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.

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.

Unverified. At least one of the photos shared regularly online about Vladimir Solovyov’s son is misleading and of somebody else; the Irish model Tommy Solovyov. But there is also no definitive evidence to show that his actual son is currently based in London modeling or elsewhere. Another photo frequently shared online indicates that he has modeled or is modeling; however, that agency is based in Russia.

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.

Adrenochrome features heavily in QAnon conspiracy theories, which purport the baseless idea that a global cabal of pedophiles is harvesting the chemical from the blood of children to stay young and healthy. That’s false, and so is the claim that Putin foiled a shipment of it. We found no credible news reports or other sources to corroborate the claims in this post. Real Raw News has a disclaimer saying it contains “humor, parody and satire,” though the author has defended his stories as truth. The website also regularly publishes false, fantastical stories authored by someone using a pseudonym. We rate this baseless post Pants on Fire!

President Joe Biden announced on Jan. 25 that the U.S. would provide Ukraine with 31 tanks. After the announcement, a meme on social media misquoted Biden’s remarks from March 2022, suggesting he said that sending tanks to Ukraine would cause World War III. Biden said sending weapons “with American pilots and American crews” would cause a world war.

In the battle for influence running parallel to Russia’s war on Ukraine, the Kremlin has consistently taken aim at NATO. DW asked experts how the propaganda machine works.

Unverified. The figures quoted in Twitter come from a Turkish website that does not link to its sources, nor does it provide any other authenticated evidence. The claim that it received its data from Israeli security services is also highly dubious. While we cannot verify the actual number of soldiers killed on either side of the Ukraine-Russia conflict, the estimates quoted in the tweet and the article do not match anywhere near the figures cited by Western intelligence services and senior officials.

Social media users have been circulating a video of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, claiming that the footage shows him calling on NATO to launch preventive nuclear strikes against Russia. It turns out, however, that this footage isn’t new – Zelensky made these statements back in October 2022. Moreover, the translation of his statement, originally in Ukrainian, leaves out some nuance.