Ukraine: The 'cardboard revolution' enters its second day of protests
Many had believed that Ukraine's young people had all left the country to escape conscription or bombardments. Yet the youth were present in Kyiv and in several other cities across the country. On Tuesday, a young veteran who enlisted in 2023 and sported a black beard and a plain white T-shirt was the main figure who called for the protests on social media. By Wednesday, the call had spread across Facebook, with adults and elected officials included, announcing demonstrations to be held at 8 pm in Kyiv and 6 pm in regional capitals. Yet it was the country's young people, simultaneously serious and witty, who took the lead. They chose the makeshift cardboard signs to show that they did not want pre-printed posters, partisan materials or the slogans of career politicians.
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AFP
an hour ago
- AFP
Old military exercise photo misrepresented as Thailand-Cambodia clashes
"Thailand launches AIR STRIKES on Cambodian military targets," reads a post shared July 25, 2025 on X that features the photo. Image Screenshot of the false post captured July 28, 2025, with a red 'X' added by AFP Similar posts also ricocheted on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube as the bloodiest military clashes in more than a decade erupted between Thailand and Cambodia (archived link). At least 35 people have been killed and more than 200,000 displaced since the dramatic escalation in hostilities between the neighbouring countries over their jungle-clad frontier, which is home to a smattering of contested ancient temples. Both sides began discussing a ceasefire on July 28 at the residence of Malaysian leader Anwar Ibrahim, serving chair of the ASEAN bloc of which Thailand and Cambodia are members. However, a reverse image search of keyframes on Google traced the picture to a Facebook post from the Thai Royal Air Force on June 16, 2025, weeks before fighting started (archived link). "Images of the collaboration between the strong air forces of Thailand and Indonesia through the mixed drills," reads part of the caption, adding that the exercise took place from June 9 to 19. "Both countries' air forces took to the skies above southern Esan," it goes on to say, referring to the northwestern region of Thailand. Image Screenshot of the Royal Thai Air Force post taken July 28, 2025, with the picture highlighted by AFP The Royal Thai Air Force also published a press release on its official website about the conclusion of the joint air drills with Indonesia on June 20, 2025 (archived link). Matching visuals -- including the aircraft images and the logo -- can also be seen in a June 19 article about the joint Thai-Indonesian air drill on a dedicated blog (archived link). AFP has debunked more misinformation on the Thailand-Cambodia dispute here, here and here.
AFP
3 days ago
- AFP
Story of dead surgeon linked to Brigitte Macron is fabricated
"Surgeon linked to Brigitte Macron transgender speculation found dead," says a July 3, 2025 post on X. "Solidifies suspicion that Macron is married to an XY Groomer." The video opens by showing first responders parked below a Parisian building, with a voiceover and subtitles claiming it is the site where the surgeon, François Faivre, fell to his death. The clip goes on to depict what purports to be an interview with the dead man's sister, Anne Dupont. Then it claims to show a portion of an initial interview the surgeon gave about Brigitte Macron to the magazine Closer before his death. "According to Ms. Dupont, her brother is a colleague of the famous doctor Patrick Bui," the subtitles say. "François Faivre had promised journalists he would shed light on the controversial surgical operations of Mrs. Brigitte Macron." The rumor that a surgeon died before releasing further information on Brigitte Macron spread in articles and in posts across Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok and YouTube. The claims were widespread in French and also appeared in Catalan, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese and Russian. Many posts reference the "Enquête du jour" website, where the video and an accompanying article appear to have originated. Image Screenshot of an X post taken July 25, 2025 Image Screenshot of an Instagram post taken July 25, 2025 The claims followed years of transphobic disinformation targeting the French first lady. In January, Owens released the "Becoming Brigitte" series, which claimed without substantive evidence that Brigitte Macron was not only formerly a man, but also Emmanuel Macron's blood relative. It also alleged Emmanuel Macron became France's president as part of CIA mind-control program, reigniting longstanding French conspiracy theories. On July 23, the Macrons filed a defamation suit against Owens in the US state of Delaware. More iterations of the dead-doctor narrative followed. "Of course they waited until now the file this lawsuit," says one July 24 Facebook post. "The doctor who did Brigitte's surgeries conveniently died last month." But like Owens's allegations about Brigitte Macron's gender history, the online claims that her surgeon died under suspicious circumstances are unfounded. The doctor referenced in the claims does not appear to exist, and the purported news reports cite evidence that is manipulated or entirely invented. The fabricated "François Faivre" The video claims François Faivre worked at the American Hospital of Paris alongside Patrick Bui, who supposedly spoke to him about Brigitte Macron undergoing a transgender surgery operation. While Bui does appear on the hospital's website, the medical center told AFP July 8 it had "no record of a cosmetic surgeon named François Faivre being able to practice there" (archived here). Searches of the French health insurance directory surfaced no matching results for a doctor named "François Faivre." Image