Facebook marks post about downed Azerbaijani helicopter as fake

An author of a popular post presented an image of a helicopter shot down in Syria as evidence of the destruction of the helicopter during the hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh, concluded the Reuters Fact Check project team. The post has been marked by Facebook as not untrustworthy.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that combat actions have been going on in the Karabakh conflict zone since September 27. The martial law has been announced in Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Azerbaijan.

Reports with a photo of a helicopter burst into flames were disseminated not only on Facebook, but also on Twitter, and over 24 hours, the posts gained hundreds of user marks. In both social networks, the posts claimed it was an Azerbaijani helicopter shot down during the escalation of the Karabakh conflict zone. In fact, the images were screenshots of a well-known incident in Syria: a helicopter was shot down over the city of Nayrab in February, Reuters reported on its website on September 29.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on September 30, 2020 at 12:53 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.