All posts tagged: The Observers

‘Typosquatting’: How to spot fake news sites created by AI – The Observers

‘Typosquatting’: How to spot fake news sites created by AI – The Observers

Published by Sam Flores

Courrier France 24, Sud Ouest Direct, 20minutes.com… they sound like real news outlets, but they are not. Learn how to spot sites created by AI. Since 2023, fake media sites, often created by AI, have been appearing online. The sites publish articles aimed at misleading users or getting views for ad revenue. Here are four tips for spotting fake media sites. Tip #1: Check the URL In 2023, an article appeared online that looked like it was published by the French newspaper Le Parisien. Using the same logo and graphic style as the real newspaper, the article reported that wheat from Ukraine, meant for children in Africa, was instead being used as pig feed in Europe. But the URL – “leparisien.ltd” – showed that the article was fake. The newspaper’s real address is “leparisien.fr”. Imitating a site by using a URL that is close to the real one is called “typosquatting”. Tip #2: Check the real news site. See whether the article appears on the real news site. If you search for the pig feed article on …

When AI ‘enhances’ or ‘improves’ an image – The Observers

When AI ‘enhances’ or ‘improves’ an image – The Observers

Published by Sam Flores

Using AI to “enhance” or “upscale” an image can make it look sharper. But it can also be dangerous. Several pieces of misinformation have recently circulated using these kinds of images. In the US city of Minneapolis in January, a woman named Renée Good was shot and killed by an agent from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement force (ICE). Videos filmed at the scene show the agent wearing a facemask. But online users asked Grok, Elon Musk’s AI chatbot, to “unmask” the ICE agent. Grok generated clear, detailed images showing the man’s full face. But there was a problem: Grok had, of course, invented the faces. Grok even gave the man a name that was shared across social media. The result? Men with the same name or looking like the photo were falsely accused of shooting Renée Good. AI tools turn a telephone into a gun Another image from Minneapolis shows Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse who was killed by agents from the US Border Patrol. Federal officials said he was holding a gun. Online …

No, Iran didn’t publish a ‘list’ of 11 American cities to target

No, Iran didn’t publish a ‘list’ of 11 American cities to target

Published by Sam Flores

Instagram user truecrimewithbella posted a video on March 3 in which she tells her followers that Iran has drafted a list of 11 US cities it intends to target militarily in response to the US-Israeli attack on Tehran. The list includes both large cities like Seattle and San Francisco, and more surprising choices like Cheyenne, Wyoming and Shreveport, Louisiana. The video has garnered nearly 10 million views.  It turns out, however, that this purported Iranian hit list doesn’t exist. A series of links When we typed the names of these towns and cities into a search engine, we quickly came across an article published by the British tabloid the Daily Mail on June 25, 2025, under the title “Chilling list reveals which US cities would be first targets hit in WWIII”. The article makes no mention of Iran. Instead, it says “world policy experts, investigative journalists and financial analysts have warned about what could possibly happen if there was a third world war.” We found the origin of this list by following a series of links. …

Surge in GPS interference around Strait of Hormuz increases shipping risks

Surge in GPS interference around Strait of Hormuz increases shipping risks

Published by Sam Flores

Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has almost completely stopped. Since the outbreak of conflict in the Middle East, hundreds of vessels have dropped anchor on either side of this strategic passage between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Wednesday, March 4, that they had “complete control” of the Strait. From the onset of the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, they had warned that transit through the waterway was not allowed, threatening to target any ship trying to pass.  Since then, several vessels have come under fire, including from drone strikes. Maritime security agencies raised the threat level to “critical” for the Strait, a key artery which carries 20% of the world’s oil. Physical threats are not the only challenge these vessels face, however. They must also navigate a surge in electronic interference. This video shows the aftermath of an attack on the tanker Skylight in the Strait of Hormuz on March 1, 2026. To display this content from X (Twitter), you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. …

Has the British Museum really removed references to ‘Palestine’ from exhibits?

Has the British Museum really removed references to ‘Palestine’ from exhibits?

