Summary: Actors have been observed making edits to news reports to change what was reported (including video and audio broadcasts by news outlets, or screenshots of articles published to news websites). This has the impact of borrowing a news outlet’s credibility to promote a narrative, but also to increase mistrust of future material legitimately published by the news outlet as another potential edit.
To make this assertion, analysts need to identify the original broadcast, or to identify elements which have been introduced via editing which are inconsistent with content legitimately published by the news outlet (e.g. incorrect location of the outlet’s logo, a new typeface, or inconsistently sized font).
Tactic: TA14 Develop Narratives
Parent Technique: T0162 Reframe Context
| Associated Technique | Description |
|---|---|
| T0161.001 Impersonated Content | T0161.001: Impersonated Content documents cases where content (e.g. a news report) has been produced in the style of a third party, falsely attributing newly created content to that organisation. T0162.002: Edits Made to News Report which Reframe Context documents cases where existing news reports have been edited to introduce new meaning (e.g. new voiceovers, new clips). There are cases where T0161.001: Impersonated Content takes clips from existing news reports to facilitate the production of the impersonation, in which case both T0161.001: Impersonated Content and T0162.002: Edits Made to News Report which Reframe Context can be used. |
| Incident | Descriptions given for this incident |
|---|---|
| I00173 Edited ABC News clip fuels false claims of 1 million Ukrainian soldiers' deaths | [In December 2024 a] 15-second video showing Ukrainian soldiers walking with prosthetic limbs has gone viral on social media, claiming to be an ABC News report estimating the deaths of nearly one million Ukrainian soldiers in the ongoing war with Russia. The voiceover in the viral video states, "That only a small part, in just 2.5 years of war, about a million Ukrainian soldiers have died, and according to the most optimistic estimates, hundreds of thousands have lost limbs, these statistics are incredible, just incredible." [...] An X user shared this video and wrote, “ABC NEWS: 'In just about 2.5 years of war about 1 million Ukrainian soldiers have died' and 'hundreds of thousands have lost limbs.' All of this was preventable. They lost an entire generation.” At the time of writing this check, the post had amassed over 250,000 views and more than 5,200 likes. [...] However, we found that a 2023 ABC News report about Ukrainian soldiers with prosthetic limbs was digitally altered to create the viral clip (T0162.002: Edits Made to News Report which Reframe Context). A reverse image search of keyframes from the viral video led us to similar footage published by ABC News on March 28, 2023, headlined: “Good Samaritans outfit Ukrainian soldiers with prosthetics." The video mentioned two Ukrainian soldiers who lost their legs to a landmine in Ukraine and were treated with prosthetic legs in the United States. A similar video was uploaded to the ABC News YouTube channel on March 29, 2023. The visuals in the viral video are identical to those in multiple instances of the original 2023 ABC News YouTube video. The initial two seconds of the viral clip can be seen from the timestamp of 2:33 to 2:36 seconds of the ABC News video (T0165.001: Clipped Content). In this segment, one of the soldiers can be seen walking, and the reporter in the background can be heard saying, “injured during a combat mission near Davydiv Brid, despite all he's lost,” unlike the viral video where the voiceover starts with, "That only a small part, in just 2.5 years of war." [...] The narration of the viral video is different from the original video, and the reporter does not mention any estimate of the killings of the Ukrainian soldiers in the war with Russia that began in February 2022. The only estimated figure comes from an expert at the timestamp of 3:59 minute mark, stating, "much more has to be done we don't know, exact number we believe in thousands of amputees." This indicates that the viral video's visuals were taken from the ABC News video published in 2023. An unrelated audio, likely AI-generated (T0162.006: AI-Generated Content Incorrectly Presented as Depicting Reality), was added to it, confirming that the viral video is fabricated. Deepfake-o-meter indicated a high likelihood of the audio clip being AI-generated, with its RawNet3 (2023) rating the clip at 91.3 percent AI-generated. Additionally, another tool, Resemble Detect, found the audio clip to be fake. |
| Counters | Response types |
|---|
DO NOT EDIT ABOVE THIS LINE - PLEASE ADD NOTES BELOW