Russian propaganda sources are spreading a video allegedly created by Bellingcat. It says that in 2024 the BBC became the record holder for the number of fakes published among all the world media outlets — 2,000 fakes. In second and third place were CNN and Der Spiegel, respectively. As a result, Eliot Higgins, journalist and founder of Bellingcat, allegedly applied to the Guinness World Records, and the “record” is to be published in 2025.

This is fake news, writes VoxCheck. Bellingcat did not publish such a video on its official website or on any of its social media accounts. In addition, checking the audio fragment from the video using the artificial intelligence tool Hive Moderation showed that the voice acting had been created using a neural network.

According to Media Bias/Fact Check, the three mentioned publications (BBC, CNN, and Der Spiegel) have either a high or a mostly high level of accuracy of their materials. Also, foreign fact checkers did not report that these media outlets spread these alleged hundreds or even thousands of fakes.

The Reuters Institute Digital News Report states that according to the results of a survey of citizens of the UK, the US and Germany, the BBC has the most trust among the British — 62%, CNN — 48% among Americans, and Der Spiegel — 54% among Germans.

Earlier, we refuted claims that a Bellingcat investigation had proven Andrii Yermak paid Time Magazine for a spot in its list of The Most Influential People of the year.

Russian Telegram channels have shared a photo from the alleged website of a Ukrainian funeral service that transports the dead around the world. Propagandists write that it has been operating since 2022 and claims “hundreds of satisfied customers”.

In fact, this information is not true, reports the VoxCheck project. Using the interface details in the screenshot that is being shared online, it was possible to find out that this is a screenshot of the website of the VIK funeral home. The company does provide services for transporting the deceased both to and from Ukraine.

However, the corresponding page of the site has been edited – the original talks about the complexity of transporting bodies to other countries and the willingness to help with any kinds of issues. There is no section on the site that says “hundreds of satisfied customers”. Also, according to propagandists, the bureau has been operating since 2022, although the official website states that the bureau has been operating since 2016.

Earlier, we analyzed fake news about a funeral company from Cherkasy issuing leaflets with the inscription “take care of your husband in advance”.

Russian propaganda Telegram channels are circulating photos allegedly depicting a rally in Kyiv involving the wives and children of Ukrainian military personnel participating in the Kursk operation. At the rally, children of Ukrainian soldiers are supposedly holding posters with slogans “Syrskyi, where is our dad?” and “Syrskyi, bring dad home!”.

This is actually fake news, writes the VoxCheck project. Thanks to Google’s reverse image search function, it was possible to find out that the photos distributed by propagandists are fabricated. In the original photos the inscriptions on the posters are different. The actual slogans were “For the Armed Forces of Ukraine!” and “Buy toys to help soldiers!”. One of the photos was taken in April 2022 in Odesa, the other in September 2022 in Kyiv. So in fact, the children from the photos did not rally against the AFU operation in the Kursk region, but collected funds to support Ukrainian fighters.

Earlier, we disproved the information that people in Zhytomyr had protested against Zelenskyi.

Russian propagandists are distributing a photo of a supposedly special offer in one of the Ukrainian clothing stores. The information sign allegedly states: "For veterans of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, a 50% discount on the purchase of one boot."

However, this information is not true, the VoxCheck project reports. Using the Google reverse image search function, a video with this advertisement was found. The video shows that information about the promotion is posted in a fitting room of a store. However, the name of this store is not visible either on the sign or in the frame, despite the fact that the store name is usually duplicated in the announcement of the promotion.

Also, the design of the advertisement often uses the store’s corporate fonts and colors. However, the advertisement about the alleged discount for disabled military personnel has an extremely minimalistic and non-commercial look. Anyone could print such an ad and hang it in a fitting room, and then shoot a video and pass it off as a real campaign.

After all, the ad used the word “disabled”, although the correct word would be “a person with a disability”. And customers from Ukraine did not report existence of such a campaign. Instead, the primary source of this video is a Russian propagandist Armen Hasparian.

Earlier, reports were refuted regarding claims that young people in Kyiv were invited to “lie in a coffin”, and that individuals of draft age were offered a discount.