The world of news is complex – and false stories and images are often widely shared on social media. Blasting News’s editorial team spots the most popular hoaxes and misleading information every week to help you discern truth from falsehood. Here are some of the most shared false claims of this week, of which none are legit.

World

Zelensky's daughter did not call her father a “Nazi” and “murderer of the Ukrainian people”

False claim: Social media users around the world have shared a photo of a young woman crying inside a car, alongside the claim that she is the daughter of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. According to the posts, amid the war with Russia, she fled to Poland and called her father a “Nazi” and a “murderer of the Ukrainian people.”

Truth:

  • A reverse image search shows that the photo was taken from a video circulating on social media at least since 2017.
  • In the clip, the woman appears crying and complaining in Russian because she did not get an iPhone.
  • Images of Aleksandra Zelenskaya, Volodymyr Zelensky's only daughter, shared on Instagram by the Ukrainian president's wife, Olena Zelenska, make it clear that she is not the same young woman who appears in the photo being shared on social media.

Europe

Vote discrepancy in TV broadcast is not evidence of fraud in French presidential elections

False claim: Social media users in France have shared a clip of a broadcast from French TV channel France 2 – during its live coverage of last Sunday’s second round of voting in the French presidential elections – showing far-right candidate Marine Le Pen with 14,432,396 votes, 1.14 million more than she had actually received by the end of the count.

The posts claim that the clip is an evidence of election fraud.

Truth:

  • On April 25, the day after the second round of the French presidential election, France 2 posted on its official Twitter account a statement acknowledging the error in its broadcast.
  • According to France 2, “the software that allows the channel to display data from the Ministry of the Interior counted the votes of certain municipalities twice for the two candidates.” “The Ministry of the Interior has never attributed 14 million votes to Marine Le Pen,” the TV channel concluded.
  • According to the French Ministry of the Interior's final results, Macron received 18.8 million votes (58.54%), while Le Pen scored 13.3 million (41.46%).

Italy

Hitler did not have Jewish ancestry

False claim: On the Italian talk show “Zona Bianca” last Sunday, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said the following: “I could be wrong, but Hitler also had Jewish blood.

[That Zelensky is Jewish] means absolutely nothing. Wise Jewish people say that the most ardent anti-Semites are usually Jews.” This was in response to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky's arguments against Russia's “denazification” propaganda, which is their main justification for the invasion of Ukraine. Zelensky does indeed have Jewish ancestry.

Truth:

  • Hitler's supposed Jewish ancestry is a conspiracy theory dating back to the early 1920s, as noted recently in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
  • There is no proof that Hitler has any Jewish parentage of any kind.
  • The theory rests on a “hole” in Hitler's family tree, as the identity of one of the fuhrer's grandfathers remains unknown.
  • In his recently published work “Hitler's Father: How the Son Became a Dictator,” historian Roman Sandgruber notes that claims of Hitler's alleged Jewish origins were born of “propaganda.” The book is the result of exhaustive research based on letters written by Alois, Adolf Hitler's father.
  • Dani Dayan, chairman of Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, called Lavrov's remarks “absurd, delusional, dangerous and deserving of any condemnation.”
  • Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said in response to Lavrov's comments: “There's freedom to express opinions, even when they are blatantly false and aberrant. Lavrov's comments were aberrant, and the parts that referred to Hitler were really obscene.”

Brazil

It is false that CNN Portugal reported that Russian commander “woke up dead” in Ukraine

False claim: A screenshot of an alleged CNN Portugal broadcast with the caption “Russian commander wakes up dead in Ukraine” is circulating on social media in Brazil.

The posts are followed by captions questioning the credibility of the TV channel.

Truth:

  • A reverse image search shows that the original video, aired on April 30, did not have the caption that appears in the screenshot shared on social media.
  • The original CNN Portugal video shows journalist Ana Sofia Cardoso reporting that “20 civilians have been removed by the UN from the Azovstal steelworks,” located in Mariupol, Ukraine, amid the war with Russia.

Africa

South Africa’s transport minister did not say potholes create better drivers

False claim: Social media users in South Africa have shared an alleged statement made by the country's transport minister, Fikile Mbalula, saying that potholes on the country's roads create better drivers.

“The best drivers in the whole world are from here in South Africa. Through dodging, ducking and diving potholes, our people have become the best in driving compared to the rest of the world,” the minister allegedly said.

Truth:

  • A reverse image search shows that the statement attributed to South Africa's Transport Minister was originally published on April 6, 2022 in an article on Clowns in Suits, a website that satirises politicians.

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