In April 2023, they wrote on social networks that in Poland they saw Russian propaganda in the Harry Potter films because of a lightning-shaped scar - it supposedly resembles the letter Z, so the mark on the young wizard’s forehead was covered up. We have verified these messages.
Publications about digital editing of films from the Harry Potter film franchise by Poles appeared a couple of weeks ago - at the end of April. The text of one of the most popular versions of the news sounds like this: “The Poles have completely moved away from reality. This time, a Polish channel saw Putin’s propaganda in “Harry Potter” and used a neural network to remove the scar from Harry’s forehead in the film, because it might remind someone of the letter Z and cause an irreparable mental wound.” At the same time, most publications also have a video in Polish or screenshots from this video attached.
Most of all, the news spread through Russian-language Telegram channels, including “First patriotic"(61,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Therapy 18+" (55,000), "Boiling water"(53,000), Russia 🇷🇺 Live (51,000), Nina Vatt 🇷🇺 (34,000), "I'm shocked"(33,000), "New 🅉 Ukraine"(30,000), "Batkovich"(22,000), "[Z] Hand of the Kremlin" (18,000), "Urgent and accurate" (17,000), "Summary"(16,000), "Lightning" (7000) and "Guard"(7000). In addition, similar posts are found on VKontakte - as in public pages (examples here, here, here And here), and on users’ personal pages (here, here, here, here And here), as well as in "Zene"
The earliest publication with news and a viral video that Verified could find was appeared April 27, 2023 at 11:25 Moscow time in the Telegram channel “Before anyone else. Well almost. Special Operation" (12,000 views). The attached video in Polish says: “The TV channel Stopklatka has removed Harry Potter's scar. Stopklatka angered viewers by changing the appearance of Harry Potter in the film. The famous lightning bolt scar disappeared from Harry's forehead. When watching the film "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone," viewers noticed the absence of a scar on the hero's head. The Stopklatka channel removed the scar using a neural network because its appearance could offend a certain category of viewers. The fact is that the lightning symbol on Harry Potter’s forehead, due to its characteristic curvature, can cause unpleasant associations with symbols of Russian aggression in Ukraine. There was no answer from the channel administration whether the original appearance will be restored. [Channel] HBO has announced the premiere of the Harry Potter series in 2025. However, it is clear that the actors who appeared in the Harry Potter films will not be used in the series."
In the upper left corner of the viral video there is the DGP Flesz logo, and at the very end there is a QR code with a link to chapter “Russia-Ukraine” on the website dziennik.pl. In 2009, as a result of the merger of two publications, Dziennik and Gazeta Prawna, appeared newspaper Dziennik Gazeta Prawna (DGP). The DGP Flesz logo appears on some videos on YouTube-channel and in Facebook- newspaper account, but we did not find the video we were interested in there. In addition, there is no news about the removal of the wizard's scar on any websites gazetaprawna.pl or dziennik.pl, nor on website or on social networks (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube) TV channel Stopklatka - we did not find any mention of such a story in Polish social networks or the media.
“Verified” sent a request to the DGP editorial office and received the following response from the deputy editor-in-chief Barbara Kasprzycki: “Sorry for the delay, but I wanted to make sure and check in all possible places to be able to answer unequivocally: no, these are not our personnel. In this case, someone illegally used our logo.”
Other minor details also give away the fake. For example, if you compare the video footage of the video being distributed with those officially published on the newspaper’s resources, you can find several differences. Firstly, in everyone In real videos with the DGP Flesz logo, the same melody sounds - not the same one heard in the viral video. Secondly, the Harry Potter video shows a different font from the one actually used by the newspaper, most noticeably in the writing of the year, the numbers 2 and 5, and the letters J, R and S.
The video contains oddities and inaccuracies that even relate to confirmed news. So, at the end of the video, the announcement of the serial adaptation of the Harry Potter books is mentioned and it is said that it will be released in 2025. Officially the project was announced April 12, 2023, while the year of release was not named, but expectedthat the premiere will take place in 2025–2026 on the streaming service Max (former HBO Max). At the same time, in the background of the video that appeared on April 27, a news story is shown. note English-language site polygon.com on April 3, which reported only a rumor that a series could be released based on the works of JK Rowling. The fake video was probably created long before the official announcement.
Thus, the only evidence that the Polish TV channel removed his scar from the Harry Potter films is a video with the logo of the DGP newspaper, whose editors denied its authenticity. Initially, the fake video appeared in the Russian-language Telegram channel, which Verified had previously caught distributing fake videos more than once. rollers and video reports from foreign publications, including American TV channel and Polish website.
Cover photo: screenshot “Verified” / social networks
Fake
- Is it true that the official Harry Potter series will feature non-binary and transgender actors?
- Is it true that Emma Watson spoke out about being bullied at university because of her role in Harry Potter?
- Is it true that there is a quote in Harry Potter about Voldemort and the long table?
- The fictional world of Gek publics (VMGP)
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