"Ukrainians 🇺🇦 in the World Cup of Qatar 🇶🇦 arrested for spreading Nazi symbols."
This "report from Al Jazeera" gets 391K views on Telegram. 😲
Fake or real? Let's investigate!🧵👇1/...
#OSINT🔎
#Verification 📽️
#GeoLocation 🌍
#HowToOSINT 🧐
#WorldcupQatar2022 ⚽️
"Three drunken Ukrainian supporters were arrested in Qatar. The reason? They made a Nazi salute and vandalised posters at the Al Bayt stadium by drawing a Hitler moustache on the World Cup mascot La'eeb. When arrested, they showed no resistance."
Source: @AlJazeera Really? 🤔2/
@AlJazeera The video features Al Jazeera's official logo 👆, has high quality and looks professionally made.
Any video on aljazeera.com (right) has an almost identical layout to the video circulating on social media (left). 3/...
@AlJazeera BUT on Al Jazeera's site, we find no trace of the news of the Ukrainian fans allegedly being arrested. 🤨
We find no trace of this on other (sports) news sites either. 🤨🤨 4/...
@AlJazeera Are the images in the report real?
We take a screenshot when we see football supporters at a stadium. We upload that screenshot to Google Lens.
According to that search engine, we see the Al Bayt stadium in Qatar 🟥. 5/...
@AlJazeera If we compare a live report by Sky News from 20 November at that stadium (left) with the viral video (right), we see the same inscriptions about the World Cup 🟨, the same striking trees 🟩 and the distinctive architecture of the Al Bayt Stadium 🟥. 6/...
@AlJazeera We conclude from this 👆 that the viral reportage does indeed use recent footage from Qatar. 🇶🇦📍
BUT these are general background images that can be found in many news reports.
They do NOT specifically show the news: the alleged arrest of the Ukrainian fans. 7/...
Ukrainian fans 🇺🇦 do appear in the video, BUT after a reverse search using Yandex, it turns out those Ukrainian fans already appear in a photo used on 4 February 2022 on a Russian sports site 🟥.
The photo in the report therefore predates the World Cup in Qatar. ❌8/...
The alleged arrest is also featured in the report (left).
We cannot trace the origin of that footage, but a specific feature on the officer's uniform 🟨 does not match the uniforms used by Qatari security forces during the World Cup (right). ❌ 9/...
Whether the footage of the arrest is effectively from Qatar is questionable. 👆
Moreover, the people being arrested are blurred. 👇Impossible to verify whether they are Ukrainian football fans.❌10/...
A remarkable image from the report is the vandalism allegedly done by Ukrainians to the World Cup mascot, La'eeb. 👻
We see a Hitler moustache and "Sieg Heil".
A closer look at this scene reveals that it is NOT a video recording, but a still photo that is animated. 11/...
A photograph is easier to manipulate than moving images.
I analysed 👇 this with @hannesmar1: "Our analysis gives an indication that the part of the photo with "Sieg Heil" may have been manipulated."
Probably the German text was added to the original photo afterwards. ❌12/...
@hannesmar1 We submit our findings to Al Jazeera. ❌❌❌
Their spokesperson Ihtisham Hibatullah responds: "Your conclusion that the video is completely fake is correct. Al Jazeera has never published this video or any other material related to it." 13/...
@hannesmar1 CONCLUSION:
➡️ The reportage turns out to be FAKE.
➡️ It contains old and manipulated footage.
➡️ Al Jazeera's layout was mimicked and Al Jazeera denies it has anything to do with the fake report. 14/...
@hannesmar1 What have we learned? 👩🏫
1) Always check different sources. If "news" is only news in ONE video, it's probably untrue. 🚫
2) Be aware of manipulated photos in video. 🖌️
3) Contact the "original source", which may have nothing to do with the report. 📧 14/...
@hannesmar1 You can read my full article with all sources used here (@Knack) for FREE.👇15/16
knack.be/factcheck/fact…
@hannesmar1 @Knack Did you learn something from this #OSINT for #FactChecking?
Follow me (@brechtcastel) and check out my channel on #YouTube: youtube.com/channel/UCMBPt… 🙏
Older 🧵🧵underneath this tweet: 16/END
UPDATE: After my investigation @AlJazeera also made a public statement. 👇
UPDATE 1: The Russian embassy 🇷🇺 in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 also shared the fake report on Twitter. ❌
UPDATE 2: Also on Chinese 🇨🇳 social medium Weibo this fake video was spread widely. ❌
(Thanks for letting me know, @alecchan321)
UPDATE 3: @Draenorian (follow him!) found the original footage of the "arrest". It's 8 years old from a Alryyan TV:
Here's how it was discoverd:
It took a lot of hours research to find it. Persistence is key in OSINT! 🙏
@Draenorian UPDATE 4: @InfoIntoxF24 picked up this investigation for 🇫🇷 national 📺.👇
Grand merci à @AnthoSaintLeger et @lisabeaujour. 🙏
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