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.