These three videos have nothing to do with the clashes in Sudan

These three videos have nothing to do with the clashes in Sudan

Fighting between the army and paramilitary forces has wracked Sudan since April 15, resulting in civilian casualties due to bombings, gunfire, and other forms of deadly violence. In the midst of this crisis, various social media posts are claiming to document events in Sudan using videos as evidence. However, some of these videos have been taken out of context, and may not accurately represent the situation on the ground.

If you only have a minute

Since mid-April, posts shared on WhatsApp and Twitter in several languages are claiming to document the fighting in Sudan in photos and videos. Three videos in particular have gone viral.
The FRANCE 24 Observers team examined these images, looking at visual clues and carrying out reverse image searches, to determine their real origins. Each of these three videos were taken out of context.
One was filmed in Ethiopia in June 2022, during a documented massacre. The second is as old as August 2022, when it was first shared on social networks. And the third actually shows bombings in Yemen in June 2020.

The fact-check, in detail

The situation in Sudan is indeed dire, with the ongoing conflict exacerbating an already fragile healthcare system. The fighting between the Sudanese army and paramilitary forces has caused significant damage to hospitals and medical facilities, with many declared out of service. The violence has also resulted in numerous deaths and injuries, with the UN reporting at least 459 people killed and more than 4,000 wounded.

The violence is not limited to Khartoum and Darfur, with reports of clashes and violence in other parts of the country as well. The impact of the conflict on the civilian population, including access to basic necessities such as food, water, and medicine, is significant and ongoing.

However, the following three videos – which have been shared widely online – have nothing to do with the current violence shaking Sudan.

A video shot in Ethiopia

On Friday, April 21, several readers sent us these extremely violent images, which have been circulating on WhatsApp groups in Kenya. They allegedly show members of the Sudanese army beating a dozen civilians to death.

Images provided to the FRANCE 24 Observers team via WhatsApp. © Observers

In the video, which was viewed nearly 70,000 times on Twitter (warning, disturbing images), uniformed men whip people to the ground, beat them with sticks, kick them in the face and throw stones at them.

The person who posted the tweet describes himself as “America’s most experienced combat correspondent” and said that a friend shared the video with him.

The FRANCE 24 Observers team has chosen not to publish the video in its entirety, due to its shocking nature.

Screenshot taken from Twitter on April 25, 2023. © Observers

However, this video was not taken in Sudan, but rather neighbouring Ethiopia. We determined this from a number of visual clues.

If you pause and zoom in on several frames of the image, you can clearly identify the brand of bottled water in the hand of one soldier. “One”, “natural purified water”, it reads.

Here, we compare the screenshot of the video taken from Twitter with an image of “One” brand bottled water. © Observers

The brand is owned by an Ethiopian company whose production site is based a few kilometres from the capital, Addis Ababa.

“The factory is located in the heart of Sebeta, South west of Addis Ababa. […] having 6 production lines with a manufacturing capacity of 120,000 Bottles Per Hour (BPH),” the group’s website states.

Map showing the location of the One production plant, southwest of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

A second clue confirms that the scene is located in Ethiopia. In the video, a military uniform displays a flag with four colours: black, red, green and white. This is the flag of the Gambella region in southwest Ethiopia.

Here, we compared a screenshot of the video taken from Twitter with an image of the Gambela region and flag taken from Wikipedia. © Observers

Finally, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, a national human rights institution attached to the federal government, investigated the deadly violence documented in the video.

In a report provided to the FRANCE 24 Observers team, it states that these “human rights violations” caused the death of “at least 50 civilians in the town of Gambella by regional security forces between June 14 and 16, 2022”.

Helicopters filmed in 2022

Other images, posted in English on Twitter on April 15, the day the clashes in Sudan broke out, show several helicopters flying over Khartoum.

The caption accompanying the post, which has been viewed more than 400,000 times, reads: “Many military helicopters are actively flying in Sudan.”

Screenshot taken on Twitter on April 25, 2023. © Observers

The video is, however, several months old, according to a reverse image search conducted using the online software InVid WeVerify (click here to find out how).

Indeed, the images had already been posted on TikTok on August 14, 2022, long before the current tensions erupted. “Sudanese Air Force,” the caption on the TikTok post reads, in Arabic.

