Washington Post
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A Trump campaign adviser tweeted about Gaza. The video was from 2,000 miles away. | The Fact Checker
Posted
May 22, 2019
Views
11,873
Likes
245
Comments
43
Engagement
May 22, 2019
11,873
245
43
2.43%
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3:03:09
4:03Now PlayingBy the time a ceasefire settled over the border of Gaza and Israel on May 6, four Israelis and at least 25 Palestinians were dead in what was the worst round of fighting since 2014. In the midst of this round of violence, Katrina Pierson, who serves as a senior adviser to President Trump’s re-election campaign, tweeted a video with a caption about rockets being fired into Israel from Gaza.
However, the video Pierson shared was not filmed in Gaza, nor was it taken in May of 2019. Pierson said she found the video on YouTube, but she declined to provide a link. This same video has been widely circulated on the Internet, incorrectly representing conflict zones in several different countries, including Iraq, Ukraine and Russia. Through digital forensic work The Fact Checker team, as well as others online, found what we believe to be the original location of the footage: Belarus.
Pierson told The Fact Checker in an email the “tweet does not claim that it is actual footage." But there is nothing in her original tweet to give a viewer this cue. Rather, it’s the opposite. She posted a video of rockets, with a caption about rockets, without clarifying where the video was taken. The misleading video she posted gained more than a million views. It’s dangerous for public figures to misattribute conflict footage especially when it could be viewed as an attempt to shift public opinion and shape political rhetoric. Subscribe to The Washington Post on YouTube
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