Fake, Really Fake News

"I think we'd hear from Beijing if we had sunk 300 or so Chinese ships."

"These videos are beyond ridiculous."

Martin Shadwick, professor of defence studies, York University, Toronto

 

"In collaboration with our CAF [Canadian Armed Forces] colleagues, the RCN has been tracking disinformation content online this week about our ships operating in specific areas of the world."

"The RCN [Royal Canadian Navy] and CAF have mechanisms in place to ensure we are aware of disinformation about our operations."

Royal Canadian Navy statement

 

"YouTube has removed the videos in question for violating our misinformation policy."

"We enforce our policies consistently using a combination of content reviewers and machine learning to remove content that violates our policies as quickly as possible."

YouTube statement

A Houthi fighter, in this handout video from the Houthi Media Center, seen during the hijacking of the Japanese-operated cargo ship Galaxy Leader on Sunday, Nov. 19, 2023. (Houthi Media Center/The Associated Press)

Western nations have been consumed with concerns relating to Russian and Chinese disinformation in recent years. Various militaries and spy agencies have spoken alarmingly over such activities while Western militaries and their governments have, on the other hand, manipulated claims of Russian disinformation for their own purposes in efforts of undercutting media reports that seem unfavourable to their missions.

 

A flurry of new videos have been aired on YouTube lately, gaining traction and attention, despite their quite obviously false narratives. These videos have presented as clumsily produced, lacking credibility to those familiar with the subjects in question, to the extent that they convince intelligence agencies that their very lack of professionalism rule out any relationship to the government misinformation activities of either Russia or China.

 

These are fake videos purporting to demonstrate the Canadian navy in the act of destroying hundreds of Chinese vessels. As though that weren't enough, others show Canadian warships attacking Houthi Yemenite rebels in the Red Sea, and they're appearing everywhere on social media. Over 15 videos were recently posted on YouTube portrayed as Royal Canadian Navy military activities in the South China Sea and in the Middle East.

 

Royal Canadian Navy and the American Navy according to one video, recently sank 312 Chinese vessels in a controversial dispute allegedly over illegal fishing. Yet another video in the Red Sea purportedly shows the Canadian frigate HMCS Vancouver "sink[ing] dozens of rebel ships" as its crew is engaged in battle with Houthi terrorists. 

According to those with knowledge of current world events or the Canadian military, the videos are a risible sham, according to a professor of defence studies at York University in Toronto. Old imagery from past Canadian and U.S. military exercises have been used in the videos. No Canadian ships are currently stationed in the South China Sea or the Red Sea, however. HMCS Vancouver is currently in port at Esquimalt, British Columbia.

One video relating to the purported Canadian attack on Houthi pirates has had 527,000 views. Three months ago similar videos of Canada sinking hundreds of Chinese vessels began appear, more having been added recently to YouTube. Those purporting to represent Canadian naval attacks on Houthi rebels are of far more recent vintage. 

 

What agency might be responsible for producing and posting the videos and what the reason might conceivably be, are  unknown. Professor Shadwick, however, fairly well rules out the videos being of Russian or Chinese origin as disinformation, since they are so unsophisticated and readily debunked.

 

A 2022 file photo of HMCS Vancouver. A fake video on social media claims to show the Canadian frigate sinking “dozens of rebel ships” in the Red Sea. In fact, HMCS Vancouver is in port at Esquimalt, B.C. Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1s /AP