Brecht Castel Profile picture
Jan 21, 2022 β€’ 16 tweets β€’ 11 min read β€’ Read on X
😲116K people watched this video of a collapsed football player on #Twitter. ⚽️

No #context is given, so #rumours start.

What happened? Let's find out! πŸ‘‡πŸ‘‡πŸ‘‡ 1/...

#OSINTπŸ”Ž
#Verification πŸŽ₯
#HowToOSINT 🧐
The video is also shared on #Facebook where people link it to "side effects" of #COVID19 #vaccines. πŸ’‰πŸ€”

Could there be a link? 2/...
We take screenshots of the video and use them for Reverse Image Search with Google, Bing and TinEye, but no luck. 😒

#Yandex does give a result and leads us to a video on #YouTube 🟩! 3/...
The video () has the same length (29 s.) and shows the same images in better quality. βœ…

Remarkably, the upload date is 23 August 2019 πŸŸ₯: so the footage predates the covid crisis. No link possible. 🚫

What happened? We copy the Arabic captionπŸŸͺ. 4/...
And paste that text πŸŸͺ into #Google #Translate.

The footage allegedly shows πŸ‡ΈπŸ‡Ύ Syrian footballer Mahmoud Al-Mawas playing for the πŸ‡ΆπŸ‡¦ Qatari team Umm Salal and feeling ill in a match against Al-Rayyan from Doha. 5/...
We google the name of the footballer and found his profile on the football site transfermarkt.com.

From the profile picture 🟨, we see that he has the same hairstyle as the man in the video. This is our man. 6/...
We see that he effectively played for Qatari team Umm Salal FC in 2019 and is still active as a footballer πŸŸ₯πŸ‘†.

So his football career did not stop after that incident.⚽️πŸ₯³

We are trying to find out what we do see on the footage. To do so, we copy his name in ArabicπŸŸͺ. 7/...
We google his name πŸŸͺ, but limit ourselves to search results from 22 August 2019 to 24 August 2019 πŸŸ₯, the period when the original video came online.

This is how we end up with an article 🟨 from the πŸ‡ΈπŸ‡Ύ Syrian news site Enab Baladi: enabbaladi.net/archives/323150 8/...
I don't speak Syrian or any Arabian language, but Deepl or Google Translate πŸŸ₯ is your best friend. (Not 100% reliable, but it gives you a good idea.)

We read that Al-Mawas scored in that match and then became unwell due "to lack of salt" 🟩. 9/...
That is what the player himself said after the match: 'I was short of breath and felt cramps. The staff didn't let me finish the match as a precaution. Thanks to God, everything is fine. The team doctor assured me that a lack of salt was the cause [...].' 10/...
It wasn't too bad, because he even gave a TV-interview directly after when this all happened:

Mahmoud Al-Mawas is doing fine. No need to share this video again in 2022 without any #context... πŸ™… Facts matter.
11/...
Reports of alleged #vaccine damage to footballers are circulating on social media. Lists of recently deceased athletes are associated with the vaccine, while in most cases no link has been established. Check your facts. 12/...reuters.com/article/factch…
What have we learned? πŸ‘©β€πŸ«

1) Often #Yandex gives the best results for Reverse Image Search. πŸ‡·πŸ‡Ί
2) Even if you can't read a language, don't be scared. Try to seperate one piece (f.e. a name) and continue your search. 🈡
3) Narrowing down your search results is crucial. ⏳ 13/15
Did you like this #OSINT for #FactChecking?

Follow me (@brechtcastel) and check out my channel on #YouTube: youtube.com/channel/UCMBPt…

Older 🧡🧡 underneath this tweet πŸ‘‡: 14/15
You can read ALL my factchecks here for FREE! πŸ‘‡

If you don't speak Dutch, use Google Translate or Deepl. πŸ˜‰

Thanks for reading, see you in the next one! πŸ™
15/15 knack.be/nieuws/auteurs…
The full article (@Knack) with all sources used and some extra info is now online. πŸ‘‡ It's in Dutch πŸ‡³πŸ‡±/πŸ‡§πŸ‡ͺ. 16/16

knack.be/nieuws/factche…

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More from @brechtcastel

May 4, 2023
You come across a video in a language you don't understand. Annoying. 😠

Wouldn't it be great if you could watch that video with English subtitles? 😍

You can! With a little help from AI!
#OSINT #tutorial πŸ‘‡1/...

(got the idea from @matt0177 πŸ™) Image
@matt0177 First thing you have to do is install Whisper (this is software from #OpenAI, same guys from #ChatGPT).

