Thread by @brechtcastel

"Happy Birthday for Vladimir Putin from Belgium 🇧🇪" from men in army uniform with guns. 🤔

Let's investigate this deleted TikTok-video. 🧵👇1/...

#OSINT🔎
#Verification 📽️
#GeoLocation 🌍
#HowToOSINT 🧐

This is the video. 📽️👀 2/...

https://twitter.com/Ray_net_ua/status/1579088857785831425

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/...

We google with that account name in quotes and find only two results 🟥.

Twice it links to TikTok and an account named "airsoftbelux @batyab.e.a.r" 🟩. 4/...

@BatyaB However, the account "airsoftbelux @batyab.e.a.r" no longer appears to be online.

We get the message 'cannot find this account'. ❌

We stop investigating here? 😢 Of course not! 🦾👇5/...

@BatyaB However, Google has partially archived that page in their temporary memory ("cache"). 💡

So we can see that this page actually existed, but which videos the page posted we cannot find out this way. 6/...

@BatyaB "Airsoftbelux" contains the term airsoft.

Airsoft is a field combat simulation sport in which two teams try to hit each other with plastic balls. These are fired from replicas of existing weapons. 🔫

➡️military attire and weapons in this video are probably FAKE ❌ 7/...

@BatyaB We google to see if we can't retrieve TikTok channel videos from the deleted TikTok account after all.

Again, we find traces of this only in Google Cache! ⏳ 8/...

@BatyaB So we find a "deleted" video of a man removing a fake gun - we suspect fake because of the airsoft context - from a box 🟨.

Russian is spoken and we see Belgian number plates in the background (🟥,number plates anonymised for privacy reasons). 9/...

@BatyaB In short, these digital traces 👆 indicate that the TikTok account that first distributed the video really existed, and that it has been deleted.

It is said to be an account about airsoft in Belgium, more specifically from a group in which Russian speakers participate. ✅10/...

@BatyaB On Facebook, we also find a post linking to the original but deleted video.

We see a screenshot of the video and the hashtags #Russia and #jubilee70 in Russian.

The latter may refer to Russian President Vladimir Putin's 70th birthday on 7 October 2022. 11/...

@BatyaB Since the video was copied on Twitter, we can investigate it further.

We see a red flag. ⛳️

1⃣ Because the video was filmed in 'selfie mode', we see the flag mirrored. 🪞
2⃣ We take a screenshot of the flag and de-mirror it.
3⃣ With that we search Yandex. 12/...

@BatyaB This is how we find out that the flag is a copy of the flag raised by the Russians on 1 May 1945 on the Reichstag at the end of World War II, the so-called 'victory flag'. 13/...

@BatyaB In the video, in addition to airsoft plunges, we see blue-and-white-striped t-shirts. ⚓️

These are so-called telnyashkas, an iconic garment worn by various Russian military formations.

(Again, easy to find with Reverse Image Search.) 14/...

@BatyaB But was the video actually shot in Belgium 🇧🇪?

@iNtRoVeRt_Ed was able to find the location via the airsoft club's FB and YT-page, which do still remain online.
The people in the video play airsoft at a site in Namur next to the highway E411. 15/...

https://twitter.com/iNtRoVeRt_Ed/status/1579210830591438848

@BatyaB @iNtRoVeRt_Ed Visual elements in a video on the YouTube channel of 'AirSoft Belux' recorded at this spot (right) correspond to details in the deleted TikTok video (left): we can see an inscription on a wooden pole 🟨, a hole in a fence 🟥 and a wooden coil 🟩.

#GeoLocation📍✅16/...

@BatyaB @iNtRoVeRt_Ed We can identify some of the people in the video through their profiles on social media, but for privacy reasons we do not give details about them here.

We find no evidence that these would be Russians who recently 'fled to Belgium'. 17/...

@BatyaB @iNtRoVeRt_Ed An indication that at least (!) not all the people in the video are fugitive Russians are older videos of people playing airsoft in Namur 🇧🇪, with instructions given in Russian 🇷🇺.

We find such videos uploaded in June 2022 and in October 2021. 18/...

@BatyaB @iNtRoVeRt_Ed Should we fear people wishing Putin a Happy Birthday and playing airsoft? That's an open question. 😑

BUT

The Belgian federal police informed via its official Twitter account that "our services will investigate this further". 👇19/...

https://twitter.com/federalepolitie/status/1579382158095159296

@BatyaB @iNtRoVeRt_Ed CONCLUSION:

➡️The video of birthday wishes to Putin 'from Belgium' is real.

➡️The video was shot in Namur and was published on a now-deleted TikTok page of an airsoft club.

➡️We found no evidence whether the video shows 'Russians fleeing to Belgium'. 20/...

@BatyaB @iNtRoVeRt_Ed What have we learned? 👩‍🏫

1) If something is deleted Google Cache can be a livesaver.🛟
2) Mirror an image can help for better Reverse Image Search. 🪞
3) It's not because you delete an account, it's really gone. Better think BEFORE you put something online. 🔓21/...

@BatyaB @iNtRoVeRt_Ed You can read my full article with all sources used here (@Knack) for FREE. 👇22/...
knack.be/factcheck/fact…

@BatyaB @iNtRoVeRt_Ed @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:

https://twitter.com/brechtcastel/status/1390688405416198145

23/END