Thread by @bellingcat

Over the last few days we have identified several videos which claims to show that Beirut was hit by a missile.

In @N_waters89’s latest article we examine these videos.

Spoiler: none of them show a real missile.

bellingcat.com/news/mena/2020…

This example is possibly the most egregious and lazy.

Someone has taken a genuine video of the catastrophe and simply edited in a fake cartoon missile into a couple of frames.

In this example someone has done something similar by editing in missiles to genuine footage. They have also changed the videos to “negatives” in an attempt to make this deception more difficult to spot.

Once again, when you examine these videos in detail, it become clear the missile is some kind of clip art added in after the video was filmed.

We have also seen at least two examples of birds being mistaken for missiles.

For various reasons, not least that missiles generally don’t flap, it’s clear these videos are being misrepresented as showing something they do not.

Finally there is the question of the reported sound of jets over Beirut.

This is clearly not an invention or misinformation: multiple people across the city reported a sound similar to jets. However, no jets visibly feature in any open sources we have examined.

We believe an explanation to this could be the nature of the fire, which gained in intensity & power before a series of explosions, creating a load roaring noise for several seconds.

@AuroraIntel noticed this & synced two videos showing this in action.

https://twitter.com/AuroraIntel/status/1291393971558719488?s=20

Ultimately it is clear that some actors are already trying to create fake or misleading videos in an attempt manipulate viewers.

You can read our full report below.
bellingcat.com/news/mena/2020…