The video was posted on the 68th anniversary of the Sudanese Armed Forces and could show a simple military parade, although no caption explicitly mentions this.

Screenshot taken on TikTok (left) and on Twitter (right) on 25 April 2023. © Observers

We have not been able to find the original video, but the same images were also posted on Facebook on November 24, 2022, by a page broadcasting photos and videos of the Sudanese Armed Forces.

Screenshot taken on Facebook (left) and Twitter (right) on April 25, 2023. © Observers

A series of bombings filmed in Yemen

A video shared on Twitter on April 18, 2023 claims to show recent bombings in Sudan.

The video was posted by an account with more than 200,000 followers which describes itself as a relay for “Breaking news, reports, and opinions from ongoing clashes of the world”.

However, this conflict footage was not filmed in Sudan, but in Yemen, in June 2020. A pink banner at the bottom right of the screen gives us a clue. It reads: “@Ana_Al_Fahad”.

A keyword search helped us to find the original video posted on a YouTube channel of the same name. “Targeting Houthi leaders and operating rooms in Yemen,” reads the caption of the post, which is dated June 2, 2020.

Although it’s not clear who is behind this YouTube channel, its bio includes a link back to a pro-Saudi Twitter account featuring the Saudi flag and a photograph of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Saudi Arabia has been intervening militarily in Yemen since 2015 to support pro-government forces against the Houthis, Iranian-backed rebels who, in eight years of conflict, have seized large swathes of territory in the north and west of the country, the poorest on the Arabian Peninsula.

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#videos #clashes #Sudan

How fake media accounts in Afghanistan are used to push Taliban propaganda

Post By World Afghanistan, Asia / Pacific, Debunked, media, propaganda, Taliban

Since the Taliban took over control of Afghanistan in August 2021, numerous accounts mimicking or trying to present themselves as media outlets have popped up online. These fake accounts share content that appears to be authentic, often using the same graphic signature and style as the real media outlet. But on closer inspection, researchers from the NGO Afghan Witness found that their posts have no basis in reality and serve to undermine opposition groups in Afghanistan and clamp down on independent media.

Since December 2022, researchers at Afghan Witness – a human rights project dedicated to documenting and verifying events in Afghanistan – have identified several of these fake accounts and the messages they are trying to share. Their analysis centred on one fake Twitter account, @AF_Inter5, which presents itself as the news media Afghanistan International.

‘It will erode trust in the opposition movement’

Tom Stubbs, Senior Analyst for Information Operations at Afghan Witness, told the FRANCE 24 Observers more.

The content revolves around denigrating both Afghan International and opposition within Afghanistan. And a lot of the stories they were sharing weren’t backed up in any other media. Normally, when you have a news story from Afghanistan International or other news agencies, we can actually follow that up and we can understand the nature of what they’re saying is true. But what this fake account was doing was just made up.

The @AF_Inter5 account’s posts often extol the Taliban’s impact on Afghanistan, after the group reclaimed control of the country in August 2021.

One post, published on March 1 and viewed more than 57,000 times, claims that the former top-ranking army commander of the Republic of Afghanistan and former Deputy Interior Minister for Security, Khoshal Sadat, said that the arrival of the Taliban ended the Republic, as well as “espionage, nationalism and insurgency”.

However, there is no other record of this statement in English, Persian or Pashto-language media. And the image shared in this post dates back to 2020, before the Taliban took control of the country.

Posts also undermine the rival National Resistance Front (NRF), which constitutes the main organised resistance to Taliban control.

Another tweet, published on March 11 and viewed more than 20,000 times, claims that the leader of the NRF, Ahmad Massoud, told the New York Times that his organisation has close relations with the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP), a part of the Islamic State organisation active in Afghanistan.

A tweet published on March 11 claims that the leader of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan said that his group had close relations with the Islamic State organisation in the country. © Observers

However, Massoud has never been interviewed by the New York Times nor said that the NRF has a good relationship with ISKP. This claim serves to link Afghanistan’s self-proclaimed only legitimate resistance movement fighting for democracy with ISKP, a UN-designated terrorist organisation.

