Fact Check: A Video Claiming to Show Ukrainian ‘Crisis Actors’ Is Fake

The video is a combination of two separate newscasts.

By
6

A viral video claims to show a newscast from Ukraine in which one of the supposedly deceased Ukrainians in a body bag in the background moves.

https://twitter.com/HELDbytheBELLE/status/1500518122733936642

One posting of this video—which was shared by Robert O’Neill, a former Navy SEAL who purportedly killed Osama bin Laden and is now a COVID conspiracy theorist—was taken down by Twitter, but the video is still widespread on the platform.

Keep reading with a free account
Create a free Dispatch account to keep reading Get Started ALREADY HAVE AN ACCOUNT? SIGN IN
6
By
Comments (6)
Join The Dispatch to participate in the comments.
 
  1. Avatar photo
    Jake

    At least we’re recycling

    Collapse
  2. Avatar photo
    Chany Ockert

    Serious question for fact check … what is the origin of the term “crisis actor”?

    I hear the term used normally with conspiracy theories, but why was it introduced to our lexicon?

    Collapse
    1. Avatar photo
      Adam Bridge

      The first I heard of it was after Sandy Hook. According to Wikipedia it was used in this context by James Tracy who suggested the government hired an acting agency to help stage the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings. Claims of "false flag" events are designed to work in the same way: make people question facts.

      I'm disgusted.

      Collapse
  3. Anna A

    Thank you. As disgusting as it is right now, there are a number of pro-Russia social media accounts spreading the "crisis actors" conspiracy, or that the Ukrainian apartment buildings in ruin are actually from a 2018 gas explosion in Magnitogorsk (apparently to the point that the BBC decided to mention they're fake). What's even more awful is that domestic conspiracy nuts are picking them up.

    Collapse
    1. P Satter

      That people in the US--who should very much know better--are promoting Russian propaganda against an innocent country being attacked is indeed "even more awful."

      Collapse
  4. Avatar photo
    Bill Nelson

    If its on the internet it has to be true.

    Collapse