Truth or Fake

Since Tuesday, videos supposedly showing Iranian soldiers being bombed in Tehran have been widely shared by pro-Israel accounts, Israeli media and even an official Israeli government social media account. But doubts have surfaced over their authenticity, as Emerald Maxwell explains in Truth or Fake.

More than two weeks after the US and Israel launched military strikes on Iran, a rumour has sprung up that American soldiers are refusing, en masse, to fight. There is no evidence for this. However, the number of conscientious objectors in the US military is on the rise, according to the NGO Center on Conscience & War.

Social media has recently been abuzz with false rumours claiming that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was killed in an Iranian missile strike. Vedika Bahl explores the viral claims around Netanyahu's death and the continuing online speculation in this edition of Truth or Fake.

The war in Iran is not only being fought on the battlefield – it is also playing out online. Iran’s state media recently took a leaf out of the White House’s own social media playbook, mocking Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu with an AI-generated propaganda video styled like a LEGO animation. The clip suggested that Trump launched the conflict to distract from scrutiny over his links to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. The video quickly circulated online, highlighting how artificial intelligence is being used as a tool of political messaging and satire in modern conflicts.

A brief social media post by the US energy secretary prompted a major U-turn from the Trump administration. Within 30 minutes, Chris Wright had posted – and deleted – a message claiming the US Navy had successfully escorted an oil tanker through the Strait of Hormuz. Despite its short life, the claim sent oil markets into a frenzy, prompted a denial from the White House and triggered mockery from Iranian officials. Vedika Bahl explains in Truth or Fake.

A newly released video by Iran’s Mehr News Agency – verified and geolocated by fact-checking experts – shows an American Tomahawk cruise missile striking a naval base next to a girls’ elementary school in Minab, Iran. The footage puts the US in the spotlight, contradicting Donald Trump’s claim that the school was hit by an Iranian attack. Munitions experts say the US is the only actor in the war to possess Tomahawks. Vedika Bahl explains in Truth or Fake.

Influencers in Dubai have taken to social media to post near-identical videos praising the city’s safety and glorifying its leadership, using the same template, music and captions. The posts come just a week after videos of panic in Dubai circulated online following intercepted Iranian strikes. Online, some users have accused the influencers of being paid to promote the city, as UAE authorities clamp down on posts about the war. Vedika Bahl takes a closer look in Truth or Fake.

The claim spread like wildfire on social media earlier this week after the US and Israel began striking Iran: Iranian footballer Mehdi Taremi was considering leaving Greek club Olympiakos, where he currently plays, to go back to his homeland to fight for the Iranian regime. The unfounded rumour was then picked up by the reputable sports press, particularly in Italy, where Taremi used to play for Inter Milan. Emerald Maxwell tells us more in Truth or Fake.

On Wednesday, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that a US submarine sank an Iranian warship in international waters. The Pentagon says one of the main aims of the US-Israeli war against Iran, launched on Saturday, is to wipe out the country's navy, and on Wednesday the US claimed to have "effectively neutralised Iran's major naval presence". In this edition of Truth or Fake, we look at what we know about the state of the Iranian navy now.

Iran held a mass funeral this Tuesday for at least 165 schoolgirls killed in an air strike on the southern town of Minab on Saturday. But online, some users claim the tragedy was staged by Iranian authorities. In this edition of Truth or Fake, we confirm that the strike hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' school, a building separated from nearby IRGC military barracks for nearly a decade.

After US-Israeli strikes on Iran, pro-Tehran accounts circulated fake footage claiming to show the aftermath of missile strikes on the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier. Other videos were misrepresented as depicting Iranian retaliatory attacks in the region, particularly in Israel. We also examine fabricated reviews of Dubai's Palm Hotel after debris landed nearby, and debunk AI-generated images that spread after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's death, since no official photograph of the supreme leader's body has been released.

During his State of the Union speech, US President Donald Trump made a slew of false or misleading claims including about the US economy, immigration and his role in ending wars. FRANCE 24's Charlotte Hughes takes a closer look in Truth or Fake.

Four years into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has redoubled its efforts in disinformation warfare. Its methods have evolved, with more generative AI, more targeting of Ukraine's allies and increasing manipulation of real news stories. It's therefore fitting that disinformation watchdog NewsGuard named a Russian tech bro, Yevgeny Shevchenko, its 2025 "Disinformer of the Year'. Emerald Maxwell tells us more in Truth or Fake.

Following Mexico’s military operation against the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which killed drug lord Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias "El Mencho", AI-generated pictures and fake news have flooded social media – not least, the rumour that the operation itself was carried out by the United States. Emerald Maxwell explains what's real in this edition of Truth or Fake.

The US Department of Justice’s massive release of Epstein case files has turned some internet users into self-appointed digital sleuths. They have been combing through thousands of emails in search of hidden clues, eventually fixating on one word: “pizza”. The term appears more than 900 times in the documents, prompting some Trump supporters to claim it vindicates “Pizzagate”. But the allegation that Democrats were running a Satanic child sex abuse ring out of a Washington, DC pizzeria remains a baseless conspiracy theory. In this episode of Truth or Fake, Maya-Anaïs Yataghène explains why.

The killing of 23-year-old French nationalist Quentin Deranque, on the sidelines of a protest in Lyon, has heightened tensions between far-right and far-left groups ahead of next month's municipal elections. Before any arrests were made, online users claimed to have identified five suspects, leading to the circulation of their personal details. But the internet sleuths got at least one case wrong: a woman identified as Blandine B., who was not even in France on the day of the killing.

In the wake of last week's mass shooting in the remote Canadian community of Tumbler Ridge, some online have been claiming that transgender people are more likely to commit violence than the rest of the population. In this edition of Truth or Fake, FRANCE 24's Charlotte Hughes explains why those allegations are wrong.