Putin

Did Australian law enforcement identify a Sydney mall attacker as "Benjamin Cohen"? No, that's not true: The police said that the man's name was Joel Cauchi. The claim originated from an account on X that self-identifies as aligned with a Russian state information outlet. The story reappeared in a post (saved here) on Facebook where it was published on April…

Did online talk show host Tucker Carlson release a photo of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy "captured" and being sent to a high-security prison in Russia? No, that's not true: The image posted on social media is a screenshot from the Ukrainian sitcom series "Servant of the People" that Zelenskyy starred in before becoming president of Ukraine. The show's production company…

Did Donald Trump say "144,000 Black people with superpower godlike abilities" are the "chosen ones", as a TikTok video claims? No, that's not true: In a viral clip on social media, the original sound from an NBC interview was replaced by AI-generated audio. The counterfeit video uses footage from a 2017 interview in which Trump talked about firing FBI Director…

Did Vladimir Putin proclaim that Russia will embrace "the guidance of Black Jesus"? No, that's not true: A video claiming to be an authentic fragment of a Sky News live broadcast of an address by Putin was digitally doctored. The original sound was replaced by an AI-generated voice reading an AI-generated text. The claim appeared in a video (archived here)…

Are Sám Shevchenko, Samel Hydruskli or Samuel Hydenko the names of any of the suspects in the deadly March 22, 2024, concert hall attack in Moscow, Russia? No, that's not true: In the wake of mass shootings, naming "Sam Hyde" and variations of that name as a shooter is an often-recycled internet meme. It plays on the name of Sam…

Does a video circulating on social media show a Russian propagandist's outtake -- a live actor having a cigarette break while pretending to be a corpse after the deadly March 22, 2024, music venue attack in Moscow? No, that's not true: This video - which has been used in disinformation repeatedly - does show actors. This is a behind-the-scenes view…

Is this an authentic March, 2024 photo, showing flames billowing behind a President Vladimir Putin re-election billboard that reads "stability" in Russian? No, that's not true: The image was computer-generated, according to tools created to detect AI art. Earlier versions of posts with the picture contained the kinds of anomalies that are common to AI-generated images. The claim appeared in…

Did Alexi Navalny's mother Lyudmila publicly accuse the politician's widow Yulia Navalnaya of capitalizing on her son's death? No, that's not true: The purported "address" is an AI-generated fake. Its origin can be traced to a network of Kremlin state-funded propaganda resources. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X, formerly known as Twitter, on February 22, 2024.…

Did Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau say that Russia must win this war? Yes: Trudeau did misspeak at the end of a news conference in Poland. While speaking of how aid and military equipment would be supplied to Ukraine, he accidentally said "Russia must win this war." He immediately corrected himself and said, "Ukraine must win this war against Russia."…

Did a guest on "The View" accuse White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre of espousing "bullshit" on an episode of "The View"? No, that's not true: Damon Imani, a social media personality, edited himself into clips of the real December 5, 2023, episode, on which Jean-Pierre was a guest. Imani has a history of making content where he digitally adds…