Published by Sam Flores

The latest scandal brewing about the British Museum centres on its choice to remove references to “Palestine” from the information panels on several displays, as first reported by several media outlets in mid-February.  The story quickly sparked headlines around the world.  “The name ‘Palestine’ was removed from all the exhibits in the British Museum,” reads a February 16 Facebook post shared by the French-language edition of AJ+, a publication of Qatari media outlet Al Jazeera. For its part, Agence Média Palestine reported that the British Museum removed references to Palestine “from its exhibits under pressure from a pro-Israel group”. The social media accounts of several English and French language outlets were also quick to share the news. Pure TV+ – whose misleading posts we’ve reported on in the past – declared to its 200,000 Facebook followers that the British Museum decided “under pressure from a pro-Israeli group” to “delete all references to ‘Palestine’ from its exhibits”. Turns out, the British Museum is still using the term ‘Palestine’ In reality, the British Museum still uses the term “Palestine” …

Did NASA really discover a temporary, second moon?

Did NASA really discover a temporary, second moon?

Published by Sam Flores

“NASA Confirms Earth Has Gained A Temporary 2ND Moon That Will Remain in Orbit Beside Us Until 2083,” reads a claim made by the Facebook account What the Fact, an account that says it is dedicated to “the latest space science & astronomy news”. Its second moon claim was featured in a post that garnered more than 16,000 reactions. The claim was also widely circulated on X, with some posts garnering more than 3 million views.  To illustrate this claim, the posts feature an image generated by artificial intelligence showing the Earth with two moons of roughly the same size, suggesting the existence of a new heavenly body similar to the Moon currently in orbit around our planet. This is a screenshot of the post that What the Fact shared on Facebook on December 30, 2025. © Facebook The confusion seems to hail from the discovery made last July by researchers at the Complutense University in Madrid of a small asteroid baptised “2025 PN7”. This asteroid was first spotted through the Pan-STARRS1 telescope at the …

How AI-generated images are being used to deny the massacre of protesters in Iran

How AI-generated images are being used to deny the massacre of protesters in Iran

Published by Sam Flores

Iranian security forces have been carrying out a deadly, unprecedented crackdown on anti-government protesters since January 8. Preliminary estimates of the number of demonstrators killed range from 6,000 – the current total of an ongoing count being carried out by NGOs – and 20,000, according to the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, Mai Sato.  As our team observed by reviewing many videos filmed by eyewitnesses, the Kahrizak morgue in Tehran was flooded with hundreds of protesters’ bodies. According to partial counts carried out by the BBC and the NGO Human Rights Watch, the bodies of at least 200 to 400 demonstrators were brought to the site. However, social media users and media outlets with links to the Iranian government began, the week of January 19, to explicitly deny that the massacres were taking place, claiming that the photos taken in the Kahrizak morgue were all generated by artificial intelligence.  The Fars News Agency, which is linked to the Iranian regime, has tried to make this point by sharing two images of the same moving scene: …

Tracking the ships delivering sanctioned Russian LNG to China – The Observers

Tracking the ships delivering sanctioned Russian LNG to China – The Observers

Published by Sam Flores

Since late August 2025, China has taken delivery of at least 24 liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments from two sanctioned Russian facilities, Arctic LNG 2 and Portovaya. This underscores increased cooperation between China and Russia as the Kremlin seeks to boost LNG exports in order to fund its war in Ukraine. A cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia’s Portovaya plant was delivered to the Beihai terminal in China on December 8, 2025.  This shipment to China was highly significant: it was the first delivery since the Portovaya plant was placed under US sanctions in January 2025. It’s also a sign of increased cooperation between China and Russia. LNG is natural gas that is cooled to minus 160 centigrade for transportation in liquid form. Russia has large reserves of natural gas and is making a major effort to boost its exports.  These exports are an important source of funding for Russia’s war on Ukraine. That is why the United States has imposed sanctions on certain Russian LNG plants, including Portovaya and the major project …