The Russian invasion of Ukraine has triggered a barrage of false claims on social media, including posts that purport to show a video of “crisis actors” portraying dead victims of the fighting. The video used in the posts is from a climate protest held in Vienna, Austria, weeks before the war in Ukraine began.
Since Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, there has been a flow of false and misleading claims about the war, as we’ve written. Some false claims have been pushed by Russian government officials in an effort to control the narrative.
The misinformation about the war includes claims that “crisis actors” have been used to stage incidents in Ukraine, including the aftermath of the Russian bombing of a Mariupol maternity hospital.
Such claims continue to spread on social media, including a viral video on Facebook that purports to show live people portraying dead Ukrainian victims of a Russian attack laid out in body bags.
But the video used in the post originated before the war began. It’s from a news broadcast of a climate protest held in Vienna, Austria.
In the bogus Facebook video — which has had more than 3.6 million views — a news reporter is seen speaking in front of rows of body bags.
While the reporter is speaking, the top of one of the body bags appears to be blown open by the wind. Viewers can see a person in the bag trying to hold down the top, while someone quickly rushes over to assist the person in covering themselves....
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