Latest fact checks & sources

Pro-Russian social media accounts have been circulating an image of what they say is a Ukrainian postage stamp showing a Ukrainian veteran who fought alongside the Nazis in World World II. It turns out, however, that this isn”t a real stamp.

Postmortem changes refer to various processes that occur in a body after death producing a variety of effects. These changes can be divided into early and late time periods, the latter represented by decomposition, however the entire process represents a continuum. While the sequence of events can be predicted, many variables can influence the rate and extent of these alterations to the body, and so it is simply not possible to reliably estimate an accurate time of death (“postmortem interval”) based on these changes alone.

Posts sharing footage of an altercation in New York purport to show a security guard to President Volodymyr Zelensky starting a bar fight, in the latest example of fabricated Western media reports spreading anti-Ukrainian messaging. USA Today, whose logo appears in the clip, told AFP it did not publish the report and both the New York Police Department (NYPD) and the bar where the incident allegedly occurred also refuted the claim.

Agenda item 1: The Russian Federation’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine: Atrocities discovered in the Kyiv liberated region.

Footage of a large demonstration in Montreal is being misrepresented in posts that claim the protesters took to the streets to voice anger over Canada’s support for Ukraine. In fact, the clip shows a march coordinated by four unions seeking higher wages in contract negotiations with the provincial government in Quebec.

The Kremlin accuses Ukraine of issuing a national stamp with the face of 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka, a Canadian-Ukrainian soldier who served in a Nazi military unit during World War II and was wrongfully honoured in the Canadian parliament last week with a standing ovation. We tell you more in this edition of Truth or Fake.

Claim: In early October 2023, thousands of Ukrainian soldiers surrendered to Russia. Rating: Unfounded

If the U.S. government shuts down, American civil servants will, indeed, suffer a pause in paychecks that will have been caused by a lack of action in the present congressional session. The fact that Ukrainian workers will get paid during this time period is thanks, however, to congressional action in previous sessions of Congress.

A fabricated video edited in the social media style of American media outlet USA Today claims a member of the Ukrainian delegation provoked a drunken bar fight in New York during President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to the US, before being detained by police. However, in this edition of Truth or Fake, Vedika Bahl uses geolocation tools to verify that the “brawl” images were filmed around 18 kilometres away from the alleged site. Both USA Today and the New York police dismissed the reports as fake.

Christie claimed Biden said “a small invasion [of Ukraine] wouldn’t be so bad.” In a White House press conference about a month before Russia launched its attack on Ukraine, Biden said: “Russia will be held accountable” for an invasion, but the U.S. response would depend on what Russia did.

The European Union Commission has declared X (formerly known as Twitter) to have the largest ratio of misinformation posts.

Social media users are claiming a video was showing Volodymyr Zelenskyy belly dancing. But the viral clip of the Ukrainian president is not genuine, it was manipulated – and shows somebody else.

Social media posts claim photos show Oleksiy Reznikov partying on a yacht in the South of France days after leaving his post as defense minister of Ukraine. This is false; the image was taken near Istanbul, Turkey, in February 2020, years prior to the war with Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was allegedly greeted by a Times Square billboard proclaiming “Glory to Urine”, rather than “Glory to Ukraine”, upon his visit to New York for a UN summit last week. While the users sharing this information claim that this was a typo by the billboard company, we prove that this is actually a fabricated video in this edition of Truth or Fake.

True. The speaker of Canada’s House of Commons, Anthony Rota, issued a public apology, claiming he was unaware of the full extent of Hunka’s wartime affiliations when he made the acknowledgment.

The European Union will launch a new platform to counter disinformation campaigns by Russia and China amid growing worries, EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said today. A so-called Information Sharing and Analysis Center within the EU’s foreign services —the European External Action Service (EEAS) — will seek to track information manipulation by foreign actors and coordinate with the 27 EU countries and the wider community of NGOs. “We need to understand how these disinformation campaigns are organized … to identify the actors of the manipulation,” said Borrell.

As an open source researcher you often cover data or footage that is highly contested and ethically difficult. Director of Research and Training Giancarlo Fiorella has written a guide to navigating ethical dilemmas in our field.

China should tread carefully when it comes to spreading disinformation and cyberattacks to help Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, European Union digital chief Věra Jourová said Monday. […] “I have stated that we consider how China interacts with Russia’s war against Ukraine to be a determining factor for EU-China relations going forward. This includes of course aspects relating to cybersecurity, and disinformation,” Jourová said in a statement to POLITICO after the EU-China High-Level Digital Dialogue.

A video shared across social media appears to show a New York City digital billboard displaying Volodymyr Zelensky’s face and text that says, “Glory to Urine” as the Ukrainian president visited the United States in September 2023. But the clip is doctored; the company that owns the sign told AFP it has run no such message.

A video shared across social media appears to show a New York City digital billboard displaying Volodymyr Zelensky’s face and text that says, “Glory to Urine” as the Ukrainian president visited the United States in September 2023. But the clip is doctored; the company that owns the sign told AFP it has run no such message.