Claim 1: Syria’s former President Bashar al-Assad died in a plane crash. Claim 2: A video shows the ousted president’s plane engulfed in flames after a crash. Fact 1: Assad did not die in a plane crash. Instead, he was granted asylum in Russia, along with his family, on humanitarian grounds, news reports confirmed on […]
Claim: A video shows Muslims praying on the streets in France after the left-wing parties won the most seats in the July 2024 elections. Fact: The video actually shows Muslims praying on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr at the Moscow Cathedral Mosque, in May 2022. On 8 July 2024, Threads user @tweetnewsofficial posted (archived) a video […]
Claim: An image shows an Iranian soldier onboard a UAE-operated ship that carried fuel for Israeli warships, after Iranian commandos intercepted it. Fact: The picture is from February 2021, when Iran conducted joint naval drills with Russia. The vessel, which was headed to the UAE, was captured by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) recently, […]
Claim: The Russian ambassador to Pakistan Albert P Khorev sent a congratulatory message to former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on his victory in the cipher case. Fact: The Russian ambassador to Pakistan did not issue any statements congratulating Imran Khan on his acquittal in the cipher case. No such news was reported by any […]
Claim: An image shows people taking shelter at the Kharkiv metro station, allegedly during the Russian bombing on 26 May 2024. Fact: The image is not recent. It does show people taking shelter at the Kharkiv metro station but the picture is from two years ago when Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in February […]
Claim: Russian President Vladimir Putin posted a video on X saying that countries would choose sides after World War III starts. Fact: The now-deleted X account was a Putin parody account. Further, the video with the post has been shared out of context. On 14 April, X user @Brics_Dolllar, a verified parody account of Putin […]
Claim: A compilation of images and videos shows the destruction wreaked by Iran’s April 2024 attack on Israel. Fact: None of the images or videos show Iran’s attack against Israel. Almost all are from the Russia-Ukraine war. On 15 April 2024, Soch Fact Check received a video on WhatsApp, the thumbnail of which depicts damage […]
Claim: A cargo ship carrying Russian oil has refused to unload its consignment until Imran Khan “personally comes to receive it”. Fact: The report is satire. On 2 April 2023, Twitter user @drfatima_pti posted a visual (archive) showing former prime minister and chief of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Imran Khan, against a backdrop of cargo […]
Claim: A video shows an F-35 fighter jet — in some cases identified as F-4 — performing a stunt by tilting itself into a vertical position in the air. Fact: The video does not show an F-35 fighter jet but a scaled-down RC version of a fighter jet. On 7 May 2023, Twitter account @clipsthatgohard […]
Claim: Asle Toje, the deputy chair of the 2022 Norwegian Nobel Committee, has said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the biggest contender for the Nobel Peace Prize. Fact: While Toje praised India and Modi in different interviews, he did not endorse the Indian prime minister as the biggest contender for the Nobel Peace […]
Claim: A video shows the Russian Kinzhal missile, which travels at 12,000 kilometres per hour, striking a Ukrainian weapons depot 136 metres underground. Fact: The viral clip is not real; it was produced in 2022 through VFX by video editor InsanePatient2. On 24 March 2023, Twitter account @AVeteran1956 posted a video (archive) allegedly showing a […]
Claim: A video shows Yeti Airlines Flight 691 as it crashed near Nepal’s Pokhara town on 15 January 2023, leaving at least 70 dead. Fact: The video is actually more than a year old and shows Ilyushin Il-112, a Russian military aeroplane, crashing at the Kubinka airfield in the Moscow Oblast region during a test […]