Elon Musk has shared a fake video on his X platform which claims that USAID paid celebrities to visit Ukraine in order to increase Volodymyr Zelensky's popularity. Andrii Kovalenko, Head of the Center for Countering Disinformation in Ukraine, brought attention to the issue.
The video is posing to be part of E!News newsletter, an American entertainment news channel. However, the video does not exist on its official website and is believed to have been created by russians.
“The celebrities themselves write that this is a lie and that USAID did not pay them anything. The video was created by the russians, and the media labeled as the original source does not have the newspiece at all,” added Andrii Kovalenko.
Celebrities, who were featured in the video, have also responded to the false claims and confirmed that no one paid them to visit Ukraine.
For example, the famous American actor Ben Stiller wrote on his X page: “These are lies coming from russian media. I completely self-funded my humanitarian trip to Ukraine. There was no funding from USAID and certainly no payment of any kind. 100% percent false”.
Screenshots are taken from X
Unfortunately, russian intelligence forces only continue spreading disinformation and propaganda regarding Ukraine on various social networks, including X and Facebook. Now that these social media started loosening their moderation policies, the issue of countering these fakes becomes more and more challenging.
Kovalenko called on Musk to take more responsibility for monitoring disinformation on his platform, urging him to address the growing spread of propaganda.