Screenshot of the French state health insurance directory taken July 25, 2025 The video's depiction of the alleged doctor further suggests his identity was invented. The rail moulding on the wall disappears abruptly, and one of the hanging certificates trails off into illegible gibberish -- both common indicators of images generated be artificial intelligence. Image Screenshot of a YouTube video taken July 25, 2025 with highlights added by AFP AFP attempted to identify "François Faivre" by plugging the video's visuals into the facial-recognition tool PimEyes. The results uncovered an image of an individual on the iStock photo bank of Getty Images, published May 28, 2017 (archived here). Image Screenshots of an X post and the iStock photo library both taken July 25, 2025 The same face appears in different pieces of commercial content that are otherwise disconnected (archived here, here, here and here). AI technologies can create deceptive content based off existing photos. Further inconsistencies Other elements of the supposed report showed evidence of manipulation. For example, the images of the alleged crime scene are actually footage of Paris that AFP published October 15, 2022, nearly three years before the surgeon was claimed to have died (archived here). Image Screenshot of a Facebook post taken July 25, 2025 Image Screenshot of an AFP YouTube video taken July 25, 2025 The deepfake detector in the Verification Plugin, also known as InVID-WeVerify, assessed that the voices in the video were "very likely generated by AI." Image Screenshot of the results accessed via the Verification Plugin tool on July 25, 2025 The shot of the doctor's supposed sister also shows signs of manipulation. The size of her eyes changes frequently, while her blinking appears irregular, again pointing towards the use of . Image Screenshot of a video on the Enquête du jour website taken July 7, 2025 Invented reports, impersonated journalists Closer, the magazine alleged to have interviewed the surgeon, confirmed to AFP July 11, 2025 that none of its journalists had ever spoken to the supposed doctor. The "Enquête du jour" website that laundered the claims, meanwhile, was created June 25 -- just one week before the article appeared -- according to domain registration data (archived here). The site was registered in Delaware under the name "Ano Nymous." As of July 25, the site is no longer available. Image Screenshot of search results for the site taken July 7, 2025 The site's articles also appropriated the identities of at least six French journalists. Audrey Parmentier, whose byline accompanied the report about the surgeon's death, confirmed to French media she did not author the stories on the website. Freelance journalist Aurélien Defer told AFP July 3 he was "completely taken aback" to discover he had been impersonated. "From what I understand, almost all of the published articles serve to give this site the appearance of a reliable and general information source in order to be able to spread false information about Brigitte Macron," he said. Image Screenshot of Enquête du jour taken July 3, 2025 Defer said the method of impersonating journalists resembled Russian disinformation campaigns, a connection also made by the misinformation monitoring service NewsGuard. NewsGuard wrote the "François Faivre" claim used similar tactics to the Russian influence operation Storm-1516 (archived here). Brigitte Macron is among a group of influential women -- including former US first lady Michelle Obama and Canada's Diana Fox Carney -- about whom AFP has debunked gendered disinformation.
France 24
3 days ago
- France 24
Meta to ban political ads in EU due to bloc's 'unworkable' rules
The EU has a bolstered legal armoury to rein in Big Tech, against which Meta has hit out with the support of the US administration under President Donald Trump. "This is a difficult decision -- one we've taken in response to the EU's incoming Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) regulation," the company said. Political, electoral and social issue advertising will no longer be allowed from October in the bloc, it said, because of "unworkable requirements" under the new rules. "Unfortunately, the TTPA introduces significant, additional obligations to our processes and systems that create an untenable level of complexity and legal uncertainty for advertisers and platforms operating in the EU," Meta added. The EU says its political advertising rules seek to increase transparency in online advertising after Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal, which came to light in 2018. Cambridge Analytica was a consulting firm that was found to have improperly accessed personal data from millions of Facebook users for targeted political advertising, particularly during the 2016 US election and Brexit referendum. The change is set to impact Meta's flagship platforms Facebook and Instagram, as well as WhatsApp -- which is largely ad-free but announced in June it would be introducing new advertising features in some parts of the app. Meta said it was "not the only company to have been forced into this position". Google last year announced it would also prevent political advertising in the EU from October 2025 because of the "significant new operational challenges and legal uncertainties". Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been highly critical of European rules, accusing Brussels in January of "censorship" and equating EU fines against the company to tariffs. The latest row between Meta and the EU has been over the firm's "pay or consent" system. The EU imposed a 200-million-euro ($235-million) fine in April after concluding Meta violated rules on the use of personal data on Facebook and Instagram. The company faces additional daily penalties if it does not make changes, with Brussels yet to decide whether Meta has modified the platforms enough to avoid more fines.
