Category Misconceptions

Video with inaccurate subtitles does not show ‘Putin praising Pakistan PM Imran Khan’

A video has circulated in social media posts that claim it shows Russian President Vladimir Putin praising Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan after the two leaders met in Moscow on the day Russia invaded neighbouring Ukraine. The clip was viewed hundreds of thousands of times in posts by Pakistan-based social media users. In fact, the video's English-language subtitles have been misleadingly altered. In the original clip, Putin was shown criticising Ukraine.

March 3, 2022
Disinformation European Union Fact checks / debunkings International community Misconceptions Pakistan Putin Russia Ukraine USA

This video shows a Libyan military jet shot down by rebels in 2011

A video of a plane engulfed in flames and falling from the sky has been viewed more than 1.5 million times in social media posts that claim it shows a Russian fighter jet shot down by Ukrainian forces in February 2022. In reality, the video predates the Russian invasion of Ukraine and shows a Libyan jet targeted by rebels in 2011.

March 3, 2022
Fact checks / debunkings International community Media taken out of context Methods Misconceptions Russia Ukraine

Old video game footage falsely shared as ‘combat in Ukraine after Russian invasion’

A video has been viewed tens of thousands of times across social media platforms alongside a claim it shows missiles over Ukraine after Russian forces invaded on February 24. But the video has been shared in a false context: it shows digitally animated footage from the video game War Thunder that circulated online months before Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

March 3, 2022
Fact checks / debunkings Media taken out of context Methods Misconceptions Russia Ukraine

Video footage from 2014 misleadingly cast as Russian invasion

Footage of armored vehicles set alight by Molotov cocktails on a Ukrainian street is being presented on social media as local resistance against Russia's ongoing invasion. This is false; the recording is from Ukraine, but it was shot in 2014 in Kyiv during the country's popular protest movement, when demonstrators torched the army's vehicles.

Footage shows Ukraine in 2022, not Russia in 2018

Social media posts claim US broadcaster ABC misrepresented a video of a 2018 gas explosion in Russia as footage from the war in Ukraine. This is false; the clip was shot in Ukraine by a Turkish news agency, and a similar video from AFP confirms that the incident took place following Russia's 2022 invasion of its eastern European neighbor.

March 2, 2022
Disinformation Fact checks / debunkings International community Misconceptions Narratives Russia The war is a hoax Ukraine USA

Misleading post claims Syria footage shows Ukraine conflict

A Facebook post claims a video shows fighting in Ukraine. This is misleading; most of the footage was shot in Syria and released by Kurdish forces, while part of the clip is taken from CNN coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

March 2, 2022
Fact checks / debunkings International community Media taken out of context Methods Misconceptions Russia Syria Ukraine

This animation video circulated online months before Russia’s attack on Ukraine

A video has been viewed tens of thousands of times on Facebook alongside a claim it shows Russia bombing Ukraine. The video was shared shortly after Russian forces invaded the neighbouring country. But the video has been shared in a false context: it is actually an animation clip that has circulated online since at least October 2021.

March 2, 2022
Fact checks / debunkings Media taken out of context Methods Misconceptions Russia Ukraine

New Russian nuke weapon dubbed Satan 2 cannot destroy ‘everything breathing in the world’

Russian state media says the missile can destroy an area the size of Texas or France, not the world. We could not find more objective reports detailing the same destructive power.

"Individual warheads would strike distinct targets within a very limited ballistic 'footprint,' or many warheads from the same missile would strike the same target, increasing the likelihood of destroying that target completely," according to a 2021 report from EurAsian Times.

The weapon is believed to be able to evade missile defense systems and its deployment is expected around 2022, said a March 1 Congressional Research Service report.

We rate the claim that a Russian nuclear weapon dubbed Satan 2 is "capable of destroying everything breathing in the world" False.

March 1, 2022
Coordinated disinformation Disinformation Fact checks / debunkings Misconceptions Russia Russian propaganda

Fake CNN tweet falsely reports first US casualty in Ukraine

Social media posts claim CNN lied to the public by tweeting that a man was the first US casualty in Ukraine after previously featuring the same photo in a post about his execution in Afghanistan. This is false; the network says the tweets are not from its official accounts, and the man pictured is a YouTube video game commentator who continues to livestream on the platform.

Video game falsely shared as ‘live footage’ of Ukraine conflict

As Russia pressed on with its invasion of Ukraine, a video clip was viewed thousands of times in Facebook and YouTube posts that claimed it showed live footage of the fighting. In reality, the footage was taken from a combat video game called ARMA 3.

March 1, 2022
Fact checks / debunkings Media taken out of context Methods Misconceptions Russia Ukraine