The Kremlin accuses Ukraine of issuing a national stamp with the face of 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka, a Canadian-Ukrainian soldier who served in a Nazi military unit during World War II and was wrongfully honoured in the Canadian parliament last week with a standing ovation. We tell you more in this edition of Truth or Fake.
Footage of a large demonstration in Montreal is being misrepresented in posts that claim the protesters took to the streets to voice anger over Canada's support for Ukraine. In fact, the clip shows a march coordinated by four unions seeking higher wages in contract negotiations with the provincial government in Quebec.
A fabricated video edited in the social media style of American media outlet USA Today claims a member of the Ukrainian delegation provoked a drunken bar fight in New York during President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to the US, before being detained by police. However, in this edition of Truth or Fake, Vedika Bahl uses geolocation tools to verify that the "brawl" images were filmed around 18 kilometres away from the alleged site. Both USA Today and the New York police dismissed the reports as fake.
Social media posts claim photos show Oleksiy Reznikov partying on a yacht in the South of France days after leaving his post as defense minister of Ukraine. This is false; the image was taken near Istanbul, Turkey, in February 2020, years prior to the war with Russia.
The European Union will launch a new platform to counter disinformation campaigns by Russia and China amid growing worries, EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said today.
A so-called Information Sharing and Analysis Center within the EU's foreign services —the European External Action Service (EEAS) — will seek to track information manipulation by foreign actors and coordinate with the 27 EU countries and the wider community of NGOs.
"We need to understand how these disinformation campaigns are organized ... to identify the actors of the manipulation," said Borrell.
China should tread carefully when it comes to spreading disinformation and cyberattacks to help Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, European Union digital chief Věra Jourová said Monday. [...]
“I have stated that we consider how China interacts with Russia's war against Ukraine to be a determining factor for EU-China relations going forward. This includes of course aspects relating to cybersecurity, and disinformation,” Jourová said in a statement to POLITICO after the EU-China High-Level Digital Dialogue.
Various media reports originating in Ukraine and Russia are claiming that the Ukrainian government is seeking to extradite military-aged refugees and "draft dodgers" back to the country, and that Ukraine's requests have so far been rejected by a number of its European neighbors. The reports, which are being circulated primarily by Russian government-funded media organizations RT and Sputnik, have also spread to some Western media including a viral Facebook video.
The Verdict False
This video shows an Argentinian dancer Pablo Acosta and not Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
A video shared across social media appears to show a New York City digital billboard displaying Volodymyr Zelensky's face and text that says, "Glory to Urine" as the Ukrainian president visited the United States in September 2023. But the clip is doctored; the company that owns the sign told AFP it has run no such message.
A video shared across social media appears to show a New York City digital billboard displaying Volodymyr Zelensky's face and text that says, "Glory to Urine" as the Ukrainian president visited the United States in September 2023. But the clip is doctored; the company that owns the sign told AFP it has run no such message.