Another tweet claimed that an NRF commander had visited Israel to discuss bilateral goals, despite no other evidence in the media that this visit occurred.

Stubbs explained how this content reflects common Taliban talking points.

It will erode trust in the opposition movement because if people are believing what this fake account is saying about the opposition movement, they’ll believe that [the NRF] is dealing with Afghanistan’s enemies and people who want to destroy Afghanistan, that they’re dealing with the Islamic State. It really degrades people’s opinion of the NRF.

The narratives shared in this content also vary drastically from that which is shared by the real Afghanistan International, a media outlet which claims to “provide balanced, and impartial news, about all for all Afghans, including all voices from across the political, social and business sectors inside Afghanistan and around the world”, according to its website.

Afghanistan International is a UK-based broadcaster and media outlet that emerged from the parent company of Iran International when the Taliban took over Afghanistan. Iran International has been criticised for alleged ties to the Saudi state through its parent company funding, though the media outlet denies this.

Although the fake account had only 6,500 followers at the time of writing, its posts sometimes receive over 50,000 views and numerous comments and shares.

A poorly copied fake account

After noticing the traction that @AF_Inter5 had online, the Afghan Witness team began analysing its content and posting behaviours. It was immediately evident that the account was fake, thanks to several clear indicators on its page.

First, the account is not verified on Twitter, unlike the official Afghan International account, which is verified through Twitter Blue. The fake account has a different bio and email address – notably a Gmail address, and not a “@Afintl.com” address. And the account was created in November 2021, several months after the Taliban took over the country.

The fake account also has posted far fewer times than the real Afghanistan International account: 236 tweets versus 34,230 tweets on the real account.

Finally, the fake account’s cover photo shows a CNN newsroom, while the real account has an Afghanistan International graphic with text.

A comparison of the fake Afghanistan International account (left) and the real one (right). Afghan Witness © Afghan Witness

That being said, the account’s tweets look very convincing. They follow the same graphic formatting as the legitimate Afghanistan International’s breaking news tweets, with a logo and edited text on a photo.

An image posted by @AFIntlBrk, the real Afghanistan International Twitter account (on the left) and an image posted by @AF_Inter5 (on the right). © Afghan Witness

>> Read more on The Observers: How to investigate a Twitter account or suspicious tweets

According to the Account Analysis tool, which allows you to see statistics about a Twitter account’s posting patterns, @AF_Inter5 tends to post between 6:30am and 8:30pm Afghanistan time – certainly not a 24/7 outlet as it claims.

A comparison of the posting behaviours for the fake Afghan International account (above) and the real account (below), which posts 24/7. All times indicated are in GMT+1. © Observers

All of @AF_Inter5’s posts were posted on Twitter for Android, which could point to it being run by an individual or group of individuals who are supportive of the Taliban. In contrast, the real Afghan International account posts from Twitter’s web client, Tweetdeck, and several social media clients – more typical of a newsroom social media outlet managed by several staff members.

Contacted by the FRANCE 24 Observers team, the media outlet Afghanistan International confirmed that they are not at all affiliated with the @AF_Inter5 account and “have been trying to take it down for some time without much luck”.

‘The Taliban are trying to change the media environment in Afghanistan into a Taliban promotion machine’

Stubbs says the Afghan Witness has no indication that those posting on @AF_Inter5 are part of the Taliban. Nonetheless, the account typifies several important aspects of the Taliban’s online propaganda campaign.

We’re seeing that the Taliban are labelling Afghanistan International as fake news when they publish stories that criticise the Taliban. And they are incredibly quick to jump on news stories that they feel are unfair. And so having these fake accounts really chimes into the wider information operation that the Taliban is trying to create – they’re trying to erode trust away from independent news sources.

The information environment within the country is being eroded at such a massive rate. The official news sources that people can trust are diminishing. So it just means that there’s going to be one less source that people can look for. The Taliban are trying to change the media environment in Afghanistan into a Taliban promotion machine rather than a free and independent media, as was prior to August 2021. What we’re seeing is effectively a revolutionary movement trying to rapidly erode a free media environment in a way that’s never really done in the world before. Quite often restrictions on the press are gradual, but what the Taliban are doing is incredibly rapid.

