I think you're missing my point. They were both presented as facts and discussion online was (and still is in the case if Ukraine) presented as such. The only way to move past those types of bottlenecks is through discussion. "Looking it up" will likely give you an answer that doesn't pass the sniff test in a normal discussion.
Neither of those are statements of fact, though. The first is speculation, the second is opinion.
But it does appear to be true that many people don't understand what a "fact" actually is. I don't think "censorship" really plays into this much.