The War in Ukraine Through the Prism of Visual Disinformation and the Limits of Specialized Fact-Checking. A Case-Study at Le Monde

Abstract

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 led to a flood of disinformation circulating online, making fact-checking and verification crucial for journalists covering the conflict. Based on five semi-structured interviews and an analysis of 48 debunks published between February and October 2022, this study aims to understand how Les Décodeurs, the fact-checking unit of the French daily newspaper Le Monde, organized its practices in response to the flow of visual disinformation surrounding the conflict, and to place them within the broader framework of practices and categorizations of previous research on fact-checking and disinformation. The findings show that most fact-checks focuses on authentic images with misleading captions, rather than sophisticated manipulation. Previous categorizations prove their ability to describe the 48 pieces of visual disinformation but a more refined approach is suggested by considering visual disinformation as mainly multi-modal. The study reveals the fact-checkers’ role as gatekeepers in filtering content from social networks and addressing the challenge of countering viral disinformation while avoiding unintended amplification. It also identifies a blend of shared and individualized approaches among fact-checking journalists, including manual and pre-digital methods, reflecting the adaptable nature of their work. Based on the latest developments of gatekeeping functions, the study highlights limitations in the challenge of reconciling reactive and retroactive practices with mid-term editorial considerations in a rapidly evolving media ecosystem.