Posts misrepresent Thailand air force chief's remarks as Cambodia border row rumbles on
The video of Air Force Chief Punpakdee Pattanakul answering questions from reporters was viewed at least 1.7 million times after it was posted on TikTok on June 9, 2025.
Thai-language text superimposed on the clip reads: "If Cambodia doesn't back off, Thailand will completely seize the country. The air force says Phnom Penh could be reduced to rubble within 5 minutes."
It circulated as Thailand and Cambodia faced off over a border dispute that led to an exchange of fire on May 28 in which one Cambodia solder was killed (archived link). Both the Thai and Cambodian armies said they had acted in self-defence.
While Thailand and Cambodia agreed to reposition their troops in the area to reduce confrontations, Phnom Penh has asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to help resolve the border dispute (archived here and here).
Cambodia banned the import of Thai fruit and vegetables on June 17 after Bangkok refused to lift recently imposed border crossing restrictions. It had earlier banned Thai dramas from TV and cinemas, closed a popular border checkpoint, and cut internet bandwidth from across the border.
Image
Screenshot of the false TikTok post, captured on June 16, 2025
The same video was shared elsewhere in similar posts on TikTok, while a still from the clip was shared on Facebook.
"They are the heroes. Please don't disappoint us. ," read a comment on one of the posts.
: "This is true, Cambodia has no chance against the advanced weaponry Thailand has."
But the Thai air force chief did not say they could reduce Phnom Penh "to rubble within five minutes".
Warplane purchase briefing
A logo for a subsequent search of the local broadcaster's channel found the same footage published on June 4 (archived here and here).
The video, titled "Air force stands ready to safeguard Thai sovereignty", shows Pattanakul speaking to the media about plans to buy four Swedish-made Gripen fighter jets in a US$500 million deal (archived link).
The plan is the first phase of a 10-year plan to buy 12 fighter aircraft as Thailand updates its air power.
Punpakdee was asked about an unspecified "border situation", but did not mention Cambodia or say the Thai air force could reduce its capital to rubble.
At the video's 3:14 mark, : "The air force is ready at all times. If an aircraft is likely to invade our airspace, we will be able to intercept within five minutes."
Amarin TV also published the footage on their TikTok account on the same day. The clip is cropped in the same way it is in the false posts (archived link).
Image
Screenshor comparison of the falsely shared clip (left) and Amarin TV's video (right)
Thailand's Anti-Fake News Center also addressed the false claims on June 14, Punpakdee had been and strengthening national defence (archived link).
"The commander of the Royal Thai Air Force said in an interview that the Royal Thai Air Force is ready at all times. But it does not aim to attack the neighbouring country. It is to protect the country if danger occurs," it said.
AFP has debunked other misinformation related to the Thailand-Cambodia border dispute.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
AFP
8 hours ago
- AFP
Altered Trump video spreads amid Iran-Israel war
"We need to avoid getting involved in this conflict #trump #maga #israel #iran #middleeast #wwiii," says a June 15, 2025 post sharing the video on Instagram. The clip -- also shared to X, TikTok and YouTube -- claims to show Trump saying the United States should stay out of the conflict between the two arch enemies, which began when Israel targeted Iranian military bases and nuclear sites in a June 13 attack and has seen Iran respond with barrages of missiles and drones. "I think we should skip it," Trump appears to say in the video. "I don't know. I'm just not really feeling it. World War III folks, hard pass." Image Screenshot from Instagram taken June 20, 2025 Referencing nationwide protests against his agenda, Trump supposedly continued: "We've got enough going on stateside. We've got the 'No Kings' riots set to kick off this weekend. 'No Kings.' We like kings, actually, folks. We like one king in particular, quite frankly. The king of kings, our lord and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been working to draw elevated support from Trump, but the Republican US president said June 20 that Iran had a "maximum" of two weeks to avoid possible US air strikes, indicating he could take a decision before the fortnight deadline he set a day earlier. He had spent weeks before the attack pursuing a diplomatic path towards a deal to replace the nuclear deal with Iran that he tore up in his first term in 2018. The video purporting to show him saying the United States "should skip it," meanwhile, is altered. Reverse image searches reveal the footage was lifted from a May 28, 2025 event -- more than two weeks prior to Israel's strikes on Iran (archived here). Former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, who was sworn in at the ceremony as the interim US attorney for the District of Columbia, can be seen standing behind Trump throughout. The video and transcript show the president mentioned Israel's war on the Palestinian militant group Hamas and the US efforts to reach a deal with Iran, but he did not call for the United States to stay out of a conflict between the two Middle Eastern nations (archived here and here). He was asked at one point whether he warned Netanyahu against taking any action that could disrupt his talks with Iran, but he said he was pushing to follow the diplomatic path. The president made no mention of the "No Kings" protests. The manipulated video appears to lift footage from around the 18:36 mark of the May 28 footage, based on Trump's hand movements. In that moment, the president was talking about inflation. The voice cloning detection tool in the Verification Plugin, also known as InVID-WeVerify, found that the audio on the altered version is "very likely AI-generated." Some of the earliest posts sharing the clip included disclaimers saying it was a parody generated by artificial intelligence. AFP has debunked other misinformation about the Iran-Israel war here.
