Fake news under a false flag

Pro-Russian propaganda is ubiquitous in the war in Ukraine. However, in some cases it is well camouflaged and looks like the supposed reports of media companies BBC, CNN or DW. DW is investigating what is behind it?

"Looks like a DW report," commented a Twitter user in Japanese on an alleged Deutsche Welle (DW) video. It's a video about a Ukrainian refugee who allegedly blackmailed women. The video report, shared on Twitter at in Japanese, makes serious accusations against a Ukrainian named "Petro Savchenko".

A Twitter user, who commented on the video, continued: “I want to see the original video. Please send me the URL of the original video." Doubts echo between his lines - and rightly so. Since the original footage does not exist, the footage of the alleged criminal fugitive is fake.

This video is not an isolated case. Ever since Russia attacked Ukraine on February 24, false claims and manipulations have been spreading on the Internet every day. Media fakes play a special role here: videos, photos and screen-shots that are said to come from international broadcasters such as CNN, BBC or DW, but which are actually manipulated or fabricated.

Some of these posts even go viral and reach hundreds of thousands of people. The goal: the spread of propaganda and mostly pro-Russian, anti-Ukrainian or anti-Western narratives that aim to cast doubt on Western reporting – and at the same time undermine the credibility of established Western media.

Alleged DW footage of a Ukrainian refugee

What happened in this case? A Japanese-language Twitter account focused on the war in Ukraine recently shared a video reporting on an alleged fugitive from Ukraine.

"Petro Savchenko" allegedly blackmailed dozens of Germans; he threatened to publish their "pornographic pictures", taken on a hidden camera, after meeting them in bars. The video also claims that the police are investigating Savčenko, who is now facing a prison sentence.

The clip, which has been viewed about a thousand times, at first glance looks like an authentic DW video. Minimal deviations are noticeable only upon a more detailed analysis: the used font does not correspond one hundred percent to the DW font, which is easy to recognize, for example, when comparing the letter X.

There are also doubts, given that the name "Petra Savchenko" does not appear in the search engines. No media has reported the alleged incident of multiple blackmails, neither in German nor in English or Ukrainian. In addition, the recording does not provide any information about where and when and further research has led to even more inconsistencies.

Fake BBC footage of the rocket attack on Kramatorsk

One alleged BBC video reached significantly more people than the fake DW video: After the Russian rocket attack on the railway station in Kramatorsk, it was viewed a total of half a million times. It shows corpses of people from Kramatorsk and a rocket that fell nearby. The text claims that the rocket was fired by Ukrainian troops at their own people.

The BBC immediately contradicted it and described the video as "fake". The video was documented on the Ukrainian Twitter channel, which labeled it as "fake".

The clip, which at first glance looked authentic, quickly spread on the networks. Bayeriše rundfunk (BR) found posts in German, English, Italian, Spanish, Catalan, Indian and French in the first few hours. Cyberwarfare expert Sandro Gajken told BR that in this case it was a "coordinated but urgent operation" of disinformation.

Roman Osadčuk, a digital forensic expert from the think tank "Atlantic Council", was more specific in an interview with DW: "In the case of Kramatorsk, it was not just a fake video, it was only a small part of the whole campaign. Because they want to convince people that Ukrainians they bomb their own people,  which is absurd". The video was shared on Telegram but also on many other platforms.

Also, the American CNN is the target of manipulation, which allegedly mistakenly sold images of the 2015 explosion as current. This is also wrong, as proven by a fact check by the French AFP.

There is no special BBC report on a nuclear attack

This type of fake news in the best sense of the word is not new. In the past few years, there has always been fake news attributed to the established media. A particularly dramatic case was when a moderator in a studio, similar to BBC's, reported on a military incident between Russia and NATO and the explosion of a nuclear bomb in Brussels. The video is a pure fabrication and does not belong to the BBC, this media company clarified. But it is still divided, as reported by Reuters.

Who is behind these disinformation attacks?

Experts believe that the clues leading to the real authors of fake videos, pictures or tweets are not always obvious, but they lead to Russia. Josephine Lukito, a professor at the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Texas at Austin, sees professional structures behind fake productions. Much of the pro-Russian disinformation can be attributed to the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a Russian troll factory that has been active since 2012. The IRA gained notoriety for attempting to influence the 2016 US presidential election campaign. Since 2014, numerous false reports attributed to The IRA is also expanding into Ukraine.

"The long-term goal of this disinformation, which comes from Russia, is to sow distrust in the media system," said Lukito. At the same time, the credibility of the news media is also deliberately used for its own purposes. This is a relatively new phenomenon of disinformation, in which allegedly legitimate they publish news under false flags.
How do video falsifiers work?

As a rule, media fakes are based on a replica of the design of the station in question. "They copied everything that makes a BBC video and then made fake videos. They took the whole template of the BBC, including the headline," says researcher Eto Buziashvili from the Atlantic Council think tank. Such a replica is not too difficult to make, but it requires knowledge of video editing and appropriate programs.

Does fake news succeed?

The effect of fake news is difficult to measure, says Scott Radnic of the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle, especially regarding the war in Ukraine.

"Due to the fact that most people already have strong opinions about the war in Ukraine, they are more likely to consume news that supports their point of view and instinctively reject what contradicts them. Therefore, these actions of "information warfare" are more focused on those who are receptive to such news. In a way, it was an "honor", Radnic told DW, when news channels such as BBC, CNN or DW became the target of attacks, because they are perceived as credible, relevant players in the media world.