Evidence desk

Verification

Visual claims, public records and source material examined in context.

verification · 2025
Macron-Modi Meeting: Debunking Viral Misleading Claims
After the international AI summit in Paris, media outlets and social media accounts linked to the Russian government circulated a video claiming that French President Emmanuel Macron had snubbed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ignoring him and refusing to shake his hand. However, this claim is misleading. A longer version of the same footage shows that the two leaders had already met outside the venue and entered together. Additional photos and videos confirm that they had shaken hands beforehand. The claim first surfaced on 11 February on Sputnik, Russia’s state news agency, which is widely regarded as a mouthpiece for Russian government propaganda. The outlet Russian-langage service reported: “Macron defiantly ignored Indian PM Modi and did not shake his hand at the AI summit in Paris.”The allegation was accompanied by a video appearing to show Macron disregarding Modi’s extended hand. The French president was then seen greeting other world leaders at the closing ceremony of the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris on February 11, including US Vice President JD Vance and European Commission President Ursula von der …
France · India · Russia
verification · 2022
Iranian television broadcasts barrage of misinformation to present Ronaldo as pro-Palestine
With eight textbook examples of misinformation in just two minutes, the Iranian public television channel IRIB broadcast a report on the football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo on June 15. The report made it seem like Ronaldo is a champion of the Palestinian cause, while expressing his “hatred” for Israel. But in reality, the story was rife with disinformation and crudely edited. Television programs in Iran are state-run, and most of them promote the ideology and policies of the country’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, who personally appoints the heads of each channel. Many Iranians, aware of the propaganda broadcast on state TV, turn to Persian channels from abroad that are available via satellite. On June 15, it was one of these state-run TV channels, IRIB, broadcast a report in Persian about Cristiano Ronaldo and his supposed support for the Palestinian cause. In the two-minute report, we counted no less than eight falsehoods… which we’ll take a closer look at in this article. Playing against Iceland, not Israel First off, the report claims that the captain of the …
Iran
verification · 2021
Beware of fake videos circulating that claim to show a Chinese rocket
Ever since authorities announced that a Chinese rocket would fall back to Earth in an uncontrolled re-entry last weekend, many fake videos of this incident have emerged on social media and have even made their way to international media outlets. According to state media, the Long March 5B re-entered the atmosphere at 10.24am Beijing time on Sunday May 9, 2021. The coordinates put the point of impact in the Indian Ocean somewhere above the Maldives archipelago and south of India. Since then, many images have been circulating on social media, mainly on Twitter, supposedly showing authentic images of the Chinese spaceship falling. At least three of these videos have been identified as fake by the FRANCE 24 Observers team. A video of the Chinese rocket falling? No, it’s a meteor in Australia This video was shared on Twitter by various users, who claim it shows the moment that Long March 5B re-entered the atmosphere. However, this video was actually filmed in 2016. If you look carefully, you can see the date and coordinates on the …
verification · 2020
Afghan Police published US Marines video presented as their army striking the Taliban
On October 12, the Afghan National Police posted a video on Facebook that they said showed Afghan helicopters bombing Taliban positions in Helmand province. The conflict between the Afghan Army and the Taliban in Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan has been intensifying since October 9. Both sides are using social media to show off what they perceive to be their military successes. But it seems like the Afghan police were a little too quick to post one particular video that they said showed the army striking Taliban positions. Turns out this video shows, in reality, a training exercise carried out by the United States Marine Corps in Arizona, USA, in 2017. The video, which was later picked up by numerous Afghan media outlets, was filmed in night vision mode and shows a helicopter bombing a compound. On the Facebook page of the Afghan National Police, the video garnered more than 20,000 views. The Afghan National Police posted this video along with the caption “Last night, Helmand was turned into a cemetery for the Taliban”. The …
Afghanistan · Digital Platforms
verification · 2020
Online videos falsely claim that face masks can cause CO2 poisoning
To wear a mask or not to, that is the question that has been fiercely debated online since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. One of the claims made by opponents of the protective face coverings is that masks can lead to suffocation from the carbon dioxide (CO2) we exhale. Proponents of this theory have posted videos online in which they use gas detectors to claim that the amount of CO2 we breathe when wearing a mask is extremely dangerous. However, there is no factual basis for that claim. We take a closer look. In a flurry of videos posted online, social media users – most of them American – explain that wearing a mask can be dangerous for your health. To demonstrate this, they use a gas detector, which can be bought in a hardware store for somewhere between 40 and 100 euros, to “measure” the CO2 level inside their masks. In the videos, the meter goes wild when they start to breathe, indicating a high level of carbon dioxide in the space between …
United States
verification · 2020
How do governments push false news about Covid-19?
