How Yandex suppresses information for Russian internet users
A report by the Digital Forensics Research Lab (DFRLab) has accused Yandex of succumbing to Russia's domestic regulations by suppressing Ukraine war information for its users in Russia.
Category Coordinated disinformation
Read MoreHow Yandex suppresses information for Russian internet users
Iconic photo is from Ukraine war, not Russia gas explosion
Olena Kurilo, a teacher, was injured on Feb. 24, 2022, when a Russian missile strike hit her apartment complex in Chuhuiv, Ukraine.
Her photograph was taken by at least three journalists that day and she was interviewed on video.
Photos in news reports that day show the apartment complex is not the building damaged by a 2018 gas explosion in Russia.
Our ruling
A social media user claims a photo of a Ukrainian woman that went viral after her apartment building was attacked on the first day of Russia's invasion is actually from a 2018 gas explosion in Russia.
At least three photojournalists took photos of the woman on Feb. 24 and she was interviewed on camera. Multiple news reports confirmed the attack on the apartment building that day, and images show the building is not the same one damaged in the Russia gas explosion. We rate this claim False.
Fact-check: What really happened in Bucha?
Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of a massacre in Bucha but Kremlin-backed media are denouncing it as a hoax. DW checked both claims and found enough evidence to prove the Russian side wrong.
Fresh round of fake videos claim the Bucha massacre was staged
Several hundred bodies of civilians were discovered in Bucha, Ukraine on April 3. Since the horrific discovery, pro-Russian accounts on Twitter have been circulating images that they say prove that these bodies were fake or that the massacre was staged by Ukrainians. But we investigated and, it turns out, these images were taken out of context.
No, the discovery of bodies in Ukraine’s Bucha was not ‘staged’ with ‘actors’
Ukraine authorities have said bodies discovered on April 2, 2022 in the small town of Bucha were civilians killed by retreating Russian forces, allegations which Moscow has denied. Several posts shared on social networks -- including from Russian authorities -- have claimed that the scene was staged by Ukrainian forces and some of the so-called bodies were filmed moving. But AFP journalists on the ground confirmed they saw dead bodies that had been left for several days; footage used to support the misleading claims does not show the bodies moving, AFP's investigation found.
These images from Bucha do not show ‘fake corpses’ staged by the Ukrainian army
Images published on April 3 showed the bodies of more than a dozen civilians who had been killed in Bucha, a town near Kyiv that had been occupied by the Russian army. Some of the bodies had their hands tied and some were shot in the head. Since then, several Russian media outlets and pro-Russian social media accounts have published a video that claims to show evidence the corpses in this video were staged. The FRANCE 24 Observers team analysed its claims.
TikTok feeds users with disinformation about Russia-Ukraine war
According to NewsGuard - a media-tech firm that rates the credibility of news and information websites, misleading information about the war in Ukraine reaches users a few minutes after signing up on the app.
"TikTok is feeding false and misleading content about the war in Ukraine to users within 40 minutes of their signing up to the app, regardless of whether they run any searches on the platform," NewsGuard revealed.
No, Russia-Ukraine war hasn’t led to UK recession, fuel deals with Nigeria – Africa Check
There have been reports of Johnson's attempts to make energy deals with countries in the Middle East, following the energy crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
But we could find no evidence the prime minister had made similar overtures to Nigeria.
Britain was not in recession as of March 2022. While Johnson may have been courting Middle Eastern oil-producing countries, we could not tie this to Nigeria or conditions in southeast Nigeria.
No, Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi was not lit up in colours of Ukrainian flag – ignore doctored image – Africa Check
A Google reverse image search reveals that the image first appeared online on 25 February 2022 on Twitter. A further search led to an identical image, without the colours of the Ukrainian flag, but taken from the same angle. An analysis of the image posted on Facebook, comparing it with the identical image using photo forensics tools, shows it was manipulated.
No, the infamous Canadian sniper Wali has not been killed in Ukraine
A number of viral posts on social media have claimed that a Canadian sniper, dubbed "the world's deadliest sniper", was killed within hours of arriving in Mariupol, Ukraine, where he had gone to fight. However the man, nicknamed Wali, is still alive and well. He told the FRANCE 24 Observers team that he thinks the disinformation around his death serves to dissuade foreign fighters from going to Ukraine.