Due to Telegram CEO Pavel Durov’s arrest, the UAE has put a stop to the acquisition of 80 fighter jets from France.
As part of a phony Al Jazeera movie, there are claims making the rounds on social media that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has “frozen” a deal for eighty fighter jets from France in response to Telegram CEO Pavel Durov’s imprisonment. However, this assertion is unsupported by any data.
The caption on one post on X, which has received over 366,000 views, reads, “Durov’s arrest has angered the sheikhs: the UAE has frozen a contract to purchase 80 fighter jets from France.” Facebook users have also shared it there.
As part of an inquiry into cybercrime, Mr. Durov was detained on August 24 upon his arrival in Paris. Originally from Russia, Mr. Durov currently resides in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and operates Telegram from there. He’s a French national as well as a UAE national.
“We are closely monitoring the case of its citizen Pavel Durov,” the UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated in a statement on Monday, August 26. It further stated, “The UAE has submitted a request to the Government of the French Republic to provide him with all necessary consular services in an urgent manner.”
There is, however, no proof that the UAE has halted any aircraft contracts with French producers. The freezing of a fighter’s contract is not mentioned.
With the same highlighted text as the organization’s short videos, the same end screen, and the same logo, the Al Jazeera video that is being shared with the bogus claims appears believable. But according to a search on Al Jazeera’s website and YouTube channel, there haven’t been any stories regarding the UAE’s 2021 fighter jet contract being frozen.
“The content circulating on social media claiming that the UAE has frozen the purchase of 80 fighter jets from France and attributing this news to Al Jazeera is fake and we refute this attribution to the media network,” an Al Jazeera spokesperson said in a statement regarding the fictitious video that Full Fact obtained.
Al Jazeera did cover the arrest and the UAE’s claim to be actively monitoring the situation. Additionally, it covered the signing of the 80 jet contract in 2021 in a previous report, but it hasn’t covered the deal subsequently or its purported “frozen” status.
We can tell the manufactured video isn’t real by the slightly odd and stilted language employed in it. As an illustration, consider the statements, “That could be a serious image blow for the French military-industrial complex,” and “The UAE has frozen the contract actions for the purchase of 80 fighter aircraft from France.”
It is crucial to evaluate the authenticity of a picture or video before sharing it widely on social media. To assist you in doing this, our toolbox contains materials on identifying deceptive content.
