Case study 1: Falsified photo, deconstruction of facts

On February 7, 2018, an online edition Georgia and the World released an article titled “Sorry, Mustafa,” according to which European women launched a flashmob #sorry to apologize to migrants for their depraved behavior. Geworld.ge quotes Brita Borg who, according to the online edition, has organized the flashmob. The article is accompanied by a photo of a woman holding a sign that says “Sorry Mustafa.”

 


After verification it was revealed that the photo was taken in Ukraine in 2014 and it depicts a Ukrainian woman who participated in awareness-raising campaign aimed at attracting attention to the condition of Ukrainian soldiers. In the original image, a woman is holding a sign that reads “Cold? Think about those who are sleeping in the trenches.” The campaign participants were collecting warm clothes for Ukrainian soldiers.



Search Engine: Google Image Search

An original photo depicts a Ukrainian woman holding a sign that says “Cold? Think about those who are sleeping in the trenches” and not “Sorry, Mustafa!” The #sorry flash mob cannot be searched for in social networks.




Additional search also revealed that information about European women’s #sorry flashmob first appeared in Russian media and social networks in early February, 2018. The fake story containing photo manipulation was posted by a number of Russian news agencies, among them 360tv.ru, Новые Известия, panorama.pube-news.su and others.