It's FREE, but not so easy to install. I used this tutorial:

All info on Whisper here: github.com/openai/whisper 2/...
@matt0177 If you installed Whisper correctly, you download the video on your PC and go to the folder where the video is.

Now you type "cmd", to open command-line-interface. 3/... Image
Read 11 tweets
Jan 30, 2023
3.3M views for this video by @EuromaidanPress:

"American πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ infantry fighting vehicles M2 Bradley are spotted in Poland πŸ‡΅πŸ‡± [...] toward the Ukrainian border πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦. "

TRUE βœ… or FALSE ❌? Investigate! πŸ§΅πŸ‘‡ 1/...

#OSINT πŸ”Ž
#Verification πŸŽ₯
#GeoLocation 🌍
#HowToOSINT 🧐
@EuromaidanPress The exact location of the video is difficult to find due to the limited visual elements in the background. 😒

But it's admittedly plausible that the video was shot in Poland. How do we know this? πŸ‘‡2/...
@EuromaidanPress On the locomotive we read PKP Cargo 🟨, which is the largest rail freight carrier in Poland πŸ‡΅πŸ‡±.

We find a picture of a PKP-locomotive with the same serial number ST44-1232 πŸŸ₯.

The road sign in the video 🟩 corresponds to the Polish W9 sign for train signals. 3/...
Read 18 tweets
Nov 24, 2022
"Ukrainians πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦ in the World Cup of Qatar πŸ‡ΆπŸ‡¦ arrested for spreading Nazi symbols."

This "report from Al Jazeera" gets 391K views on Telegram. 😲

Fake or real? Let's investigate!πŸ§΅πŸ‘‡1/...

#OSINTπŸ”Ž
#Verification πŸ“½οΈ
#GeoLocation 🌍
#HowToOSINT 🧐
#WorldcupQatar2022 ⚽️ Image
"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? πŸ€”2/ Image
@AlJazeera The video features Al Jazeera's official logo πŸ‘†, 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/... Image
Read 22 tweets
Oct 18, 2022
"Happy Birthday for Vladimir Putin from Belgium πŸ‡§πŸ‡ͺ" from men in army uniform with guns. πŸ€”

Let's investigate this deleted TikTok-video. πŸ§΅πŸ‘‡1/...

#OSINTπŸ”Ž
#Verification πŸ“½οΈ
#GeoLocation 🌍
#HowToOSINT 🧐
This is the video. πŸ“½οΈπŸ‘€ 2/...

Is this a real video shot in Belgium❓

The video was previously uploaded on the social networking site TikTok on the account '@batyab.e.a.r', we can tell by the caption with the TikTok logo 🟨. 3/...
Read 23 tweets
Sep 21, 2022
11.8M views for a TikTok of "a mosquito 🦟 with a number on its back". 😲

Is Bill Gates involved? (Spoiler: no.) Investigate! πŸ§΅πŸ‘‡1/...

#OSINTπŸ”Ž
#Verification πŸŽ₯
#HowToOSINT 🧐

#BillGates #TikTok #FactCheck #Weird
The Russian caption (albeit with typo) on this viral video reads: 'Guys who know where the numbers on mosquitoes come from (?)'.

Good question! Let's start with some basic Google... 2/...
tiktok.com/@dyunh519yip1/…
To find out the origin of the images, we google part of the Russian inscription.

So we come to an article on the Kazakh news site Ekspress.

That article features the same video and situates it in Kazakhstan. πŸ‡°πŸ‡Ώ3/...
Read 19 tweets
Sep 9, 2022
On Facebook and Twitter hundreds of thousands saw a video of "Queen Elizabeth feeding vulnerable kids...😭😭😭"

Is this #QueenElizabeth "feeding humans as if they are animals"?

Let's find out! πŸ‘‡πŸ§΅1/...

#OSINTπŸ”Ž
#Verification πŸ“½οΈ
#HowToOSINT 🧐
We take a screenshot of the video and load it into the Russian search engine Yandex. #ReverseImageSearch

This brings us to a site with film recommendations. πŸŸ₯2/...
The French title of that page πŸ‘‡ reads 'Annamite children collect sapΓ¨ques for the pagoda of the ladies'.

SapΓ¨que is an ancient Chinese coinage. πŸͺ™

Annamite refers to a mountain range ⛰️ on the border of Vietnam πŸ‡»πŸ‡³ and the neighbouring countries of Laos πŸ‡±πŸ‡¦ and Cambodia πŸ‡°πŸ‡­. 3/
Read 13 tweets

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