A video that was doctored to look like a BBC News report has gone viral and pushes the baseless claim that Poland is preparing to send troops into Ukraine. Let’s take a look at the facts.

NewsLit takeaway

Altering digital images and video — or creating imposter social media accounts — to fabricate the appearance of standards-based news reporting is a common practice of satirists and bad actors online. In fact, trolls and propagandists often steal these kinds of satirical graphics and circulate them out of context. But sometimes purveyors of disinformation create their own “fake news” reports — either to manufacture credibility for a false claim, as in the rumor above, or to falsely impugn a news source. The bottom line: Stay skeptical of screenshots or videos that appear to be news coverage unless they are linked to the website of the news organization whose branding appears in the post.

Here is a full copy of the video:

Related: “Fact Check-Video shows Finland moving tanks to planned military exercise, not to Russian border” (Reuters Fact Check).

• “Fact Check-BBC did not report Poland preparing to send troops to Ukraine” (Reuters Fact Check).