A missile attack that saw four people killed on a beach in Russian-annexed Crimea has unsurprisingly spurred the spread of misinformation, including a photograph that is alleged to be from the scene but is in fact from the movie Jaws.
On Sunday, Russia accused the U.S. of being responsible for a Ukrainian attack that used five U.S.-supplied missiles. The Russian Defense Ministry says its air defense systems were able to shoot down four, while the fifth detonated in the air.
Apart from the four people killed, which included two children, another 151 individuals were said to have been wounded in the attack. Neither the U.S. or Ukraine have commented on Russia’s allegations.
Over on social media, footage from Russian state media showing beachgoers attempting to flee the scene spread rapidly.
But one image that went especially viral, which blamed the Kremlin for the deaths, showed the phrase “Russia, fuck off” alongside men, women, and children running out of the water.
The individual who shared the photo, a self-described Ukraine supporter named Jürgen Nauditt, argued that the event showed how “the Russians are becoming more and more effective at killing their own population.”
The post quickly garnered over 1.2 million views, nearly 3,000 shares, and endless comments.
Accounts of questionable origin flooded the post with attacks against either the U.S., Ukraine, or Russia. Some even responded to the photo by calling the beachgoers foolish for being in Crimea.
“How absurd! Who goes on vacation in a war zones?” one user asked. “Admittedly, Crimea is very cheap now for that very reason.”
“Vacationers right within a war zone…? Not sorry,” another added.
But a handful of users also questioned the image’s legitimacy. A reverse-image search shows that the image was actually taken in the 1970s for the blockbuster film Jaws.
Reactions to the discovery differed, with some users defending the picture’s use while others thanked the X user for exposing the misleading image.
“Damn! I fell for it,” one user replied. “Thanks for calling this fake news out.”
Since the war between Russia and Ukraine began, misinformation has been rampant.
And while social media sites have made efforts to flag such posts, the speed in which they spread has made the success of such efforts questionable at best.
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