Nuclear attack video clip was fake news, warns BBC
Footage of cruise missiles and mushroom clouds with the corporation’s logo was widely shared online
THE BBC was last night forced to distance itself from a fake news clip reporting the outbreak of nuclear war after a video purporting to show hostilities between Russia and Nato was widely circulated online. The threeminute clip, which appears to be set in the BBC News studio and uses the BBC logo, features a British presenter saying conflict has broken out in the Baltic after a Russian plane was shot down.
It features footage of Russian ships launching cruise missiles, mushroom clouds, and the Queen being evacuated from Buckingham Palace.
“This video clip claiming to be a BBC news report about Nato and Russia has been circulating widely... We’d like to make absolutely clear that it’s a fake and does not come from the BBC,” the corporation said on Twitter.
The clip is a shortened version of an hour-long video that has been uploaded to Youtube several times since 2016 with the disclaimer that it is a “fictional dramatisation”.
It began widely circulating on social media, particularly Whatsapp, after it was edited and reuploaded to Youtube on Monday without that disclaimer. The video also features a new ending purporting to be a “nuclear attack warning” with the logos of the Ministry of Defence and the Home Office. The presenter of the video told The Daily Telegraph he was employed by Benchmarking Assessment Group, an Irish talent headhunting company, to shoot the video that would be used as a “psychometric test” to see how “their clients react in a disaster scenario”.
“From the original Youtube posting it says very clearly that it is fictional. You’d have to be an idiot to believe it anyway, it doesn’t even look like a genuine BBC news report. It was never meant to,” said Mark Ryes, a British voice actor. Mr Ryes said he filmed the video in front of a green screen in September 2016 and sent the footage to Benchmarking Assessment Group. He said he was unaware at the time that it would use the BBC logo. “When it was made in September 2016 there was no such thing as fake news,” he said.
The video comes amid increasing concern that Russia is waging a “dirty tricks” campaign to spread disinformation online after Us-led missile strikes against Syria, an ally of Moscow.
The BBC said it felt the need to respond after being contacted by viewers who believed the video could be real.
“Over the last couple of days we have had people contact various BBC bureaus, mainly in Africa and Asia, as they had seen the video on Whatsapp and wanted to check if it was a real BBC report,” a spokesman for the corporation said.
David Ringwood, head of assessment services at Benchmarking Assessment Group, said he did not remember making the video and did not respond to further requests for comment.