Following the emergence of the Russia-Ukraine war, fabricated videos under the name of various well-known media outlets have been periodically circulating on social media, which mainly concern the developments in Ukraine and the West. “Myth Detector” and other fact-checking organizations identified 4 videos with the same characteristics; All of them share one main common feature – the authors used the logos of reputable English-language media outlets to spread disinformation by making the videos look like their stories. The video fabrications were distributed on behalf of USA Today, The Times of Israel, and, in two cases, Euronews. The exact source of the false information is sometimes unknown, but the videos were distributed mainly through Russian media and Telegram channels.
Although the authors of false claims try to make the continent visually identical to the content published by foreign media outlets, there are several ways that help us recognize video fabrications. The videos have several similarities – for instance, they all use music and do not feature the author’s voice, although the media whose logos the authors of the video fabrications use do not use this technique and publish videos with voiceovers. In addition, most of the video fabrications are composed of general shots and we do not hear the comments of the eyewitnesses or representatives of the official agencies, which is another sign hinting at the fabricated nature of the content. In addition, there are general shots in the videos that have no connection to the specific story. When it comes to videofabrications, we may also encounter factual inaccuracies and grammatical errors.
Identified Videofabrications and their sources of dissemination
Fabricated videos were actively distributed by Russian-language social media accounts. The following cases of video fabrications have been identified by “Myth Detector” and other fact-checking organizations:
- In September 2023, false information was disseminated under the name of USA Today, as if a member of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s bodyguard got into a fight in a New York bar, after which he was arrested. The fabricated story, based on the Russian Gazeta.ru, was distributed by Russian-language websites. The next day, the video was disseminated by Georgian-language Facebook accounts and pages.
- In October 2022, Russian-language propaganda media disseminated false information that an auction of Russian works of art was to be held in Germany in support of Ukraine, after which it was planned to burn the sold works. In this case too, the video, which was used to spread false information, had the logo of Euronews.
- In November 2023, the name and logo of Euronews were used in a video fabrication, the author of which claimed that a Ukrainian citizen who worked as a security guard at a Paris museum had been arrested for damaging one of the sculptures while imitating a sexual act. The earliest version of the video can be found on the Telegram channel Арбалет Говорит, owned by Ivan Kondakov.
- Vladimir Solovyov, a face of Kremlin propaganda, was among those spreading disinformation aimed at discrediting Ukrainians. In November, Solovyov released a fabricated video under the name of The Times of Israel, alleging that Israeli citizens were being contacted by Ukrainian fraudsters, pretending to be from a bank and asking them to transfer money to a “secure account” because of the Hamas attack. The video fabrication was actively spread on Russian Telegram channels as well.
Accordingly, some of the video fabrications, which use the logos of English-language media outlets, lead to Russian-speaking actors. The original source of some is unknown, although they are actively distributed by Russian propaganda accounts and websites. In order to determine whether a video really belongs to the media whose logo is used in it, we need to check their official pages. In addition to the fact that none of the above videos were found on the official pages of Euronews, The Times of Israel, and USA Today, by searching for information and the name of the media, in some cases we came across a statement from the said media, in which they deny that they prepared material of similar content. For example, the distribution of the video was denied by USA Today, Euronews, and The Times of Israel in a comment to Gwara Media.
The shots used in the video
In addition to the Russian-language sources, similar types of fabricated stories use general clips cut from various videos. When we watch the video, we find that the footage is thematically appropriate, for example, when talking about the arrest of a criminal by the police, footage of a police car is used, although the videos are general and not related to a specific case. For example, in a video in which the author claimed that a member of Zelenskyy’s bodyguards got into a fight in a bar, viewers could see footage of a fight, although it was impossible to identify the specific individuals because the faces were covered and the video was shot from a distance. Using geolocation, “Myth Detector” verified the location of the fight, the footage of which was included in the video. The footage showed Quentin Road and the sign for Joe-Joe’s Bar, which, as we found out later, moved to another street on January 1, 2023. Also, according to the photo we obtained, the sign was removed and Shaurma Factory was opened in its place. Consequently, Joe-Joe’s bar sign could not be included in the September 2023 video. It is also worth noting that the bar The Campbell, in which, according to the authors of the video fabrication, the fight took place, is located away from Quentin Road.
The video, which claimed that a Ukrainian national had damaged a sculpture in the museum, used photos of the sculpture, but nowhere does it appear to have been damaged. And while searching for footage of the person who, according to the video, is a citizen of Ukraine, we found out that the footage of the arrest was taken in Russia in 2021, and the detainee was accused of murdering a “thief in law”.
Another video, verified by Gwara Media, which claims Israeli citizens were being contacted by “Ukrainian fraudsters” and fraudulently transferred money, uses some generic footage – footage of the Israeli capital, Tel Aviv, an ATM video from Shutterstock, as well as a video, which was taken near Mizrahi tefahot, one of the banks in Israel. In addition, we see a shot of police officers, which can be found on social media as early as 2017.
As for the video, which talks about the auction held in Germany and the burning of works of art, in this case, the footage is taken from the videos of exhibitions held in the past.
The music of the videos
A common feature of the video fabrications discussed above is the used music. In all the discussed videos, the footage is captioned, but there is no voice of the author who would talk about the incident – instead, we only hear music. It is worth noting that in the materials prepared by Euronews and USA Today on various topics, along with the titles, we hear a voice that narrates the text (1;2).
In addition, in videos of similar content published by the media, interviews, and comments of representatives of agencies or specific individuals on the topic under discussion are often used. In the video fabrications, we only hear assertions, without evaluations and comments of other persons.
Inaccuracies
It should be noted that in similar videos we often find inaccuracies – for example, in the first frame of the video about the auction, according to the authors, we should see the German city of Bremen, but in reality, the inserted video shows the city of Münster. AFP wrote about this detail in a fact-checking article.
In addition, in the video fabrication about Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s bodyguard, the author claims that the fight took place at The Campbell bar, which is located near the United Nations building in New York. In the credits of the video we find the phrase – “UN’s New York offices” – it should be noted that in this particular case, the English speaker would use the name “UN headquarters”, which is also used by USA Today. Ukrainian fact-checking organization StopFake drew attention to the mentioned phrase, which also prepared material on a fabricated video related to Zelenskyy’s defense.
In similar cases, when false information is being disseminated on social networks, fact-checking organizations use various tools, for example, the Pimeyes photo search tool to identify people, as well as the search tools “reverse image search” and “InVID” to determine what does the video depict and when was the image distributed. However, in addition to the use of the mentioned tools, by observing the characteristics listed above, we can also assume that we may be dealing with a video fabrication.
