In November 2023, Russian and foreign social networks bypassed a photo of an American journalist who allegedly “reincarnated into a Muslim” and now instead of Ukraine is engaged in the topic of conflict in the Middle East. We checked the reliability of the viral picture.
Since November 6, a photo of the former speaker of the territorial defense forces of Ukraine with a female head scarf began to spread in social networks (supposedthat this is a hijab). “The former (-ted?) Official representative of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Sarah Ashton Churchill reincarnated into a Muslim and now stands for peace in the Middle East. Not for long Sarah in Ukraine grieved ” - It is said In one of the most popular signatures for the picture in the Russian Telegram channel "Uncle Glory"(211,000 views at the time of writing this analysis). Edition "Ukraine.ru"(124,000 views) clarified that this is" not a joke. " The authors of some publications They thinkthat such behavior of Ashton-Chirillo demonstrates the change of trends on the agenda of the Western countries.
Similar posts are found in other Telegram channels, among which "Putin in Telegram"(184 000), Voblya (163,000), "The first folk"(127 000),"Ivan Utenkov"(114 000),"Scott Ritter in Telegram"(108 000),"What happened?"(94,000),"Federation"(82 000),"Special operation z"(76 000),"Yakov Kedmi"(73,000),"Bullet 18+"(63,000),"Russia now"(46,000),"Therapy"(37,000),"Coachman"(35,000),"New 🅉 Ukraine"(45,000),"Anton Elizarov | Leader Wagner"(31 000), Full-Time Trading (29,000), "Sergey Mikheev"(29,000),"Russia 2.0"(24,000),"Shark"(23,000) and"Russia"(21,000). In addition, the picture was published by VKontakte users (examples here, here, here And here), "Classmates" (here, here And here), social networks X (former Twitter; here And here), Tiktok, Facebook*, as well as some News sites.
Sarah Ashton-Churchillo is a transgender journalist from the USA, in early August 2023 which has become The speaker of the Territorial Defense Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. However, on September 20, the press service of the command of the Ukrainian army reportedthat Ashton-Chirillo is removed from his position until the completion of the official investigations In connection with her last statements, which They were not Approved by military leadership. What statements were discussed, it was not specified, but supposedthat the reason served Her statements about one of the "Kremlin propagandists."
The distributed photo with Ashton-Churchill in Hijab is not an independent image, but a screenshot of supposedly her post in a certain social network. Judging by the nickname, Avatar and the interface, this is the service of the Threads microblogs from META*. In the screenshot, an English -language signature is also visible to the picture: "I play for peace in the Middle East." The journalist really has profile In Threads, but such a post was “verified” there. The viral screenshot states that Ashton-Cyrilo allegedly published a photo 15 hours ago. If we take into account that reports about her alleged post began to disperse In the afternoon November 6, the record was supposed to appear late in the evening of November 5. However, at the time of writing this text, the last materials in the Ashton-Churchill account account Date November 13 and July 2023.
In addition, the same screenshot of the post is distributed on the network, and in none of the publications we have considered, a link to the specific recording of Ashton-Churchillo was given. Accordingly, if the post of journalist was removed, then there are no saved versions in the web archings or it is not possible to find them.
The screenshot of the alleged post was disassembled not only in the Russian -speaking segment of the Internet. So, in X you can find many relevant tweets in English (here, here, here And here), Portuguese And even Japanese language, often gaining tens of thousands of views and representing a translation of Russian -speaking publications. One of these posts on German, who received almost 120,000 views, noted by Ashton-Churchillo herself and Retwitter With the signature: "This is the most ridiculous Russian propaganda."
Our colleagues from the Ukrainian factory project GWARA Media also Identified A genuine picture of an American journalist, who formed the basis of photomontage. A real photo of Ashton-Churchillo Published In his Instagram* back in November 2022. In the original, it has other clothes and there is no hijab, while facial expression, glare in the eyes and shadow under the nose coincide with those that are visible in a viral photo.
Note that at the same time our colleagues from GWARA Media And "Without Brechni»Incorrectly identified the site on which the fake post of Ashton-Churchillo was allegedly published. Ukrainian facts in their refutations said that the viral screenshot shows an entry on the social network X (formerly Twitter), and not on Threads, as we wrote above. In this regard, a pair of arguments in their analysis seems incorrect.
“Verified” suggests that the likely primary source is a Russian-speaking Telegram channel ”Communication unit"(55,000 views), where the fabricated screenshot of the post of Ashton-Churchillo appeared on November 6 at 13:01 Moscow time. At least, we could not find earlier publications either by keywords or through searching for the picture. "Knot of communication" several times already Facing In our analysis of various kinds of misinformation. Moreover, according to our data, one day this channel is already Standing At the origins of the spread of another anti -Ukrainian fake.
*Russian authorities They think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns social networks Facebook and Instagram, an extremist organization, its activities in Russia are prohibited.
Photo on the cover: social networks
- Is it true that in Germany a child was taken from the Muslim family for rejection of the “values of LGBT”?
- Is it true that Islam has been banned in Japan and infringe on the rights of Muslims?
- Is it true that Lev Tolstoy accepted Islam?
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