Tag Archives: Iran

A video is being shared widely on social media with a false claim it shows genuine coverage of Paris Olympic events being censored on Iranian broadcasts.

In the footage being shared, women are shown competing in events, including high jump, hurdles, and diving, with parts of their body obscured by superimposed black rectangles and stars.

But the clip, which has been circulating on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), with the caption: “this is how Iran broadcasts the Olympics”, is not a genuine Iranian broadcast of the Olympics.

It comes from a 2013 satirical video, which can be seen on the YouTube channel of a Farsi-language satire show OnTen. 

In the full video, the comedians in the skit discuss how to censor sports that do not meet Iran’s dress codes for women….

An image is being shared online with the false claim it shows the wreckage of the helicopter carrying Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi. 

The caption on a post sharing the photo of a damaged helicopter on Instagram says: “‎The wreckage of Iranian President Raisi’s helicopter has been found.”

However, the image is actually of a Eurocopter helicopter crash in Texas, United States, in January 2024.

President Raisi, along with seven other people including Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, died in a helicopter crash in the north of Iran on Sunday 19 May.

Iranian state media reported that the accident occurred as a result of fog and rain.

The image being incorrectly attributed to the crash is actually from an incident near Spofford in southern Texas…

A video is being shared on social media with the claim that it shows a beach in Iran that has “turned” red due to “severe weather”.

In the clip, water which appears to be bright red is pouring across red ground and running off the edge of a small cliff which leads to what seems to be the edge of the sea.

The caption says: “Severe weather turned the beach red in Hormuz Iran… it’s Passover season.”

The footage has also been shared on Facebook with similar claims.

However, these claims are misleading. In fact, the video shows a naturally occurring phenomenon—and the colour of the beach itself is not caused by “severe weather”. 

The video was filmed on Red Beach on Hormuz Island off the coast of southern Iran—this image on Google Maps from February…

A video is being shared on social media and by some news outlets with false claims it shows Iran’s attack on Israel with drones and missiles.

The night-time clip shows projectiles apparently being fired from the ground into the sky in a rapid barrage. Some versions of the footage include an emoji of Iran’s flag in the top right corner.

These claims have been shared on Instagram, X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube, and the video has also been included in video montages in news reports about Iran’s assault on 13 April. 

Actor and comedian Michael Rapaport also shared the video in two separate posts with his two million Instagram followers, adding in one: “The Iron Dome literally saved millions of life’s [sic] tonight”. We’ve contacted Mr Rapaport for…

A video liked more than 1,300 times on Threads claims to show the Israeli city of Tel Aviv “burning”. 

The video has also been shared a number of times on Facebook with some of these posts specifying that the city is on fire as a result of an Iranian attack. 

But the clip, which was posted to the platform on 15 April, has been circulating online since at least 23 March and appears to show Ukrainian missiles targeting Russian ships in a Crimean port. 

The post claiming the footage was shot in Tel Aviv was shared on 14 April, after Iran launched more than 300 missiles towards Israel on the night of 13 April. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)—a branch of its armed forces—reportedly said the attack was “in retaliation” against Israel’s…