Online propaganda operations are nothing new for the Taliban, and many believe they were key to helping the group regain control of the Afghan territory.

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#fake #media #accounts #Afghanistan #push #Taliban #propaganda

Why you shouldn’t fall for these videos of electrically charged stones from the DRC

Post By World Africa, Debunked, Democratic Republic of Congo

Did someone really discover rocks capable of generating electricity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)? That’s what some people have been claiming after seeing two videos that have been circulating on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp since January 21, 2023. However, our team spoke to several geologists who cast doubt on these videos. While some rocks can conduct electricity, none can create it, they said.

If you only have a minute…

Two videos that allegedly show “electrically charged stones discovered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo” have been circulating since January 20, 2023 on social networks like Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp. In the video, it looks like the rocks alone are capable of lighting up a lamp or creating a spark.
Our team spoke to several geologists who all said that no rocks can generate electricity by themselves.
However, they did say that it is possible that the stone in the video is pyrite, a metallic stone that can conduct an electrical current, perhaps generated by another source of energy located off-screen.

The fact-check, in detail

It’s “a revolutionary discovery“, or so say two videos that have been circulating since January 20, 2023 on Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp claiming that stones able to generate electricity have been unearthed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A number of readers sent our team these videos, asking us to investigate.

The first video, which garnered more than 12 million views shows a man touching two ends of a wire to a stone. A tiny lightbulb connected to the wire then lights up.

The second video, which has garnered more than two million views, shows someone striking two stones together and creating a spark.

Many people who shared the videos said the stones could possibly become future energy sources for the country.

“Some experts are saying two stones can power a two-bedroom [home] for two months with the electrical energy,” says this tweet. Another user wrote that the stones could be a “game-changer”: “who knows, those stones might turn out to be the energy to drive vehicles, planes, trains, and even the supply of light, in future [sic].”

A number of people also shared these videos along with calls for Western powers to stop stealing the continent’s resources.

“Stop letting others come in and get rich off your land, #export precious metals to the world yourselves dammit!” wrote this user.

As for the stones in question, some users (like this one or this one, for example) called it “vibranium”, a stone that appears in the fictitious works set in the Marvel Universe, like “Black Panther”. It is said to come from the imaginary kingdom of Wakanda and can apparently absorb energy.

Unknown origins of the videos

According to some users, these stones were discovered in Manono, a town located in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There’s actually been a conflict playing out in the area between the Congolese government and a mining company around the exploitation of a lithium deposit.

In the first video, you can hear people speaking Swahili, which is one of the official languages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The second video appears in a Facebook post shared on November 24, 2022 by Mohammed Premier d’Oujda University in Morocco. “Lithium?” reads the caption.

However, there is no information in the video that allows us to determine where the videos were filmed. For the time being, no one has traveled to the area named in some of the posts to determine the veracity of the claims.

What makes this all the more complicated is that other accounts have said the stones are from different places. This post, shared on January 21, 2023, says that the stones were discovered by the Munyati river in Zimbabwe.

Is it possible these energy-generating rocks are real?

Our team spoke to five different geologists. All five said they didn’t think there was any chance of a stone generating electricity like the ones shown in the videos.

“There’s no material on earth that can generate electricity by itself,” said Samuel Angiboust, a geologist at the École normale supérieure university in Lyon, France.

“If a stone receives an electrical charge, then it will lose that charge, just like a battery slowly loses its charge. A stone can’t keep recharging itself,” says Alexandre Schubnel, the director of the geology lab at the École normale supérieure university in Paris.

Batteries have a positive and a negative terminal which create a chemical reaction needed to create an electrical current. However, stones don’t have the same make-up and thus can’t produce a current.

There are only a few very specific cases when materials can generate electricity.

“Some crystals have piezoelectrical properties [Editor’s note: piezoelectricity is the electrical charge that can accumulate in some solid materials]. For example, quartz can be used as a source of electricity in watches. However, the crystal needs to be under applied mechanical stress in order to generate a current, which is extremely low tension and wouldn’t create a spark like shown in the videos,” says Samuel Angiboust.

Stones that conduct electricity

Some stones, however, can conduct electricity. And several experts hypothesised that this is what is actually happening in the videos.

