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.
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.
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.
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.
A recent blog post builds on a fictitious narrative that Russian President Vladimir Putin is stymieing the production of adrenochrome in Ukraine.......We found no credible news reports or sources to corroborate the unfounded allegations, which were published on Real Raw News, a site that regularly posts fake news. The blog's stories are written by someone using a pseudonym and the site has a disclaimer saying it contains "humor, parody and satire," though the author has defended his stories as truth.
The same site wrote separately that Putin intercepted a shipment of adrenochrome bound for the United States. We rated that Pants on Fire!......We rate claims that Putin destroyed an adrenochrome warehouse in Ukraine Pants on Fire!
The image in the widespread photo is from a 6-year-old video that showed an old railway in Ohio. It had already been fixed by the time the Feb. 3 derailment happened in East Palestine.
The Biden-Harris administration announced plans to help railway infrastructure in Ohio, including managing $4 billion to improve rail safety.
A Facebook post said a photo of a dilapidated railroad track shows "what railways in Ohio look like while we send $40 billion to Ukraine."
The image used in the post comes from a 6-year-old video, and that railway has since been fixed.
We rate this claim False.
On February 24, 2022, Russia began a full-scale invasion into Ukraine, triggering a war on the ground, but also an information war online. Since then, the FRANCE 24 Observers team has debunked 115 pieces of misinformation that have been shared in photos or videos online. But what are the main themes in these false narratives? And what techniques are used to misinform? Here's a look back at this year in fake news.
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.
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.
We found no evidence to corroborate a claim that an audio recording was leaked documenting a private conversation between the presidents. A social media post claims otherwise.
We requested to follow the account where the supposed leaked audio of Biden and Zelenskyy was posted but as of publication time, that request hadn't been granted.
However, we searched for news reports and other sources to corroborate this latest post's claim, and found none.
We rate it False.