At the end of July 2023, a video went viral on the Internet that a famous boxer allegedly offered the President of Ukraine to undergo a rehabilitation course. We checked to see if Iron Mike made such a statement.
A 12-second video about the boxer began circulating on social networks on July 28. One of the most popular captions for the video in viral publications is: “The star flash mob continues: boxer Mike Tyson called on Zelensky to fight drug addiction. The famous boxer recommended that the President of Ukraine go to rehabilitation for drug addiction. Earlier, actor Elijah Wood, known for the film “The Lord of the Rings,” made a similar call.” Similar posts appeared in numerous Telegram channels, including “Live broadcast"(623,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Russia now"(320,000), "Observer"(197,000), "Putin on Telegram"(179,000), "Uncle Slava" (176,000), "First People's"(144,000), Voblya (141,000), "Bullet"(137,000), "Scott Ritter on Telegram"(131,000), Rus_criminal (117,000), "Ostashko! Important"(101,000). There are also publications with a much less detailed signature - for example, in the channels “Ne.Sugar"(291,000 views), "KB" (222,000) and "Pozdnyakov 3.0"(212,000). The video can also be found on other platforms: Twitter (examples here, here And here), "VKontakte" (here, here And here), YouTube, Rutube, as well as on some news sites, for example Readovka And "Constantinople"
In the video itself, you can’t hear what the boxer is saying, since music is superimposed on the video. At the same time, the English-language inscriptions report: “Earlier, Mike Tyson made a similar appeal to Vladimir Zelensky. The athlete also recommended that the Ukrainian president go to rehab.” Judging by the text, this is only an excerpt from a longer recording that Verified was able to find.
The full video, almost a minute and a half long, appeared on July 27, but did not become as popular as its short fragment. At the beginning of the original video, it is reported that Elijah Wood allegedly turned to Zelensky with a request to be treated for drug addiction, after which the actor’s Instagram* account was allegedly blocked. "Verified" already sorted it out this story and found out that it was a fake: Wood does not have a public Instagram, so they could not block him, and he did not post an appeal to Zelensky at all. Then we assumed that the creators of the fake ordered a video on the Cameo service, where celebrities record short messages for fans for money.
In addition, the video says that the actor was supported by Internet users and many media outlets. As an example, here are screenshots of several real English-language tweets, all of which were posted by pro-Russian users and supporters of conspiracy theories (their profiles here, here, here And here). The recording also contains a screenshot of what appears to be a BBC news story entitled “A Message from Elijah Wood: How the Brave Hobbit Fights Evil Again,” but this is also fake. On the website of the British Broadcasting Corporation such material No. Other indirect signs indicate a fake: for example, a lowercase letter after a colon (BBC uses capitalized) and a font on the cover that differs from that used on the site (most noticeably the letters a, s, g and b).
Tsargrad tried to find out the authenticity of the one-and-a-half-minute video on its social networks. released a post with the following title (spelling preserved): “Fake or not fake: Figure it out for yourself, but Mike Tyson turned to Zelensky.” Further, the channel's editorial staff write: “The video was allegedly distributed by the Reuters agency (its logo is actually placed in the upper right corner. - Note: “Verified”). We found this video, or rather a fragment of it: yes, there is an agency logo, as well as inscriptions in the style of the same agency. But I haven’t heard a word from Tyson.” The publication also mentions Wood, whose authenticity is not questioned by the TV channel.
In fact, there is no video with the famous boxer and actor website, nor on social networks (Facebook*, Instagram, Twitter (X) And YouTube) by Reuters. In addition, in the viral video at the 0:39 mark, Zelensky’s name was written in the Russian version Vladimir, although before and after that the Ukrainian version Volodymyr was used. Once again, the fonts are different, especially evident in the letters e, g, p, and k. Such videos, mimicking the content of reputable foreign media, have long been distributed across the RuNet. Previously, “Verified” exposed fake logos Al Jazeera, euronews, DGP Flesz, DW** And Fox News Digital.
And yet: did Tyson contact Zelensky? The fake Reuters video does not say where exactly the boxer published his video: it is not on the official website, nor on social networks (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (X), TikTok And YouTube) athlete. Neither well-known and authoritative international media outlets nor tabloids wrote about Tyson’s advice to Zelensky. Although the Ukrainian news agency UNIAN named the video is “a wretched thing that doesn’t even qualify as a deepfake,” “Verified” found out that the video is in fact genuine.
Since in the case of Wood’s fake appeal we assumed that the creators of the fake used the Cameo service, we checked whether Tyson was registered there. It turned out that the boxer's profile is there too available, but the video ordering feature is temporarily unavailable. However, several past videos were published on the athlete’s page, and one of them was addressed to the staff of an international kindergarten Teddy Kids. In the frame, Tyson is captured wearing the same shirt as in the viral recording, and behind him is the same interior. This video was probably the basis for the fake - the creators only had to remove the original sound.
The earliest publication with a video about Tyson's address (of those that Verified was able to track) appeared July 27, 2023 at 12:26 Moscow time in the Telegram channel “DPR 🅉 Info 🇷🇺” (42,000 views). According to our data, this channel was also the original source of distribution of the fake video with Wood.
*Russian authorities think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social networks Facebook and Instagram, is an extremist organization; its activities in Russia are prohibited.
**Russian authorities think Deutsche Welle as a media outlet acting as a foreign agent.
Cover photo: screenshot “Verified” / Mike Tyson (Cameo)
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