Is it true that the video says that interest in Zelensky on the Internet fell by 63% in 2023?

At the beginning of 2024, a video circulated on Telegram reporting that Internet users became much less interested in the President of Ukraine. We have verified the authenticity of this video.

IN video, which was allegedly published by the American publication Politico, claimed that in 2023, Internet users were 63% less interested in the President of Ukraine than the year before. Some Telegram-channels explained the decline in Zelensky’s popularity by the fact that foreign media are trying to “talk less about Ze, he’s so fed up that coverage is falling.” This video was shared by such popular channels as “Sheikh Tamir"(157,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), ""Special Operation Z" | Yuri Podolyaka+"(39,000), "Sunshine" (25,000) and "What's going on?"(23,000).

The captions for the video, which was published by pro-Russian Telegram channels, say:

SocialBlade: Zelensky's popularity on the Internet fell by 63% in 2023. The SocialBlade service analyzed publications on social networks related to Vladimir Zelensky. According to the report, users of YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok have become less interested in Zelensky. The average engagement rate for posts related to Vladimir Zelensky has decreased by 63% since 2022. The analysis also showed that the page engagement rate in accounts where the number of posts about Zelensky accounted for more than 20% of the total number of publications decreased by 47%. In 2023, users purposefully searched for information about the President of Ukraine and Ukraine as a whole half as often as compared to the same period [last year]. SocialBlade is an American social media analytics site. SocialBlade functions as a third-party application programming interface, providing its users with metrics from various media platforms.

In the upper right corner of the recording you can see the Politico logo, and at the end of the video is its signature splash screen. However, “Verified” was unable to find a viral video about Zelensky on any website publication, nor in his profiles on other platforms (YouTube, Facebook, X, Instagram, Threads, LinkedIn, Telegram). The study of resources led to similar results European version Politico.

As stated in the video, the drop in interest in Zelensky was recorded by the service Social Blade — it collects and analyzes statistics on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok and other platforms. It was not possible to find information about a similar study dedicated to the Ukrainian president on the company’s website and on its social networks. The service is not mentioned at all on the Politico website.

In response to a request from fact checkers of the Ukrainian publication “Gwara Media“Representatives of Social Blade stated that they did not conduct the analysis discussed in the video, and generally do not engage in such research. Company employees added that their service is able to track the number of subscribers of the Ukrainian president and posts published in his accounts, but not all channels that the politician mentions, or “the engagement rate of posts related to Vladimir Zelensky.”

The fact that the video about the declining interest in Zelensky is a fake is also evidenced by some details of the video. For example, its creators used the British spelling of the verb analyzed, although an American edition would most likely have used the American spelling (analyzed). The spelling of the verb with an “s” instead of a “z” on the Politico website can only be found in reader comments or in direct quotes that retain the British spelling of the source. The name of the Social Blade service is written together in the video, although it is usually written in two words. The font used in the video does not match the font from the Politico videos, which can be viewed in the publication’s verified channels.

In the Politico Telegram channel we were able to find only one video, which uses an identical ending title card with the Politico logo. Apparently, it was from there that the creators of the fake borrowed this animation. “Verified” has already written more than once about fake videos distributed in pro-Kremlin media and Telegram channels, imitating the style of well-known foreign media, such as Al Jazeera, euronews, Deutsche Welle, Reuters and others.

Thus, Social Blade’s comment, coupled with inconsistencies in the video itself, indicates that the clip about the decline in global interest in Zelensky is fake. According to the service TGStat, the first video was posted by the pro-Russian Telegram channel “Sheikh Tamir» January 3 at 11:55 Moscow time, which has already appeared in our debriefings as a source of fakes, including fake videos.

Cover photo: website President of Ukraine

Fake

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Gwara. Fake. Politico video: interest in Zelensky in 2023 decreased by 63%
2. False authorities. How the BBC became the brand of choice for fake video creators