Fake tweets attributed to CNN viral amidst Russia-Ukraine crisis

As Russia’s military actions against Ukraine continues, two alleged screengrabs of tweets from CNN are viral on social media.

The first tweet, attributed to CNN Afghanistan, talks about a journalist called ‘Bernie Gores’, who was allegedly executed by Talibani soldiers in Kabul. The second tweet also talks about ‘Bernie Gores’ but describes him as an “activist” who was the first American casualty of the Russia-Ukraine crisis. This tweet is attributed to CNN Ukraine.

Twitter user @ExSecular tweeted the screengrabs while mocking the international news organisation.

Several others have shared the alleged tweets.

Nice catch!
We are the news now!
Handle w/ care… pic.twitter.com/FDpI3gPg4f

— (Q)(C) (@QCagain1775) February 25, 2022

The screengrabs were also shared on Twitter with German captions.

😂😅🤣 #Lügenpresse

Wow❗️❗️❗️

Dieselbe Person, die von den Taliban in Afghanistan “hingerichtet” wurde,
ist auch das erste amerikanische Todesopfer in der “Ukraine-Krise”. pic.twitter.com/7vFpzFkffT

— Weltenlehrer (@weltenlehrer) February 25, 2022

They are viral on Facebook as well.

Fake tweets

We checked for the Twitter accounts @CNNAfghan and @CNNUKR and found that both accounts have been suspended. It is important to note that both the accounts posing as genuine CNN News accounts did not carry blue tick verification.

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We also found that one of the fake tweets was debunked by Politifact last year.

Similarly, a fact-check by Snopes has also debunked the claim and identified the man in the viral tweets to be YouTube personality Jordie Jordan.

Reuters had reached out to CNN last year regarding the same tweets. Matt Dornic, head of strategic communications at CNN, told Reuters via email: “This is a fabricated story and a fake post.”

Hence, two fake tweets attributed to CNN were viral on social media amidst the Russia-Ukraine crisis. These tweets are part of internet hoaxes that are always shared whenever a major event takes place.