A widely shared image claims to show a notice from Twitter informing users that only the platform's paid subscribers would be able to feature the Ukrainian flag emoji on their profiles. This is false; the supposed screenshot appears to be a digital fabrication, and Twitter has made no such policy announcement.
There is no information in the video to prove those hit were civilians.
Moreover, there are other visual clues that suggest the people in the video may have been military targets.
Claim: A music video features Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dancing in high heels, a cropped top, and skin-tight pants with three other men.
Rating: True
Context: Zelenskyy was a comic actor before he ran for political office. This video, made in 2014, was a parody of a well-known music video by the Ukrainian boy band Kazaky.
Images of a Ukrainian soldier on the frontline wearing what seems to be an Islamic State (IS) group badge on his arm have taken the internet by storm. Some users and media outlets claim this is evidence of links between the terrorist group and Ukraine. The soldier himself says differently. We tell you what we know so far in this edition of Truth or Fake, with Vedika Bahl.
Construction workers in Ukraine have been working to repair homes damaged by missiles during the country's war with Russia. Their efforts have been captured by amateur and professional photographers, as well as multiple news organizations.
A photo of a reconstructed building is not proof the war is fake. The war is real and has left thousands of civilians dead.
Images from professional and amateur photographers captured the repair progress. European Pressphoto Agency published multiple before-and-after images of the building. One montage of images shared on Twitter on Feb. 26, 2023, appears to show the building repairs at different phases.
We rate claims that these images prove the war in Ukraine is fake Pants on Fire!
The war in Ukraine has been accompanied by a ferocious battle of disinformation, waged in particular by pro-Russian agitators seeking to distort and shift the blame for many atrocities on the ground. They have sought to depict the Ukrainian side as Nazis or suggest that Western support for Kyiv is evaporating. Here are some of the main narratives, false or misleading, that have been fact-checked over the past year by AFP's digital verification teams.
Images purporting to show Joe Biden eating ice cream in Ukraine have widely circulated on social media since the US president's surprise visit to the country on February 20, 2023. But the photos are manipulated; the original pictures show Biden in the US states of Ohio and Oregon.
On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, triggering a ground war, but also an information war online. Since then, the FRANCE 24 Observers team has debunked 115 pieces of fake news shared via online photos and videos. But what are the main themes in these false narratives? What techniques were used to misinform? In this edition of Truth or Fake with Vedika Bahl, we take a look back at one year in fake news.
An image shared widely on social media purports to show a pair of middle fingers directed at Joe Biden after the US president's speech in Warsaw, Poland. But the picture has been digitally manipulated; the original photo shared by Biden and the White House depicts a thumbs-up gesture in the crowd.
A video showing hundreds of Russian books being shovelled out of trucks, onto the floor and then packed up has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times on social media. The scene takes place in Ukraine and has sparked comparisons by pro-Russians to Nazi book-burning. Put into context though, it's an unfair comparison. We tell you why in this edition of Truth or Fake.