Samuel Angiboust says that the stone in the video might be pyrite, a metal-rich mineral also known as “fool’s good”. Pyrite can’t produce electricity, but it is a very good conductor.

While the video makes it look like the current is coming from the stone, a stone like pyrite would actually only be able to conduct the current.

Several geologists pointed out that the light you see in the second video looks like something you might see during arc welding, a welding process used to join metal to metal by using electricity to create enough heat to melt both metals. When they cool, they are then bound together.

You can see in the video that the person handling the stones is wearing thick gloves, perhaps to protect themselves from the heat generated in this process.

In the second video shared since January 20, 2022, the presence of a glove and a strong spark can suggest that the phenomenon filmed is similar to that triggered in the case of arc welding. © Observers

But where is the real source of current located then? The specialists who we contacted said that there might be a battery hidden inside the rock or in the hands of the person handling the rocks.

The geologists we interviewed noted that the entire video is filmed as a close shot, which means that it is quite possible for something to be happening off-camera or away from our field of vision.

Our colleagues at the BBC also studied these videos, as well as another one filmed in Zimbabwe and came to similar conclusions, pointing out several discrepancies in the videos.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is sometimes called a “geological scandal” because of its richness in mineral resources. The nation is the leading global producer of cobalt and the leading producer of copper on the African continent.

However, this richness does little to help most Congolese people as the country’s mining code is very advantageous to foreign investors.

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#shouldnt #fall #videos #electrically #charged #stones #DRC

Did Volodymyr Zelensky call for ‘preventive nuclear strikes’ against Russia? Not exactly

Post By World Debunked, Europe, putin, Russia, Ukraine, War

Issued on: 10/02/2023 – 17:24

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.

If you only have a minute:

Far-right Twitter accounts have been sharing a video of Volodymyr Zelensky speaking in Ukrainian. According to the English subtitles on the speech, Zelensky is calling on NATO to “launch preventive strikes against Russia” and “use nuclear weapons”. These accounts said the footage was evidence of a risk of “nuclear war.”
The video also circulated in French-language accounts and was even shared by a French senator.
Turns out, however, this footage isn’t new. It was actually recorded on October 6, 2022 – and Zelensky’s comments did create a bit of a stir. However, the subtitles on the video that has been circulating recently are a little off, making Zelensky’s words sound even more menacing than the reality.

The fact-check, in detail

Twitter accounts with links to the American far right started circulating footage of comments made by Volodymyr Zelensky on February 2. These social media users believed that the Ukrainian president was calling for NATO to launch preventive nuclear strikes against Russia. The post below was shared more than 38,000 times.

This American Twitter user with links to the far right spread the theory that Zelensky was calling for “preventive nuclear strikes”. © Twitter

Twitter users in France also circulated the video and the theory that Zelensky was calling for NATO to launch pre-emptive nuclear strikes on Russia. French essayist Laurent Ozon’s post featuring the video was shared nearly 350,000 times.

French essayist Laurent Ozon said in this post that he believed this video showed President Zelensky calling on NATO to carry out nuclear strikes on Russia. © Twitter/@LaurentOzon

“They can use nuclear weapons on Russia,” read the subtitles on the video of Zelensky’s speech, given in Ukrainian, after he is asked what he’d like to see NATO do.

“We need to eliminate the possibility that Russia will use nuclear strikes,” the subtitles read.

Old footage and inexact translations

If you type “Zelenskyy preventive strikes” into Google, then one of the first things that comes up is an article published by Politico on October 7, 2022.

The article says that Zelensky participated in a discussion at the Lowy Institute, an Australian think tank. During that discussion, Zelensky said through an interpreter that NATO should take “preventive strikes”, before the interpreter corrected himself to say “preventive action”.

With this information, we tracked down a video of the event posted by the Lowy Institute. We also looked at the video shared by the office of the Ukrainian president and it turns out that the excerpt that has been circulating online since February 2, 2023 came from this original video. The clip that has been circulating online starts just after the 22-minute mark.

We found the excerpt that has been circulating online in this video, posted by the office of the Ukrainian president, at 22:01.

