A 48-hour rule for Russia-Ukraine

In the fog of war it can take some time for the truth to come out.

For some time, I’ve seen people propose a “48-hour rule” everyone should follow when a news story is going viral. The story might very well be true. Or, it could be missing crucial context, based on a misleading or incomplete video, or could be totally fabricated. Before launching a social media blitzkrieg, one should wait a decent period of time to make sure the story pans out, to make sure you don’t ruin an innocent person’s life and/or ruin your own by destroying your credibility and possibly getting sued.

Nicholas Sandmann now owns this house because of all the defamation settlements. (Citation needed)

48 hours is usually long enough to see the bigger picture (and is not to be confused with the five second rule and especially not the three second rule).

That goes double when we’re talking about a war. And Robin Häggblom, writing for The Cosmopolitan Globalist, argues that we don’t know nearly as much about Putin’s “special military operation” in Ukraine as we think we do:

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