The Dangerous Combination Of War And Misinformation Online | The Chaos-To-Scam Pipeline

The ongoing invasion by the Russian military has created an overwhelming sense of fear for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. Just over one million Ukrainians have fled Ukraine as they escape to neighboring countries, such as Poland and Hungary, in order to seek safety. While women aboard trains to the maximum capacity, men of the ages 18–60 are not allowed to leave the country and are told to fight with weapons given by the Ukrainian government while also using homemade Molotov cocktails. It’s a hard reality that sounds unimaginable to the rest of the world.

The war caused by Vladimir Putin’s obsession over the Russian Empire and the USSR has become a travesty and has been recognized as such by allies around the world. NATO and the European Union have come to the defense of Ukraine and have condemned Putin’s murderous actions. As we stay up to date on the latest information and reporting coming out of Ukraine, many have been tricked by misinformation on social media platforms that were shared in order to cause more confusion in times of chaos. Millions of people — including myself — have fallen for fake or outdated videos that claim to be current events happening in Ukraine. The goal of misinformation is to confuse, trick, and take advantage of people during major conflicts and to use it as what I call the “Chaos-to-Scam Pipeline”.

Desperate For Details But Misinformed
It’s the fight for information as we’re scrolling endlessly on social media. We all do it. We all want to remain aware of an ongoing crisis, especially during a time of war. What’s not good is mindlessly scrolling and retweeting information without reliable sources. Unfortunately, it’s bound to happen to all of us at some point on social media. From the early hours in the morning to the latest hour of the night, misinformation will soon make its way to our phone screens.

Anecdotally, I unknowingly shared a video of what looked to be a fighter jet flying in the night sky while…