The president participated in a discussion with the Lowy Institute on October 6, 2022. This means the footage isn’t from February, as the recent posts claim.

This video was posted on the Ukrainian president’s YouTube channel on October 6, 2022, nearly four months before an excerpt of this video popped up again and started circulating online. © Observateurs

The FRANCE 24 Observers team also consulted with the Ukrainian-language team at RFI. The team said that the subtitles on the video weren’t quite accurate.

The interviewer asks Zelensky what more he would like NATO to do to deter Russia.

Zelensky doesn’t say that “they could use nuclear arms against Russia”. What he actually says is that they should “prevent Russia from using nuclear weapons”.

Essentially, he says the opposite of what the subtitles indicate.

Zelensky’s ambiguous statements

But that isn’t the only statement that created a bit of a stir during this interview.

“What’s important and I have to underline it once again in my statements to the international community, preventative strikes… preventative action so that Russia would… knew what would happen to them and not in return, I mean, waiting for the nuclear strikes first.”

In the video posted by the Lowy Institute (at 25:30), you can hear the interpreter correct himself. He starts by saying “preventive strikes” before correcting himself, saying “preventive action”. However, the Ukrainian word that Zelensky uses, удари, does mean strikes.

So what did the Ukrainian president mean? At one point he mentions the period “before February 24”. That would mean the time before Russia invaded Ukraine.

While the president’s word choice is confusing, it is possible that he meant using economic or diplomatic sanctions to dissuade Russia from using its nuclear weapons.

That’s the interpretation taken by a number of Ukrainian officials, including Zelensky’s adviser Mykhailo Podolyak. Podolyak was interviewed by a Ukrainian media outlet on October 6, 2022.

“Zelensky was referring to Russia’s nuclear threats and suggesting that the world should make clear the consequences for Russia [if they do use nuclear weapons] and intensify strikes against the Russian Federation, like sanctions and providing armed assistance [to Ukraine].”

Back in October, Russian authorities did criticise Zelensky’s choice of words, believing they were a call to strike Russia. Dmitri Peskov, spokesperson for the Kremlin, said that Zelensky’s words were a call to “kick off a global war with disastrous and impossible-to-predict consequences”.

In summary, this footage doesn’t show Ukrainian President Zelensky calling on NATO to strike Russia using nuclear weapons in 2023. The footage is from 2022 and the translation isn’t accurate; it makes his statements seem more threatening.

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#Volodymyr #Zelensky #call #preventive #nuclear #strikes #Russia

How Russian propaganda units are broadcasting fake Polish TV reports

Post By World Debunked, Europe, freedom of the press, News, Poland, Russia, Ukraine

Issued on: 23/01/2023 – 18:12Modified: 23/01/2023 – 18:26

Did a Polish news channel really broadcast a weather map showing Poland expanding into Ukrainian territory? Or the TV report on how the Polish army was creating an LGBT paramilitary unit? Both of these video reports do feature the logo of a Polish public broadcaster. But there are a lot of clues that make it pretty clear that these ‘reports’ are fake.

If you only have a minute:

An image showing what seems to be a weather report broadcast on Polish TV channel TVP 1 has been circulating on social media since January 17, 2023. On the map, Poland seems to have grown massively, expanding into Ukrainian territory.
However, there are a few spelling errors on the map that make it seem like the person who created it doesn’t speak Polish. Moreover, the map doesn’t use the same font or graphics as other weather reports on TVP 1. And the presenter actually works for another TV channel.
Social media users have also been circulating a second video report that also supposedly aired on TVP 1: this one announcing that the Polish army is creating an LGBT paramilitary unit.
TVP 1 has said that they didn’t broadcast either of these reports. Polish authorities have blamed Russia for trying to incite fear by making people think that Poland is entering the war.

The fact-check, in detail

The image that has been circulating online shows a TV presenter standing in front of a weather map featuring several countries in Eastern Europe.

The image, which has been shared more than 300 times on Twitter, might seem banal at first glance – until you take a closer look at the map. Poland has grown, extending past its official boarder and into western Ukraine. The Ukrainian region around Lviv appears to be part of Poland.

