Determining whether a scene actually took place where a social media user said it did - also known as geolocation - has become a major part of verifying social media posts. In this article, we take a look at some essential geolocation tools and walk you through a few case studies from the FRANCE 24 Observers team.
A phone call recording from 2016 between then-Vice President Joe Biden and then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was leaked in 2020, but as it recirculates in 2022, it's wrongly being used to claim Biden threatened to kill the former head of state.
Biden, among other presidents, has used the term "physical security" regularly. In August, for example, Biden talked in a speech to the Democratic National Committee about the United States' need to plan its direction wisely to ensure "economic, political and physical security." As in the leaked phone call, Biden, speaking June 30 at a press conference in Madrid after a NATO summit, tied funding from the U.S. to aid Ukraine's fight against Russia's invasion to the country's physical security.
"But for it to end, they have to be in a position where … the Ukrainians have all that they can reasonably expect, we can reasonably expect to get to them, in order to … provide for their physical security and their defenses," he said.
We rate claims Biden threatened to assassinate a former Ukrainian president Pants on Fire!
This photo has nothing to do with the Ukrainian national movement and with the events of the 1943 Volyn tragedy. The children in the photo were killed by their own mother Marianna Dolinska on the night of December 11-12, 1923, in the village of Antoniowka near the Polish city Radom.
There are about 200 million people who use Twitter on a daily basis, making it an important site for news and information. But this social network is also a prime source of disinformation, from fake accounts to tweets taken out of context. The FRANCE 24 Observers team takes a look at some good habits to avoid falling into these Twitter traps.
A photo of several people wearing military uniforms with Chinese and Russian flags has been shared hundreds of times in social media posts that claim it shows Chinese soldiers joining the Russian army to fight in Ukraine. This is false. AFP traced the photo to the website of a military-themed amusement park in Russia. The photographer who took pictures of the event said the people in the photo were "tourists".
Since 2018, the FRANCE 24 Observers team has been sharing tips for helping you to verify images that circulate online yourself. In this guide, we'll explain how to avoid falling into online traps - whether they involve photos or videos taken out of context or ones that have been actually doctored. We'll keep updating this guide, to keep you up to date on verification tools available for public use.
A Russian court sentenced Brittney Griner, a basketball star from the US, to nine years in prison for bringing a small amount of marijuana into the country. By contrast, US teenager Audrey Lorber was given a slap on the wrist for a slightly more serious case of the same crime.
A video clip of motorists angrily dragging away demonstrators who were blocking a highway has been viewed tens of thousands of times in online posts that claim it shows Ukrainian anti-war protesters obstructing traffic in Spain. This is false: the clip was filmed in a highway in the Italian capital Rome. The group that staged the protest told AFP it showed a climate demonstration unrelated to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Verdict: False
The footage was taken during a 2017 event at the University of Ghent. The event was not affiliated with NATO.
Verdict: False
The photos show a set of custom-built Lego figures. A Lego spokesperson confirmed the images do not depict an official product.