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11 months ago
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The BBC did not publish a video claiming that a Ukrainian politician sold arms to Hamas as suggested by images circulating online that carry BBC branding and cite investigative group Bellingcat. The clip is fake, according to representatives of both BBC and Bellingcat.
The clip as well as screengrabs from the video, which surfaced on X (archived) and Facebook (archived), have the appearance of a BBC social media video, with the BBC logo visible at the top left corner.
Text overlaid on the video at the start of the clip reads: “A Ukrainian politician may be involved in arms sales to Hamas.”
Further text cites Bellingcat as having reported that the International Criminal Court is “preparing a case” against David Arakhamia, the leader of Ukraine’s Servant of the People political party, although the video caption incorrectly spells his name.
The video (timestamp 00:48s) cites BBC journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh as saying: “We are dealing with serious allegations.”
Sardarizadeh said on X that the quote attributed to him is “fake” and “total nonsense.”
A BBC spokesperson told Reuters in a 6 December email, “This is not a BBC News video.”
Founder of Bellingcat, Eliot Higgins also said in an email that Bellingcat “has done no investigation that supports the claims in the videos.”
The video is not on the BBC News website, nor is it on the outlet’s social media channels.
No such relevant report is on the Bellingcat website or social media channels.
The video is an example of imposter content – a clip or image that mimics an organization, such as a news outlet, to propagate a claim or narrative.
Reuters has previously addressed the narrative – for which there was no evidence – that weapons from Ukraine are being supplied to Hamas.
Verdict
False. BBC News did not publish the video, a spokesperson said to Reuters. Bellingcat did not release any related report, the founder of the organization said.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team.
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