Thread: Online misinformation is rampant following the escalation of violence between Israel and Hamas today.
This video of a tower block in Gaza being hit by a missile is from May 2021, not today. It was captured live during a BBC Arabic broadcast at the time.
This video of a house in Gaza being destroyed by a strike is genuine, but it's actually from May of this year, and not from the fresh escalation in hostilities today.
This video of a house being struck by Israel is also from May of this year, not today.
It was filmed in Beit Hanoun, Gaza; as geolocated by @ChrisOsieck at the time.
This video, shared by right-wing influencers Charlie Kirk and Ian Miles Cheong and viewed millions of times, actually shows Israeli police and special forces outside a house, as is easily identifiable by their uniforms, not Hamas militants.
This is another video of a house in Gaza being targeted by an IDF strike in May of this year. It's not from today.
This video ceratinly doesn't show Hamas shooting down two Israeli helicopters, because it's actually from the video game Arma 3.
This is complete and utter nonsense, shared for nothing but engagement. Israel hasn't authorised a nuclear strike on Gaza, and the footage shows a US nuclear test from the 1950s.
This video, viewed 230,000 times, is not footage of a Hamas militant shooting down an Israeli helicopter. It's from the video game Arma 3.
This video, viewed more than 3 million times, does not show a building in Israel.
It shows an Israeli strike on Gaza's Palestine Tower, which houses Hamas radio stations on the rooftop and also holds a cinema, earlier today.
A fake document is being widely shared online claiming to show the authorisation of $8bn in military aid to Israel by President Biden.
It's a doctored version of a 25 July document detailing $400m in aid to Ukraine authorised by President Biden; fact-checked by @Info_Rosalie.
This is a fake Jerusalem Post account falsely reporting that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been taken to hospital, and somehow racking up over 600,000 views.
The post has now got a Community Note attached to it.
If you've come across reports that the Taliban has asked Iran and Iraq for permission to send fighters to Israel, the source for those reports is this viral tweet by what most likely is a fake Taliban PR account with a bluck tick.
I particularly like that hand-drawn arrow.
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Thread: Day two of online misinformation about the Israel-Hamas conflict
This video, viewed 1.3 million times, falsely claims to show senior Israeli generals captured by Hamas. It actually shows the arrest of Karabakh separatist leaders by Azerbaijan's security service.
Here's the thread highlighting misinformation from the first day of the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. Please DM or email me any videos, images or posts you come across that might be misleading.
Thread: You may have seen viral posts that Olena Zelenska, President Zelensky's wife, spent $1.1m on Cartier jewellery during the couple's recent visit to the US.
Let's find out why those posts are false, and examine how pro-Kremlin disinformation of this kind travels online.
The claim first appeared in a 30 September YouTube video by an obscure channel.
In a series of Instagram stories, a woman claims to be a former Cartier employee, who was apparently sacked because Zelenska didn't like her. She then unveils a $1.1m receipt in Zelenska's name.
The alleged former Cartier employee's Instagram appears to be ".jeanette".
Head over to Instagram and you'll see the account has no posts, no followers, and no following. That should immediately make you suspicious. gorgeous.bb
Thread: Viral misinformation about the French riots
This video of several cars falling from a multi-storey car park is from the set of the action film Fast & Furious 8, and unrelated to the current French riots.
It was filmed in 2016 on Prospect Avenue East in Cleveland, Ohio.
This viral image, shared on Twitter and Instagram, falsely claims to show French protesters capturing a police van.
The image is from the set of the 2022 French film Athena. A video of the scene can be found on YouTube.
Community Notes have been added to some Twitter posts.
A headline claiming French protesters are targeting police with US rifles smuggled out of Ukraine has been shared on Telegram and Twitter by pro-Kremlin users.
There's no evidence for the claim. The image is taken from a 2022 workshop for trophy hunters in Hauts-de-France.
As the unprecedented infighting between Wagner and the Russian military escalates, expect false and misleading claims to appear online.
There's currently no evidence of Belarusian President Lukashenko boarding a private jet or Russian officials fleeing Moscow.
I'll be compiling viral misinformation, including videos, images and online claims, about the armed mutiny involving the Wagner group and the Russian military in this thread.
Please flag any suspicious claims you see via DM (open) or email (in my bio).
Seeing plenty of evidence-free claims about the CIA or Nato having organised the mutiny in Russia.
The rift between Wagner's head Prigozhin and Russian Defence Minister Shoigu about the invasion of Ukraine is well-documented, and has been intensifying for months.
THREAD: a collection of fake Twitter accounts after the removal of legacy verification
A fake account with Blue subscription posing as Sudan's Rapid Support Forces, currently involved in a conflict, falsely claimed the death of its leader Mohamed Dagalo, getting 1.7M views.
Several fake accounts are posing as New York Mayor Eric Adams.
@NYCMayor is the genuine personal account of Eric Adams. The rest are all fake.
A fake account impersonating Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has just been suspended by Twitter.
The fake account simply added another "s" to Lightfoot's official handle @chicagosmayor.