In this episode of Misinfodemia, Seema Yasmin talks to me about how governments push false news and how social media platforms both help and hinder the fight to tackle misinformation and disinformation. I talked about how Iran’s government is hiding the real number of corona virus victimes and how we worked on it in France24.
Iran · Digital Platforms · Health
verification · 2020
Pro-regime Iranians circulate fake video to promote the death sentence for three activists
Iran’s Supreme Court announced on July 10 that three men who had participated in protests against the government last November had been sentenced to death. Many people took to social media to protest the announcement, calling for the sentence to be overturned. At the same time, ultra-conservative supporters of the regime started circulating a video that they claimed showed the young activists carrying out violent armed robberies in an attempt to turn public opinion against them. In reality, the footage in this video is old and has nothing to do with the three accused men. UPDATED 20-07-2020: On July 19, the Iranian government suspended the execution of the three activists, Amirhossein Moradiyea, Saeed Tamjidi, and Mohammad Rajabi. The Iran Supreme Court accepted the request for a new trial that had been submitted by the defendants’ lawyers, Babak Paknia, one of the lawyers, informed AFP on Sunday. Last November, an increase in petrol prices sparked a nationwide protest movement in Iran, with demonstrations taking place in more than 200 towns and cities. The regime’s crackdown was …
Iran · Digital Platforms · Human Rights
verification · 2020
No, this video does not show a friendly fire incident by the Iranian navy
On May 10 Iran’s navy tested an anti-ship missile in the Gulf of Oman, but something went wrong and the missile hit a support vessel, killing 19 sailors and wounding 15 more. Video supposedly showing the incident was widely shared on Arab-language social media and broadcast on the Al Arabiya network. But the video, in fact, shows an exercise by the Norwegian navy in 2013.
Iran · Saudi Arabia
verification · 2020
Investigation: videos reveal location of mass drowning on Iran-Afghan border
Dozens of Afghan migrants are feared dead after Iranian border guards allegedly forced them into a river on the Iran-Afghan border on May 1. Of the 57 men and boys in the group, only 12 are known to have survived. One of the survivors told the France 24 Observers he and the others were arrested and tortured by guards from an Iranian border post overlooking the Harirud river.
Afghanistan · Iran · Migration And Displacement
verification · 2020
Did these Chinese doctors’ skin turn black after getting Covid-19? There’s more to this story…
Photos of two Chinese doctors who survived Covid-19 in Wuhan, China, are circulating widely on social media and news outlets around the world. The photos are accompanied by the claim that their skin turned black after they were infected with the novel coronavirus. The claim is true – but the strange change in color was only temporary.
China · Digital Platforms · Health
verification · 2020
Iran health minister’s photo of heroic Iranian nurse actually comes from Brazil
During a live briefing on Instagram April 14, Iran’s health minister, Saeed Namaki, showed a photo he said was of an Iranian nurse with sores on her face from wearing masks all day long.
Iran · Health
verification · 2019
Were US warships filmed by an Iranian drone? Watch out for false military footage
A video broadcast on Iranian television claims to show a drone flying over a United States aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf. Some of the footage is false, and some are out of context. The FRANCE 24 Observers team analyzed the video and separated fact from fiction.
Iran · Persian Gulf · United States
verification · 2019
War of fake images erupts between India and Pakistan
The Pakistani army shot down at least one Indian military jet overnight from February 26-27, escalating tensions between the two nuclear powers.
India · Pakistan · Conflict And War
verification · 2019
Why sharing this video of a surfer riding a huge wave will cost him money
The footage is impressive: It shows a surfer riding an immense wave, and he looks miniscule against the towering wall of water. The video was filmed back in 2017 but it recently popped up on social media and started circulating widely.
Sport
verification · 2019
Debunked: No, this palm tree isn’t magically floating in the air
A number of readers in West Africa sent messages to the FRANCE 24 Observers team asking us to fact-check a video that has been shared across WhatsApp groups in the region. In the video, a palm tree is apparently floating through the air, as if by magic.
