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.
President Joe Biden made a surprise trip to Ukraine on Feb. 20, and he was photographed walking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy outside of a monastery in Kyiv.
Multiple news outlets have published the picture. But an altered version of the photo is spreading on social media....Biden announced more military aid for Ukraine on the trip, but the image, taken for The New York Times by photographer Daniel Berehulak, is doctored.
We rate claims the photo is authentic False.
Since Thursday, February 16, numerous posts online have featured screenshots of a Danish television report showing a Ukrainian soldier with a patch on his uniform that some are saying means he belongs to the Islamic State organisation. However, there is no clear proof of what this patch represents. The Ukrainian soldier in question has given his own version of events.
Social media users are claiming a photo from Joe Biden's surprise trip to Kyiv shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky holding his US counterpart's hand to keep him nearby. This is false; the image has been digitally manipulated to re-position the leaders' hands, the New York Times photographer who took the picture confirmed to AFP.
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.
President Biden did say some U.S. aid to Ukraine could go to social support, like helping with pensions. The viral video clip is from 2022.
Ukrainian refugees are portrayed in some media and social media channels as ungrateful, dangerous and parasitic. DW explains why such propagandist tactics often work - and how to recognize them for what they are.
This week saw the release of a wide-ranging investigation into the lucrative disinformation industry, published by a media consortium led by the French NGO Forbidden Stories. At the centre of the story is a shadowy Israeli group nicknamed "Team Jorge" who claims it has influenced 33 elections worldwide with a potent combination of phone hacking and thousands of fake profiles. FRANCE 24's Technology Editor Peter O'Brien dives into the systems they use to wage disinformation "black ops".
Chinese social media users have repeatedly shared a doctored clip of Russian President Vladimir Putin giving a speech with false subtitles that claim he said he will not step down from power until "the problem in Ukraine is settled". However, the video contains clips taken from two different addresses and audio from one of the speeches. The Chinese and English language subtitles are false translations of the speech. As of February 17, 2023, AFP has found no official reports about Putin making such an announcement.