A screenshot from a BBC report is circulating heavily on social media, with claims that the reporter is pretending to be on the frontlines whilst a woman stands casually in the background with a shopping bag. What's true and what's fake? We explain the details in this edition of Truth or Fake with Vedika Bahl.
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.
RIA Novosti has taken anonymous comments regarding a British edition Daily Mail story and presented them as the view of all of Britain. Several comments do not make a majority view, much less an official government position. Furthermore, RIA Novosti's claims completely contradict existing poll data, in which 74% of Britons support sending military aid to Ukraine.
During a surprise Kyiv visit, British Prime Minister Boris Johson said the UK will not yield to 'Ukraine fatigue' and reaffirmed Britain's support for Ukraine. "When Ukraine fatigue is setting in, it is very important to show that we are with them for the long haul and we are giving them the strategic resilience that they need," Johnson said.
Ukraine is not the only country saying that Russia has incurred significant losses in its war against Ukraine, the British Ministry of Defense has also said the same thing. Russian allegations that Ukraine is "producing propaganda that even the West does not believe" are simply lies. The heavy losses of the Russian army are becoming increasingly obvious not only to Ukrainians, but also to foreign analysts.
A video claiming to be a BBC News report suggested Ukraine bombed one of its own train stations. The video was fake and did not come from BBC News.
Josep Borrell is proposing tougher sanctions to pressure Russia to stop its war crimes in Ukraine. He sees increased weapons supplies to Ukraine as a way of helping Kyiv protect its territory and its people from Russian army attacks and notes that Ukraine will definitely prevail.
Images of vehicles in the United Kingdom queuing at petrol stations are circulating in Kenya as proof that fuel scarcity in the East African nation is not unique. Tweets sharing the claim downplay the Kenyan government's role in the crisis, noting that the same scene is playing out in the UK. However, the pictures used as proof are old and the UK is not experiencing fuel shortages like Kenya.
Social media posts shared after Russia invaded Ukraine claim a photo shows one of Kyiv's soldiers crying. But the picture was taken years earlier and shows a British paratrooper at a ceremony at which he received the beret of his brother, who was killed in Afghanistan.
Social media posts and news reports about Russia's invasion of neighbouring Ukraine have repeatedly shared an image of a burning jet alongside a claim that "six Russian fighter planes" were shot down. Whilst Ukraine's military said it had shot down six Russian aircraft on the first day of the invasion, the image has been shared in a false context. The photographer who captured the original image told AFP it was taken in 1993. The image corresponds to reports from 1993 about a crash involving Russian aircraft during a UK airshow.