In December 2024, the network spread that more than 83% of Ukrainian users watched the broadcast of a direct line with Vladimir Putin. We checked the reliability of this information.
On December 20, the day after the final press conference of the President of the Russian Federation, the news was widely dispersed in Telegram channels and the media that Vladimir Putin was actively monitored in Ukraine. The results of the year with the President of the Russian Federation allegedly watched 83% of Ukrainian users, while the total depth of viewing was 87%, that is, the audience inspected the broadcast almost to the end. Internet users from Ukraine watched a broadcast through the platforms of foreign media, which transmitted it all four and a half hours. Resources that have published the news refer to the study of Oxford Internet Institute. Some also apply a minute video allegedly published by Reuters, which reports this information.
The news was distributed by Telegram channels "Zlaya Pruf"(217,000 views at the time of writing this analysis),"Ukraine.ru"(138 000),"Petya the first"(78 000),"Kostyan Cat - Official Channel"(73,000),"V /// DE"(58,000) and others. Notes on the involvement of Ukrainian users during the broadcast of the results of the year appeared on the media platforms"RIA Novosti","Tsargrad" Eadaily And Smotrim.ru.
December 19 passed A direct line with Vladimir Putin is an annual event, within the framework of which the President of the Russian Federation sums up the results of the year and answers questions of citizens and journalists. The broadcast lasted four and a half hours. One of the main topics was the war in Ukraine - Putin devoted about a quarter of the entire program to her.
Oxford Internet Institute (OII), which is referred to as the source of the study, is the scientific center and educational unit of Oxford University. They are engaged in interdisciplinary research, uniting social and computer sciences. Employees of the Center are studying the problems of the spread of fake news, the use of artificial intelligence, safety, privacy of user data and much more. However, on Official website The institute has no information about the audience of the direct line of Putin. There are no such publications on the social networks of the center (X, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Linkedin). And in the last post on page in x reportedthat the institute goes on Christmas holidays from the evening of December 20, in connection with which all departments will be closed until January 2. The press conference itself ended on the evening of December 19, and the news about the results of the study spread at noon the next day. If you believe this information, OII employees managed to receive data from the owners of broadcasts and analyze them in less than a day.
Sources that have spread the news about watching a direct line by Ukrainian network users also note that foreign media platforms were used for this, which "gave broadcasts from beginning to end." What specific resources were these - it is not specified, the exact number of Ukrainian users who follow the broadcast is also not indicated. Several authoritative international media really conveyed a complete or almost complete broadcast of a straight line - for example, The Times, The Guardian, Sky News, CNBC And The Telegraph. Get Information about the geographical location and duration of the audience on YouTube can only account owners. However, you can approximately understand the interest of users in broadcasting by open data. For example, the TV channel with the largest number of subscribers listed above is Sky News, but their broadcasts Now a total of about 59,000 views. This is the sum of all spectators who opened the video both during the broadcast and after its completion.
According to DatarePortal, even at the beginning of 2024 in Ukraine There was 29.64 million Internet users. This means that there was more than 24 million Ukrainians to see the broadcast of the direct line. Even if you add the total number of all the views of the broadcasts of foreign media, it is unlikely that there will be so many views. This figure is even more than The total number of spectatorsWatching a straight line on Russian television channels.
In addition to the link to the OII, some resources that have spread the news about the interest of Ukrainian users in the direct line of the Russian president published a video allegedly made by the Reuters International Agency. A video mounted from the frames of a direct line with Vladimir Putin is accompanied by subtitles in English. The Reuters logo is visible in the upper right corner. The video is decorated in the same style as short videos in the verified accounts of the agency in Tiktok, on YouTube and in Instagram. Despite the logo and similar format, the rest of the video is significantly different. Firstly, the video is made in a horizontal format, unlike the usual vertical one, which is usually used for realz or shorts. Secondly, Reuters do not put their logo on short videos, always indicate the date and place of the incident, do not use the orange frame and do not distinguish the text of subtitles in different colors. It is also unclear why, in the viral video, the media, on whose platforms, Ukrainians allegedly watched the broadcast, are called foreign.
"Verified" did not find a plot of viewing by Ukrainian users a direct line either on the verified resources of the publication in X, Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok And on YouTubenor on his Official website. There is no information in other authoritative sources.
The news was distributed mainly by pro-Kremlin Telegram channels and the media. She also enclosed the social network X in the Russian -language segment of the social network, while several posts And in English. The earliest publication With information about the study of interest to us, she appeared in the Telegram channel “Military Observer” on December 20 at 12:31 pm Moscow time. The first post was not accompanied by a video, but two hours later, at 14:30 Moscow time, the bear’s Telegram channel posted a fabricated Reuters video, and then it began to spread. Both of these channels are often Found V parsing "Tested" both as distributors of fake news, and as their The primary sources.
The creation of videos that mimic under the subjects of authoritative media is a common method of fake -ups. The authors of such videos, as a rule, use the previously published personnel and mount them in one video with the applied text of fabricated news. "Verified" disassembled fake stories from BBC, The Wall Street Journal, Al jazeera and others. Moreover, exactly a year ago, after the final press conference of Putin 2023, Telegram channels distributed a similar video allegedly published by the EURONEWS television channel. In that plot It was saidthat 75% of Ukrainian users monitored the broadcast of a press conference using various VPN services. He also turned out to be fake.
Thus, neither Oxford Internet Institute nor Reuters published information that the vast majority of Internet users from Ukraine watched a direct line with the President of the Russian Federation. Messages about this are based on a fabricated video and are not confirmed by other sources.
Photo on the cover: Broadcasting Screenshot /Kremlin.ru
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