The Yemeni Network for Fact-Checking - Jameel Al-Ja'dabi
Simultaneous with the airstrikes by the US and British forces on Yemeni provinces on Friday and Saturday, January 12-13, 2024, satellite channels, well-known personal accounts, and news pages on social media rushed to disseminate misleading or inaccurate information, including video clips claiming to show the airstrikes on Sana'a and Hodeidah.
For instance, the YouTube channel of Al-Mahriya TV posted a video titled "American-British Aggression Bombing Sana'a," which garnered 257,345 views and 752 comments, along with 2,800 likes as of January 15, 2024.
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Similarly, the "Al-Hawzr Taiz" channel on YouTube shared a similar video titled "Moments of the American-Israeli-British Coalition Strikes on Taiz, Sana'a, Hodeidah, Hajjah, Saada, and Dhamar." Within four days, the video accumulated 430,085 views, over 1,000 comments, and 5,000 likes.
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Ahmed Saleh's account on the social media platform "X" also claimed, "Very wide American-British attack with Tomahawk missiles launched from warplanes, submarines, and warships is currently taking place in Yemen against the Houthi. Aerial bombardments are occurring on the capital Sana'a, Hodeidah, Saada, and Dhamar." The video received 129,000 views, 167 reposts, 244 interactions, and 10 comments.
Fact-Checking Criteria and Methodology for Video Content
According to the Yemeni Network for Fact-Checking's standards, which are general criteria for selecting news and stories to fact-check, the timing of these news reports is recent and still impactful, drawing significant public attention inside and outside Yemen.
Fact-checking such content serves the public interest, protecting the public and the public opinion from the risks of information disorder and misinformation, especially during times of crises and wars.
Following the network's methodology, we began by examining the content in the posted video clips with a skeptical eye. We observed palm tree images on a public street in some clips, which raised suspicions as it contradicted the reality of the scenes being in Sana'a.
Upon analyzing the content's images, we noticed a recurring scene of a truck loading and unloading medium-sized goods while a fire blazed at the targeted location in the alleged airstrikes. This scene was repeated in claims published as moments of American-British airstrikes on Sana'a on Friday, January 12, 2024.
From this point, we saw the need to divide the video into frames/images using a tool and stop at the 5-second mark, where a complete image of the truck's dimensions and features could be used to verify the content's accuracy.
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The second step involved using Google's reverse image and video search service to obtain the first result that specified the date of the image and video's initial publication. The search result revealed that the alleged video of the American-British airstrikes on Sana'a on January 12, 2024, was first published on September 3, 2023, under the title "Moment of Explosion of the Central Station of the Mafzar Gas in Sana'a. Tour of Ayah Struck, Lord Protect Your Servants," through the Legend of Sana'a Real Estate channel on YouTube, as shown in Image 4.
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Additional Evidence and Multiple Sources
To support this evidence, which revealed the inaccuracy of the video, we gathered additional evidence from primary/secondary, official/civilian sources by extracting and using names, descriptions, comments, and accompanying descriptive texts of the videos.
Searching for keywords such as "gas company, Sana'a, Mafzar Company, explosion" revealed that the news of the explosion and fire at this gas station was reported by primary sources and official media on July 3, September 2023, according to the 26 September newspaper online.
This newspaper, speaking on behalf of the Ministry of Defense in Sana'a, quoted a source in the Civil Defense Authority saying, "A gas trailer exploded at the station, and firefighters and ambulances rushed to the area amid difficulty in reaching due to the intensity of the flames and the presence of gas-loaded trucks being worked on to extract."
The "Al-Amin" private newspaper on the same date quoted the official spokesperson for the Yemeni Gas Company in Sana'a, Ali Al-Masir, saying, "An electrical fault in the yard of the 'Yemen Gas' company, located in front of Al-Kharafi camp after the Ayah round, caused a fire leading to the explosion of a gas trailer." Civil Defense forces moved to the location to extinguish the fire.
Therefore, the documented evidence here shows that the video clips published as American-British airstrikes on the provinces of Sana'a, Taiz, Dhamar, Hodeidah, Hajjah, and Saada on Friday and Saturday, January 12-13, 2024, are deceptive/fake/inaccurate claims. A significant portion of the content appears to be out of context and time of the claims.
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The alleged videos of the moment of American-British airstrikes on Yemen are composed/clipped from old clips of an incident involving the explosion/fire of a gas cylinder filling station in Sana'a four months and ten days ago in September 2023.
The manipulation of video clips and their publication under these titles, containing misleading information and video clips and images, aims to provoke an emotional response from the targeted audience and achieve high engagement rates on social media platforms.
List of Evidence and Sources Links: