Visual verification: technologies and rhetorical strategies for combating disinformation in Russian social media (using Telegram as an example)

INTRODUCTION. The purpose of the paper is to study the rhetorical strategies and techniques that use social media in Telegram as a means to combat disinformation, and their comparative analysis. MATERIALS AND METHODS. The research methodology includes a comparative analysis of technological techniques and a discourse analysis of visual strategies. The study is based on an analysis of 31 posts from the RIA Novosti telegram agency and the RBC edition for September–December 2025, representing current verification practices. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. As a result of the study, it was found that, despite the use of similar technological techniques (comparative collages, screenshots with annotations), the telegram channels of RIA Novosti and RBC use fundamentally different rhetorical verification strategies. RBC relies on factchecking and appeals to the critical thinking and logic of the audience. In contrast, RIA Novosti relies on an “official denial” strategy, where the key argument is the position of an authorized person or a government institution. CONCLUSION. Thus, visual verification functions not only as a tool to combat disinformation, but also as a mechanism for constructing media identity: for RBC, it is the formation of a reputation as an independent expert, and for RIA Novosti, it is the legitimization of official discourse and the formation of a public agenda.