Digital Platforms
verification · 2018
Why are Iranians so ready to believe there are bugging devices in their trees?
A video widely shared in Iran starting in late August 2018 shows a man removing what he says is an electronic listening device from a tree in Tehran. In fact, the device is a digital tag installed by a software company to identify and protect trees.
Iran · Climate And Environment
verification · 2018
No, Iran’s ex-president Ahmadinejad is not a shepherd
Since mid-August, a mysterious photo of former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad leaning on a rustic walking stick has been widely shared on social media in Turkey – with captions saying he’s spending his retirement herding sheep in his village. It is not true: in fact Ahmadinejad is still in Tehran, still involved in politics, and facing multiple allegations of corruption. The photograph shows Ahmadinejad in a forested area, in a padded jacket, with a stout stick in his hands. The photo has been published by a Twitter account with 2.2 million followers, an Instagram page with 1.6 million followers, and dozens of Facebook pages with hundreds of thousands of followers between them. This Facebook page on August 14 published an undated photograph showing former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The caption in Turkish reads: “Ahmadinejad is herding sheep in his village now, not like our politicians taking money from the state after retirement.” What is false in this story? First off, Ahmadinejad does not live in a village; he lives in his house in the Narmak …
Iran
verification · 2018
Three false images of Iraqi protests circulate online
Large-scale demonstrations have been going on in several different Iraqi cities since July 8, the day that people living in the economic capital, Basra, began taking to the streets to
Iran · Iraq · Digital Platforms
verification · 2018
A playful video of ducks on a city street is doctored. Should we care?
You may be one of the millions of people who has seen this video since it was first posted online on May 4.
Germany
verification · 2018
The latest false story about Saddam Hussein: an ‘intact’ corpse
Several social media posts in French and in Arabic claim that an amateur video shows former dictator Saddam Hussein’s corpse still intact, 12 years after his death.
Iraq · Digital Platforms
verification · 2018
YouTube shooter’s online posts: No, she was not a radical Muslim
In the hours after Iranian-born Nasim Aghdam’s shooting attack on the YouTube headquarters, when she wounded three people and killed herself, figures from the pro-Trump alt-right in the US were quick to associate her with radical Islam. But in fact, her own posts suggest she was critical of radical Islam, skeptical of Iran’s religious regime and not a Muslim herself.
United States · Digital Platforms
verification · 2018
In Afghanistan, fake claims that supplements are “anti-Muslim” pill
“Don’t let your daughter take this pill, it’s the infidels’ plan to eradicate Muslims. These tablets are actually birth control pills. Share this message,” says a Facebook post
Afghanistan · Women And Gender
verification · 2018
Debunked: Viral video of ‘Turkish drone’ is from video game
A striking video that appears to show a drone striking target after target is circulating widely on Turkish social media. Users sharing it believe it shows a Turkish army drone
Syria · Turkey · Conflict And War
verification · 2018
How the same erotic photos are used to smear politicians from India to Afghanistan
After the deadly attack on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul on January 21, some Afghans claimed that the city’s Chief of Police didn’t do enough to thwart it.
Afghanistan · India · Digital Platforms
verification · 2018
Iran’s karate woman and the boy who’s still alive: Fake images in Iran’s protests
Since December 28, 2017, a wave of protests has swept Iran. Citizens have broadcast dozens of videos online showing the demonstrations and the resulting police crackdown.
Iran · Protest And Civic Action
verification · 2017
Russia uses fake images to claim US is helping IS group
The Russian Ministry of Defence has tried very hard to prove that the United States is collaborating with the so-called Islamic State by publishing fake images
Russia · Syria · Armed Groups And Security
verification · 2016
Is the Iranian ‘Hulk’ going to fight IS group? Not even close!
Several media outlets have presented a story about an extravagantly muscle-bound Iranian man, Sajad Gharibi, going to Syria to fight against the jihadists of the
Iran · Syria · Armed Groups And Security
verification · 2016
Debunked: Picture of starving child used to criticise Iran
A photo of a starving child has been widely shared on Iranian social media websites such as Facebook and Telegram. It shows a severely malnourished child with skinny arms,
Iran · Pakistan
verification · 2016
Debunked: The ace Hezbollah sniper…is from a video game
Iran’s state television has been running impressive footage claiming to show ace Hezbollah fighters picking off fighters from the Islamic State group (IS)
Iran · Armed Groups And Security · Conflict And War