The Ukrainian military denied the news, stating that no foreigners in the war zone in eastern Ukraine as exclusively Ukrainian military are deployed there. No one in the region believed them, meaning essentially that the lie had been weaponised. The victims were lynched after they were falsely accused of child abduction based on fake messages circulated via the social media platform, WhatsApp. But fake news is not just a social media age phenomenon. Back home in Nigeria, in August 1966, Radio Cotonou ran a story, alleging that northerners were being killed in the Eastern Region.

Source: The Guardian June 26, 2019 06:11 UTC