discord. Verification of the truth is often not possible, like what we already know from times of election campaigns.

For this end, it is extremely important that we all deepen our understanding of where and how our democracy is vulnerable and by which measures governments, parliaments, and each of us can counter this kind of influence. Only in this way do we strengthen the resilience of our democracies in the long term. When in doubt, exercise restraint, both in tone and BEFORE disseminating any content on social media.

If you want to learn more about the Russian playbook of Pro-Kremlin disinformation in times of elections, make sure to have a look at our Election Risk Monitor Georgia 2020, in which we covered the national elections in Georgia in October 2020: https://bit.ly/3HmatP5

Some concrete guiding questions we should all ask ourselves when considering information, images, videos, etc.:

  • What is the source of this message/image/video? Do I already know it, maybe even the author?
  • What category can I assign the message to? (information, opinion, advertisement, misinformation)
  • What does the message say? Is it complete or is important information missing? (Who, what, when, where, why?)
  • How did I become aware of this message?
  • Who shares or comments on it?

Some recommendations where you can double check online content: