Facebook pulled down almost 40 accounts accused of sharing false information on the crisis in Ukraine. Facebook says these accounts run by Russians and Ukrainians had a reach of over 4,000 followers. This was expected. In such a crisis, images and videos from previous conflicts are often shared out of context.
Piga Firimbi looks into four of such images.
Background
Ukraine has faced what will go down in history as a major yet expected breach of a peace deal by Russia. As the numbers of casualties shoot up, neighboring countries equally feel the ripple effect of this war in their security structure. Russia now has control of significant parts of Ukraine. That is; the North, East, and the South parts of the country.
Verification
“It is very sad that people get to be killed for land,” read a tweet under a hashtag, #UkraineRussiaWar containing images of children crouched on the ground and a second with an elderly lady hiding behind a concrete barrier.
Reverse image searches reveal these images were taken in Yemen and Egypt, respectively.
The image on the left appeared on the internet as early as July 8, 2015. This was one of the many images shared during the conflict between the United Arabs Emirates and Yemen.
The image on the right was shared on August 16, 2013. This one was taken during clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces in Cairo, Egypt.
The second image also shared as a tweet shows an airstrike.
This was taken in Syria and shared on the internet on July 30, 2016. At the time, Manbij city reported a US-led attack that killed 45 civilians and injured 50 others. According to the US Central Command, this airstrike was targeting members of the ISIS group who are concentrated in Manbij.
The third one taken from a movie scene was used to imply that Ukranian youths had volunteered to defend their country against Russia. However, a reverse image search shows that this image was lifted from Red Dawn, an American Action movie produced in 1984.
Now, the fourth image shows a building on fire. Shared on February 28, 2022, it says, “what is happening in Ukraine now is really, really awful.”
On the contrary, a reverse image search leads to an article published by the South Africa Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). According to this article, this image was taken during riots in Minneapolis, Minnesota, over the killing of George Floyd on May 20, 2020.
Verdict
NO, these images are not related to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
This story was produced by Africa Uncensored in partnership with Code for Africa with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie.
Add comment