For France’s Press and Media in Schools Week 2023, France 24’s Observers team, specialised in debunking misinformation, has produced a new annual edition of “Truth or Fake”, a short programme giving tips on how to disentangle fact from fiction.

Apps like DALL-E and Midjourney are making it easier and easier to create realistic-looking images using artificial intelligence. In this video, Derek Thomson shares four tips on how to detect them, but warns that the technology is improving fast.

“Victims” of Russia’s war in Ukraine who mysteriously move while being filmed? That’s according to a recent post on TikTok. It’s not true, but how do you prove it?

Using artificial intelligence to make videos of people doing and saying whatever you want them to is the essence of a “deepfake”.

Soldiers fighting… missiles destroying tanks… war scenes in full splendor. Footage from video games is so realistic that it is often used to portray real-life war scenes.

Russian media are disseminating a video claiming it shows a Ukrainian soldier shooting at a car with a woman and child inside because the woman was speaking Russian. This poorly staged video was shot in Russian occupied Ukraine near Donetsk. The alleged Russian speaking woman and child are never seen, the location of the alleged incident is a spot where Ukrainian military simply could not be present, all and the cross painted on the back of the alleged Ukrainian military vehicle – a symbol that has never been used by the Ukrainian military, all point to the the video being yet another Russian fake.

A strange image has gone viral. Did Vladimir Putin really get down on one knee and kiss the hand of Xi Jinping? No. The picture, which was allegedly taken during the Chinese leader’s recent trip to Russia, is fake.

Did Vladimir Putin really use a body double during his recent visit to Mariupol, Ukraine? That’s the question posed by several posts that began circulating on social media on March 20, 2023. However, while these posts claim to show evidence of physical differences in the president’s face, the images they rely on are far from conclusive.

In Ukraine, mobilization for women is not compulsory, regardless of their specialties. Currently, about 5,000 women are voluntarily serving in the military.

The video is another propaganda staging. The man allegedly being ‘beaten’ on the back with a stick does not have a Brazilian Portuguese accent, as it should be if he were really from Brazil. StopFake confirmed that the man spoke European Portuguese, which was evidently not his native language. Another important argument is the fact that the Brazilians, who are indeed among the volunteers, do not serve in the 128th brigade of the Ukrainian Forces. Like other foreign volunteers who came to defend Ukraine, Brazilians serve only as part of the Armed Forces International Legion.

The UK Ministry of Defence says depleted uranium is a standard component of modern armaments and is not a nuclear weapon, and calls Russian statements on the issue “deliberate disinformation”. The British army has been using depleted uranium in its armor-piercing shells for decades, and independent scientific research has shown that depleted uranium impact on human health and the environment is minimal.

An air raid alert signaling an enemy drone detected near Kyiv sounded, and the drone was subsequently shot down by Ukrainian air defense.

The video showed footage from the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and was posted on the 20th anniversary of the invasion.

Poland providing Ukraine with MiG-29 fighter jets does not in any way contribute to the “destruction of Ukraine’s Armed Forces”. On the contrary, Poland and Slovakia’s decision to transfer several dozen fighter jets to the Ukrainian military will only strengthen Ukraine’s combat readiness for the expected counteroffensive. Poland is one of Ukraine’s main partners in providing military assistance and training Ukrainian soldiers. Warsaw was one of the first countries to announce it would send German Leopard 2 tanks, as well as MiG-29 jets to Ukraine.

A draft law under parliamentary consideration which has not yet been voted on does not cancel existing national holidays, but simply establishes new public holidays. The draft introduces a Peace Day holiday on September 21, in order to celebrate peaceful life after Ukraine’s Victory over Russian military aggression. The May 9 Victory over Nazism day will remain a holiday, but will become a workday.

Russian media is disseminating fake stories claiming Ukraine is selling stale repackaged bread as the country is suffering from bread shortages. Bread manufacturer Kyivkhlib’s hotline reported that they do not produce the kinds of bread products described in these Russian stories. Russian propagandist claims that there is a bread shortage in Ukraine are also untrue. While experts predict an increase in bread prices throughout 2023, there are absolutely no bread shortages in Ukraine.

A U.S. Army combat team recently completed its European deployment as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve, a series of military exercises in support of NATO. The brigade has returned to Fort Hood, Texas, and its equipment will follow. But social media posts falsely claim the equipment shown in a video is “arriving in Europe” to aid Ukraine.

Social media users are sharing a video that falsely claims Polish Leopard 2 tanks were captured while stuck in deep mud somewhere in Ukraine. But the misleading video has nothing to do with the war in Ukraine. We tell you more in this edition of Truth or Fake.

[T]his picture predates the most recent Ukraine-Russia conflict by well over a decade, and depicts a mass burial site created during the First Chechnyan War. Several versions of the picture were published prior to the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, with the earliest example identified by Snopes dating back to at least 2006. The photograph appears to have been taken by Georgian photojournalist Shakh Aivazov, who worked for The Associated Press during several Russian wars. It is included in a gallery of the Georgian Museum of Photography attributed to him and labeled “Chechnya, 1996.” These pictures appear to match video and other photographs of a graveyard on the outskirts of the Chechnyan capital of Grozny during the first Chechnyan war.

This is not an ad for an actual dementia care facility. The phone number listed, if dialed from within Russia, would connect you to the emergency line of the United States Embassy in Moscow.