Ukraine’s Defense Ministry posted fake video as air battle.
Widely circulated video game footage, fact-checked by Reuters as ‘miscaptioned’, appeared on the ministry’s verified account
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry posted fake video as air battle
The verified Twitter page of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry published video game footage on February 25 claiming to show a Ukrainian fighter jet shooting down a Russian plane. On Saturday, Reuters fact-checked the widely shared fake video as ‘miscaptioned’.
The ministry’s tweet was still up at the time of publication. The 15-second video is accompanied by the caption, “What is this Ukrainian ace doing?” The Defense Ministry’s account describes it as a MiG-29 fighter jet destroying a Russian Su-35 jet with a missile.
Several videos which have made their way around social media described as footage of the ongoing military conflict in Ukraine have been debunked as clips taken from games.
A report by Bloomberg has revealed that some of the most-viewed videos on Facebook’s gaming channel were clips that were being spread as on-the-ground footage of military action in Ukraine. The videos were reportedly viewed by more than 110,000 people and shared over 25,000 times before they were taken down. Nevertheless, they made their way to other social media platforms, being spread around with titles such as ‘Ukraine fires missiles to intercept Russian aircraft’s artillery fire’ and ‘Intense dogfight in the skies of Ukraine’.
The first video which went viral on Thursday purportedly showed a military plane performing a bombing run while dodging fire from AA defense systems. However, the video turned out to be footage from the ‘Arma III’ military simulator game.
Several videos which have made their way around social media described as footage of the ongoing military conflict in Ukraine have been debunked as clips taken from games.
A report by Bloomberg has revealed that some of the most-viewed videos on Facebook’s gaming channel were clips that were being spread as on-the-ground footage of military action in Ukraine. The videos were reportedly viewed by more than 110,000 people and shared over 25,000 times before they were taken down. Nevertheless, they made their way to other social media platforms, being spread around with titles such as ‘Ukraine fires missiles to intercept Russian aircraft’s artillery fire’ and ‘Intense dogfight in the skies of Ukraine’.
The first video which went viral on Thursday purportedly showed a military plane performing a bombing run while dodging fire from AA defense systems. However, the video turned out to be footage from the ‘Arma III’ military simulator game.
Several videos which have made their way around social media described as footage of the ongoing military conflict in Ukraine have been debunked as clips taken from games.
A report by Bloomberg has revealed that some of the most-viewed videos on Facebook’s gaming channel were clips that were being spread as on-the-ground footage of military action in Ukraine. The videos were reportedly viewed by more than 110,000 people and shared over 25,000 times before they were taken down. Nevertheless, they made their way to other social media platforms, being spread around with titles such as ‘Ukraine fires missiles to intercept Russian aircraft’s artillery fire’ and ‘Intense dogfight in the skies of Ukraine’.
The first video which went viral on Thursday purportedly showed a military plane performing a bombing run while dodging fire from AA defense systems. However, the video turned out to be footage from the ‘Arma III’ military simulator game.
Another clip made the rounds on social media on Friday, supposedly showing a combat engagement between a Ukrainian MiG-29 and a Russian SU-35, with the latter being destroyed by a missile. The video went viral on social media, including English-speaking Twitter, with a caption praising the “ghost of Kiev” - a supposed pilot of Ukraine’s Air Force that has “managed to single-handedly take down 6 Russian fighter jets,” even spawning several comic strips. However, the footage was soon revealed to be a clip from ‘Digital Combat Simulator’, with the author of the original clip explicitly stating it was made in ‘DCS’.