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.
The video circulating on social media has been edited - a running line claiming that a large fire in Spain was allegedly caused by Ukrainian refugees was deliberately added on the screen. In reality, the running line reported on the driver, arrested for assaulting a passenger and driving under the influence.
The lack of victims from the Russian missile attack on the Odesa port on July 23 does not excuse Russia - it still carried out another act of aggression and violated the agreements made the day before. UN representatives did not say anything about the Russian attack on "military warehouses" in the Odesa port. On the contrary, the UN has once again condemned Russian attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure.
Verdict: False
The footage was taken during a 2017 event at the University of Ghent. The event was not affiliated with NATO.
The petition on the Ukrainian President's website calling to resume the negotiation process with Russia does not reflect Ukrainian public opinion. Despite a certain degree of fatigue and constant attacks by Russia, Ukrainians remain united in their determination not to make any concessions to the aggressor. According to a Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) poll conducted between July 6 and July 20, 84% of Ukrainians are not ready to make territorial concessions in order to end the war.
At the end of the 19th century, Ukrainian was the third most widely spoken language in Odesa, after Russian and Yiddish. According to the 1897 Russian Empire General Census, 37,925 inhabitants of Odesa declared Ukrainian as their mother tongue.