With its ferris wheel, coffee shops and promenades, Tehran’s Chitgar Lake has been a popular spot for Iranians since it was opened to the public in 2013. But it has also become a hangout for young Afghan men, and a focus for growing public…
Pro-Israeli social media accounts have been circulating a photo since April 16 which they claim disproves reports that an Israeli strike hit Iran’s embassy in Damascus, Syria on April 1. These accounts claim that the destroyed building…
The Russian Embassy in South Africa shared an article on X on April 9 about alleged atrocities committed by foreign mercenaries fighting for Ukraine. But this content originated from a fake news site, and the images used can be traced to…
In March, rumours that cannibalism is common in Haiti were widely shared on social media. These rumours were largely based on three videos. But two of them were filmed in different countries, and even though the third one was filmed in…
A year and a half after the start of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests, police in Iran have resumed “morality patrols” to crack down on women violating the Islamic Republic’s strict hijab rules. Patrols consisting of uniformed male…
Rumours that cannibalism is common in Haiti circulated in March on social media. FRANCE 24's Observers team looked into these reports and found that several of the videos upon which these rumours seem to be based actually have nothing to…
Even before the drones and missiles had reached Israeli territory, the Islamic Republic of Iran, via its paramilitary Basiji forces, had already organised state-sanctioned street parties to celebrate. A video posted half an hour before the…
From eyeshadows and lipsticks to “vaginal rejuvenation” pills, women in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan can find a wide range of beauty and health products in stores and online, despite a nationwide ban on beauty salons. With women’s…
Social media users are sharing a video of a sunset which they claim provides proof that Earth is flat and the sun is “local”, by which they mean that it orbits a flat Earth at cloud level. This is actually an optical illusion.
The Ukrainians have intensified their bombing campaign on border towns in Russia in recent weeks. But a viral video said to show the aftermath of a recent Ukrainian strike on the Russian city of Belgorod actually shows nothing of the kind.…
After Russian President Vladimir Putin was reelected on March 17, a photo went viral showing an explosion behind one of his campaign posters featuring the slogan “stability”. However, it turns out that this image was created by a Ukrainian…
Pro-Israel propaganda sites have been increasingly claiming that videos showing the wounded or injured in Gaza are actually products of "Pallywood" or scenes staged to drum up sympathy for the Palestinians. These campaigns regularly…
Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian energy infrastructures have been increasing since early January. Our investigations reveal that at least eight sites have caught on fire after drone attacks.
A video of a Palestinian mother holding her dead baby twins in her arms after they were killed in Israeli airstrike began to circulate widely online after it was posted on March 3. Some accounts, however, have claimed that the scene was…
At a hospital in the holy city of Qom, a young woman squats in a corner with a sick child in her arms. Her headscarf has slipped down to her shoulder revealing her hair, and a mullah is seen using his phone nearby. Surveillance video of…
A small group of Israeli protesters briefly entered the Gaza Strip via the Erez border crossing in late February. A few days before this illegal incursion, several videos appeared online showing a group of Israeli farmers trying to drive…
Authorities in Iran are cracking down on small businesses that sell “un-Islamic” clothing and other products on social media, notably Instagram. Owners of Instagram businesses say they have been contacted by the Islamic Republic’s cyber…
Palestinian Bedouin communities in the West Bank are used to aggression from Israeli settlers. Since Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, they have seen an increase in efforts by extremist settlers to take their land – and their sheep.
Since news broke on February 16, 2024 that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny had died while incarcerated in the Russian Arctic, there has been a resurgence of doctored images and fake news aiming to discredit Navalny and his family.…
Images of huge crowds of protesters in several towns in Germany have been circulating widely online since early February – but with false and misleading captions. Posts on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Instagram claim that the…
Dozens of photos and videos that have been either "doctored" or taken out of context so as to negatively portray Rohingya refugees have been circulating on Indonesian social media. This wave of disinformation has become so intense that the…
Pro-Russian social media users have been widely circulating what looks like a Euronews report showing French farmers dumping manure outside the Ukrainian embassy. French farmers began protesting for better pay in January and the video…
Our team has obtained rare footage from sailors abandoned by their employers years ago, leaving them far from their homes in ports or open water. During this three-month investigation, we looked at official documents and contracts provided…
As wildfires ravaged central Chile, a number of posts have been circulating online claiming that buildings or objects painted blue are immune to the fires. Why? Well, these accounts claim the fires were actually set by powerful lasers that…
X users have been circulating a video in recent days that shows a mosque being bulldozed, claiming that it provides proof that the Chinese government is destroying mosques. The Chinese government is carrying out a “sinicization policy” on…
A number of photos and videos that circulated on social media and were picked up by pro-democracy media outlets show the aftermath of an air strike on the village of Ka Nan, in the west of Myanmar on January 7, 2024. While the state…
Six journalists from the independent Azerbaijani investigative website Abzas Media have been under arrest since November 2023. They had previously transmitted elements of their investigations to the Paris-based Forbidden Stories collective…
In a video that has gone viral, a man in Gaza accuses the Israeli army of dropping booby-trapped cans of food into the besieged Palestinian enclave, claiming that the Israeli army left them behind to try and trick Gazans into trying to eat…
In mid-January, a gang carried out a series of deadly attacks on the Solino neighbourhood in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. One of our Observers, who lives in this neighbourhood, filmed the devastation after the attacks. His footage shows burned…
Many Palestinians have been desperately trying to leave the Gaza Strip and get to Egypt via the Rafah border crossing since October 7 and Israel's subsequent military campaign, which has killed more than 25,000 people, according to the…