These images shocked and baffled us in 2022 – and they were all fake

Spectacular fake photos were also high season on the internet in 2022. Many were innocently funny and passed on with no ill intent. Like this satirical post on Twitter that made fun of Donald Trump during the summer heat wave.

No, the highway police did not make fun of Trump with that report

This joke by a French scientist was also quite innocent.

No, we’re not seeing a spectacular image of a newly discovered star here

Images from space captured by NASA’s new James Webb telescope stunned the world this year. Physicist Etienne Klein joked and wrote on Twitter that the James Webb telescope had captured the closest star to the sun so sharply. But the photo does not show Proxima Centauri, but a slice of chorizo ​​sausage in front of a black background. Klein later said he wanted to use the prank to sensitize people to fake news.

Other fake images are based on tangible political interests, such as when Trump supporters want to discredit US President Joe Biden with fake images.

No, Joe Biden did not grope Volodymyr Zelenskyy

To claim:

US President Joe Biden is said to have grabbed his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy by the ass during his visit to Washington.

Fact checking:

The hand was on the back, as seen in the original photo published on the official Twitter account of the first lady, Jill Biden.

Biden’s hand could have slipped down a second after the photo was taken, but an image analysis by the fake Internet portal Mimikama leaves no doubt that the photo was manipulated with a hand on the underside.

Where Joe Biden’s thumb was just below Jill Biden’s hand, a few pixels can still be seen between the fingers in the manipulated image.

No, Zelenskyj’s daughter did not flee to Poland

To claim:

In April 2022, the image of a crying young woman circulated on social networks. The lyrics: “Alexandra Zelenskaya, daughter of Volodymyr Zelenskyj, hates her father, calls him a Nazi and murderer of the Ukrainian people.” She fled to Poland and now reveals the whole truth about her father.

Fact checking:

The photo does not show Zelenskyj’s daughter. It was exposed as fake by ZDF’s fact-checkers. The photo appeared on a Russian website in 2017. There it was said that the woman was crying because her boyfriend had not given her an iPhone.

No, no Russians were murdered in Germany by Ukrainian refugees

To claim:

In 2022, videos repeatedly circulated on Facebook, TikTok and other social media with false claims that people of Russian descent were stabbed or beaten to death by “Ukrainian Nazis” in Germany simply because they spoke Russian.

Fact checking:

The allegations are fictitious. German police authorities warn against these false messages, which are intended to incite hatred against Ukrainian refugees. In this way, Russia is trying to reduce popular support for military aid to Ukraine. An investigation by ZDF and t-online found that the propaganda messages can likely be attributed to the news portal of Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin. The billionaire is also behind the Russian troll factory «Internet Research Agency» in St. Petersburg.

No, there was no cocaine on his desk during Zelenskyj’s conversation with Elon Musk

To claim:

A video reportedly shows cocaine on the Ukrainian president’s desk while he was on a video call with tech billionaire Elon Musk shortly after the start of the war.

Fact checking:

The manipulated video was distributed on Russian Telegram channels in April. The original video without the digitally added cocaine was published on Zelenskyj’s Instagram account in early March.

No, we do not see the mayor of Kiev, Vitali Klitschko, fighting the Russians here

To claim:

This photo was taken by Vitali Klitschko went viral in the early days of the war. It is intended to show how the mayor of Kiev defends his country.

Fact checking:

The photo is real. However, a fact check by Deutsche Welle revealed that former professional boxer Klitschko had already published the photo on his Instagram profile a year before the outbreak of war. It shows him doing an exercise with Ukrainian reservists. So the tweet is misleading to say the least.

No, the federal government does not use this poster to address neighbors who burn too much

To claim:

“Does the neighbor heat the apartment above 19 degrees? Let us know”. An alleged poster with the federal logo calls on the population to denounce “hot sinners”. You receive a reward of CHF 200 for information.

Fact checking:

Such a poster does not exist. The photo montage is based on a stock photo from a photo agency. Although the fake is obvious, the image started doing the rounds from September on various messaging services such as WhatsApp and Telegram, as well as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

No, this spectacular photo is not of Monster Hurricane Ian over Miami

To claim:

At the end of September 2022, Hurricane Ian devastated large coastal areas in Florida. A spectacular photo, reportedly taken from an airplane, is said to show Ian over Miami.

Fact checking:

The photo shared online is a montage. It shows Miami and the thundercloud is real too, but the supercell shot is of one Thunderstorm of 2016 in Kansas. The photo montage was created by an artist in 2019. In early October this year, she made the rounds on Twitter with the false claim that she showed the hurricane that hit Miami.

No, WEF founder Klaus Schwab’s father was not a Nazi officer

To claim:

At the end of May, a photo was shared on Facebook showing WEF founder Klaus Schwab and his alleged father. It was alleged that his father ran a concentration camp.

Fact checking:

The photo is a fake, as Watson’s fact check revealed. WEF founder Klaus Schwab was born in Germany and is the son of Swiss Eugen Wilhelm Schwab. His father was not a Nazi officer. The family was being watched by the Gestapo, the Nazi espionage agency.

The spread of the fake image began on May 24, 2022 on Reddit, followed by an avalanche of tweets, Facebook posts, and blog articles. It is not entirely clear who the man in the photo is. Several online forums and databases identify the man as Walter Dybilasz, a major general in the German Wehrmacht. One of these images was used for the forgery.

More fake photos and videos that keep circulating the internet

No, Putin is not riding a bear

Here’s the bear’s original video before Putin’s digital insertion.

No, this is not a graveyard for electric cars in France

The photo shows a car junkyard in China. The cars belonged to an electric car-sharing company that went bankrupt in 2019. The reason for this was not, as claimed, the cost of replacing the battery (which is rarely necessary with e-cars), but the lack of demand for the car-sharing service.

No, singer Ariane Grande was never Osama Bin Laden’s girlfriend

No, that’s not how athletic competitions are filmed

No, this is not the smallest bird in the world

No, that’s not a blue owl

No, that’s not the moon over the Alps

No, the two-faced man did not exist

No, clouds don’t look like that in China either

No, Selenskyj did not use coke during his visit to Bucha