Altered image from Barbie movie sparks false Serbia ban rumors
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on July 25, 2023 at 18:44
- 4 min read
- By Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA
Copyright © AFP 2017-2025. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.
"Barbie movie banned in Serbia over controversial 'Greater Albania' map," says the headline in an image shared online.
Below the headline, the image purports to show a still from the hit Warner Bros. production that includes a map of the Balkans with North Macedonia missing, Greece shrunken and a red line sketched across Serbia, among other distortions.
The apparent screenshot spread in various languages and across TikTok, Instagram and other platforms in early July, with one July 5, 2023 TikTok post drawing more than 1.7 million views. The posts gained renewed traction following the movie's July 21 premiere date and a debut weekend during which it raked in $155 million in the United States, topping North American box offices.
"Barbie" has met some resistance globally, with Vietnam banning it over scenes that included what the country said was a map showing China's claims to territory in the South China Sea.
Pakistan's Punjab province also delayed the film's release to review what provincial boards that censor violations of the country's social and cultural values classified as "objectionable content."
But the posts claiming Serbia banned "Barbie" are false -- and the supposed "Greater Albania" map does not appear in the movie.
"These stories are not accurate," a Warner Bros. spokesperson told AFP in a July 24 email. "The map you may have seen online is fake."
"Barbie" earned $265,000 in opening weekend revenues in Serbia, making it the biggest opening of the year and the second biggest Warner Bros. opening of all time in the country, the spokesperson said.
Serbian moviegoers can purchase tickets online to watch the film at a location owned by Cineplexx, the nation's largest cinema chain, as well as at Tuckwood Cineplex and MTS Dvorana, two theaters in the center of Belgrade, the county's capital (archived here, here and here).
An AFP journalist in Serbia observed posters advertising showings outside Tuckwood Cineplex on July 25, five days after its release.
Local media also reviewed the flick (archived here, here and here).
Fake map
The "Greater Albania" map shown in the posts circulating online is an altered version of a still from the scene that earned "Barbie" its ban in Vietnam, which shows a blue map.
Defending its production against Vietnam's restrictions, Warner Bros. previously said the scene shows a "child-like crayon drawing" that is meant to "depict Barbie's make-believe journey from Barbie Land to the real world" and "not intended to make any type of statement."
The actual map shown in the film can be seen at approximately the one-minute mark of the studio's official "Barbie" trailer (archived here).
Fabricated headline
The purported headline in the online posts about a Serbian "Barbie" ban is also fabricated; a Google search generates no credible results.
The image resembles articles from the BBC News, with the text, timestamp, share button and image credit all matching the BBC News style. But while the British outlet published an article on Vietnam's ban that used the same photo caption about lead actress Margot Robbie (archived here), it never reported that Serbia had blocked showings.
"We did publish, on 3 July, the story entitled 'Barbie movie gets Vietnam ban over South China Sea map,'" a BBC spokesperson told AFP in a July 25 email. "The one about the Barbie movie being banned in Serbia isn't based on our story and is obviously fake."
AFP has previously debunked other fake BBC News headlines, including here, here and here.
Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.
Contact us