“During the weather report on Polish television, western Ukraine seems to have become part of Poland,” says this social media user in French in a tweet posted on January 17, 2023. You can see the TVP 1 logo in the upper right corner. TVP 1 is the main channel run by Telewizja Polska, the Polish public broadcaster.

A comparison between the map of Europe on this newscast and the real map of Europe. Observers

“Will Zelensky react? Of course not. But try to draw Russia there…This is the answer to the question: are the Nazis patriots? No, they just hate Russia [sic],” says this tweet, in broken English.

“The allegedly Ukrainian allies have a great appetite,” reads this tweet. The story was also published on several pro-Russian media accounts like Gazeta and Kherson News.

Spelling errors

However, there are a few clues indicating that this sequence was never actually broadcast on Polish television.

As several accounts noted in comments on these tweets, the names of the countries are written without Polish diacritics (glyphs added to letters that indicate a different pronunciation like Ł, Ó, Ą, Ę, Ś ou Ć).

So, for example, on the map, Slovakia is labelled SLOWACJA. However, the correct spelling in Polish is SŁOWACJA. Similarly, BIALORUS should be BIAŁORUŚ. These spelling errors make it likely that someone who doesn’t speak Polish made the map.

Different graphics and a presenter from a different channel

The second clue is that the font used on the map as well as the graphics look nothing like the weather maps that you’d usually see on TVP 1.

A comparison between the weather report on TVP 1 (left, taken from it's September 30, 2022 broadcast) and the images shared online (right). — A comparison between the weather report on TVP 1 (left, taken from it’s September 30, 2022 broadcast) and the images shared online (right). © Observers

And the woman seen presenting the weather here is indeed a meteorologist… but for another channel called Trwam. Trwam is based in the Polish city of Torun and is run by a Catholic foundation.

The image that has been circulating online was likely created by photo shopping a weather forecast broadcast on Trwam in March 2020 that you can watch on YouTube, as reported by Polish media outlet Wirtualnemedia. The presenter is wearing the same dress and nail polish in this clip. It seems like the image was just flipped.

A comparison between the Trwam weather forecast on March 7, 2020 and the image shared online. Observers

In an article published on January 18, 2023, TVP indicated that the image of the weather report that has been circulating online is false.

“A graphic like that was never on TVP and the Telewizja Polska logo was simply stuck on,” the article says. The channel says that this image was likely created in order to “convince the Russian public of theories propagated by Moscow.”

Fake TV report

Recently, there’s also been another image falsely attributed to the same Polish TV channel circulating online.

The image shows a report appearing on a TV screen. The report is about the “creation of an LGBT paramilitary unit” within the Polish Army, according to this post in English, which garnered more than 350 likes.

The video features several sequences of Polish soldiers marching. Once again, you can see the TVP 1 logo. This time, it is both on the bottom left and the upper right of the screen.

The video was shared in both French and Polish, as well.

The France 24 Observers team did not find where this footage was first broadcast. However, the Polish public broadcaster said that the report had been created and its logo added, along with a false banner.

Russian propaganda reacts to news that Poland is sending tanks to Ukraine

Russian propaganda often targets Poland. In an interview in the Polish newspaper PAP from January 18, 2023, Stanislaw Zaryn, Secretary of State at the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland, spoke about this rampant disinformation.

He said that one of the Kremlin’s disinformation campaigns was aimed at “frightening people with the idea of Poland entering into the war and the possible consequences.”

In the same article, Zaryn also said that Russia is trying to undermine Poland’s image by presenting the country wrongly as an opportunistic state aiming to take some of the Ukrainian territory.

The aim, Zaryn says, is to psychologically prepare the Russian public for a long-term war and new waves of mobilization and to increase the investment of Russian troops in the war on Ukraine.

While this propaganda isn’t new, it looks like some recent news caused Russians to double down on it.

“The news that Leopard tanks had been transferred from Poland to Ukraine […] prompted a strong response by Russian propaganda,” Zaryn wrote on January 13, 2023 on Twitter.

On January 11, 2023, during a meeting with the Ukrainian and Lithuanian presidents, Polish president Andrzej Duda promised to provide German-made Leopard tanks to Ukraine and to create an “international coalition” to aid this transfer.

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#Russian #propaganda #units #broadcasting #fake #Polish #reports

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