New York billboard with messages on Israel, Ukraine is fake
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on November 15, 2023 at 20:13
- 5 min read
- By Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA
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"Advertising in New York... The text 'Support Israel' squeezes out the text 'Support Ukraine," says a November 13, 2023 post on X, formerly Twitter, from a popular account called "W i z a r d S X."
"The agenda of New York's billboards seems to have changed," the same profile, which has previously spread disinformation about both conflicts under aliases including "Sprinter," added in another post.
The clip appears to capture footage of an electronic billboard in New York City showing a Ukrainian flag and text that says, "Stand With Ukraine." The display then changes to show an Israeli flag, and alternate text reading, "Stand With Israel" knocks the pro-Ukraine message off the screen. The advertisement is credited at the end to ABC News, alongside the slogan: "Watch The News. Stay In Trend."
The video spread across X and other platforms, including Facebook and TikTok, with the earliest iteration AFP found uploaded by a Russian-language Telegram channel on November 9.
The posts come more than a month after Hamas fighters triggered a full-scale war with a bloody October 7 attack that Israeli officials say killed approximately 1,200 people and saw around 240 hostages kidnapped and taken into Gaza. Israel's air strikes and ground invasion have killed more than 11,300 people in the Palestinian territory, according to its Hamas-run health ministry.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said international attention is shifting away from Russia's invasion of his country as the war in Gaza has intensified.
The Republican-led House of Representatives indeed defied President Joe Biden's request for a massive, multifaceted package that would include funding for Ukraine when it in early November passed a $14 billion aid package for Israel. The bill is likely to fail in the Democratic-controlled Senate, and Biden has threatened to veto it.
But despite the debate in Washington, the video of a New York City advertisement championing a shift in priorities is doctored -- the most recent in a series of fake billboards to spread about the war in Ukraine.
"The ad in question is, indeed, a fake," said Jason King, a spokesman for Clear Channel Outdoor, the company that owns the electronic billboards in question and whose logo is visible in the video. "It is not running, nor has it ever run on our displays."
A network source also said the alleged message is not an advertisement from ABC News.
Advertisement for animated film
AFP geolocated the billboards to the corner of West 50th Street and 7th Avenue, based on the surrounding buildings and businesses near Times Square, including the cafe Majestic Delicatessen (archived here).
An AFP journalist in New York City, who visited the street corner at around 5:30 pm EST (2230 GMT) on November 14, observed and captured photos of both signs showing what appeared to be a unique advertisement for the animated movie "Trolls Band Together."
The film premieres in theaters November 17.
A BBC News journalist's call for footage of the billboards on November 14 was also answered with user recordings that similarly showed the displays that day advertising the "Trolls" sequel (archived here).
In addition, AFP found a clip of pro-Palestinian protesters marching past the intersection in a post on X geotagged to the area (archived here). The footage shows the same movie promotions on November 10 -- just one day after the doctored video showing the fake Israel-Ukraine message appeared on the Russian Telegram channel.
The "Trolls Band Together" advertisement is also briefly visible at the end of the altered video.
AFP has previously debunked additional misinformation claiming to show street art offensive to Zelensky.
AFP has fact-checked other misinformation about the war in Ukraine here, and the Israel-Hamas war here.
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