Iran war brings fake news to social media
False information tends to follow uncertain times, and the recent war with Iran is no exception.
Social media posts following the conflict have “presented years-old footage as current, falsely claimed that U.S. military vehicles had been destroyed and erroneously claimed to show casualties of the war,” according to The Associated Press.
It was reported that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in Feb. 28 attacks by Israel and the U.S.
Hours later an X post claimed to show Khamenei buried under the wreckage.
“Moment the Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei was found under rubble after his compound was struck by Israel,” read the post’s text over a photo showing a man, with his face blurred, trapped under concrete. Four other men, wearing hard hats and safety vests, appear to be trying to get the trapped man out.
But this is false, the AP said. Khamenei was killed, but this dramatic scene was created using artificial intelligence.
An official photo of the Supreme Leader’s body has not been released to the public.
In a different false claim, a video posted to social media purports to show thousands of Israelis leaving the area following counter attacks. But that’s not accurate, the AP said. The clip shows people attending the first day of a festival.
The June 19, 2025, video shows people arriving for the start of Hellfest, a heavy metal festival in Clisson, France. The attendees are walking along a dirt path and across a grassy field while carrying bags and pulling coolers and suitcases on carts. The text on the post reads, in French, “Hellfest campsite opened yesterday.”
In another social media post, a solemn video shows military personnel unloading American flag-draped coffins off a plane and transferring them into a white vehicle. The post claims these are deceased U.S. soldiers returning from the Iran war.
This video is real, but it’s not recent, according to the AP.
The clip is from June 8, 2011, and it shows the dignified transfer of U.S. service members who died in Iraq during Operation New Dawn. That video, taken by a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, has been posted to YouTube. It matches the videos that have been recently posted claiming to be new.
Maxwell not living in Canada
A recent social media video claims to show convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell, who was associated with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, out of jail and living in Canada.
“In case the gov ever decides to arrest these people, I’m pretty sure this guy on TikTok just found the real Maxwell in Canada,” reads the text on a post sharing the video.
During the clip, the person behind the camera approaches a woman who bears a resemblance to Maxwell.
“Ghislaine?” the cameraman asked, “Do I know you?”
“No, sorry,” the woman answered.
No, this is not a video of Maxwell, according to Reuters. She is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.
This video, which was first posted Feb. 19, was manipulated using artificial intelligence. In a later post, the user said the clip was created with an AI tool called a faceswap, which replaces one person’s face with the face of another.
In the original version, the user labels the post as “a faceswap satirical video,” although other users who shared the clip didn’t share the disclaimer.
Snow car isn’t real
A Feb. 22 Instagram post claimed a man created a snow sculpture that fooled local law enforcement.
“NYC man crafts realistic snow car — receives parking ticket from NYPD,” reads the text on the post. A video shows a man carefully shaping and painting the look of a car.
A narrator said the man, “built a car out of snow to protest the city’s snow problem.”
But this video is fake, according to PolitiFact. It has nothing to do with a recent snowfall. This video was made up using two other videos, one from 2018 and another from 2021.
The 2018 video, posted to Facebook, showed a man in Montreal, Canada, creating a fake car out of snow. A good-hearted police officer even issued a fake ticket. The sculpture, which was in a snow removal zone, was cleared the next day.
The 2021 clip was taken from a story about a Lithuanian couple who created a full-size, painted Ferrari sculpture out of snow.
• Bob Oswald is a veteran Chicago-area journalist and former news editor of the Elgin Courier-News. Contact him at boboswald33@gmail.com.