AFP
14 hours ago
- AFP
Unrelated image of injured man falsely linked to death of Kenyan killed in police custody
'A photo of Albert Ojwang when he was alive. Has resurfaced at the Central Police Station reception. His shirt was torn, and he was bleeding from the head (sic),' reads an X post published on June 9, 2025, and shared more than 600 times. Show Hide Content warning Show Image Screenshot of the false post, taken on June 18, 2025 Hide The image shows a man with a bloodied face and a torn shirt standing with his head tilted upwards. Similar claims were published elsewhere on X here and here. Fatal arrest Ojwang, a 31-year-old teacher, was reportedly arrested on June 6, 2025, in Western Kenya, and transported to the central police station in Kenya's capital Nairobi. He was accused of criticising deputy inspector general Eliud Lagat on social media (archived here). He was reported dead two days later, with police initially claiming he died after hitting his head against a cell wall. However, a pathologist's report indicated injuries consistent with assault (archived here). Ojwang's death sparked public outrage, which resulted in protests demanding justice and Lagat's resignation (archived here and here). Lagat has since announced he would 'step aside' from his position amid ongoing investigations. Additionally, two police officers and a technician accused of tampering with CCTV footage at the station have been arrested in connection with Ojwang's death (archived here and here). However, the posts purportedly showing an image of Ojwang at the station before he died are false. Unrelated image AFP Fact Check conducted reverse image searches and found the original image published on Facebook by ex-Kakamega county senator Cleophas Malala on June 9, 2025, alongside claims that his driver was assaulted by police (archived here). 'The Kakamega OCPD - a one MR. ROTICH and three other uniformed officers trailed my vehicle and forced my driver to stop,' he wrote. '*Disappointingly, upon confirming I was not on board, they commanded him to drive to an unknown destination. When he refused, they assaulted him so severely using a gun pointer that he was left profusely bleeding (sic).' 'This is unconscionable brutality by those sworn to protect us,' he continued. 'Our nation sinks deeper into lawlessness when officers become perpetrators. We will not be intimidated—we are formally filing a complaint with IPOA (Independent Policing Oversight Authority).' The incident was also reported by local media (archived here and here).
AFP
14 hours ago
- AFP
Video shows a Russian pilgrimage, not Israelis evacuating over Iran strikes
Israel's attack on Iran on June 13, 2025, triggered retaliatory measures by Iran and turned the decades-long enmity between the two into a rapidly-spiralling military conflict. A video compilation circulating on Facebook in Ethiopia claims to show Israelis fleeing cities en masse following a warning from Iran. However, this is false: the video shows footage from the Velikoretsky religious pilgrimage in Russia, which took place earlier this month, as well as people setting off en masse to collect a medicinal fungus on a mountainside in Nepal. The text accompanying the video post in Amharic reads: 'Israelis leave cities due to Iran's warning to evacuate their cities.' Image Screenshot of the false post, taken on June 19, 2025 'Happy trip,' reads the English text overlay, accompanied by an emoji of the Israeli flag. The 29-second video is composed of three clips divided into two sections. In the top half of the screen, hundreds of people are seen walking in a hilly, dry landscape. In the bottom half of the screen, a crowd of people are shown walking down a street, all headed in the same direction and most of them wearing large backpacks. Then, a crowd is seen from above crossing a bridge. The video was published on June 17, 2025, and has been shared more than 190 times since. A similar post was also posted here on Facebook and shared more than 5,000 times. Israel-Iran conflict After decades of bad blood and a long shadow war, Israel launched a massive bombing campaign on 13 June 2025, to which Iran responded with a barrage of missiles and drones. AFP reported that as of June 19, 2025, more than 200 Iranians and Israelis were killed in the missile attacks on both sides, with hundreds more wounded (archived here). A hospital in southern Israel was hit when Iran fired a barrage of missiles, while the Israeli army said it had hit an "inactive nuclear reactor" in Arak, Iran. International media also reported that on June 15, 2025, Iranian forces warned Israelis to leave their country in the face of increasing rocket attacks (archived here). However, the video does not show Israelis fleeing their cities. Velikoretsky pilgrimage AFP Fact Check used the video verification tool InVID-WeVerify to conduct reverse image searches on keyframes from the video. For the footage of the crowd walking in the street and across a bridge, the search results include an X post from June 6, 2025 (archived here). Важное событие, о котором МОЛЧАТ практически все СМИ 22 тысячи православных русских людей идут Великорецким крестным ходом. Идут во славу Христа, Богородицы и Николая Угодника 22 тыс человек оставили дела и работу, чтобы несколько дней молиться Господу о прощении грехов — olga_1205 (@k_ollga) June 6, 2025 Text in Russian accompanying the video indicates that it shows thousands of Russians who took part in the Velikoretsky religious pilgrimage earlier this month. The Velikoretsky is a Russian Orthodox procession that takes place in early June every year, covering 110 miles (177 kilometres) and passing through 12 locations in the Kirov region (archived here). The official website for the city of Kirov featured a story about the pilgrimage held earlier this month on June 3, 2025, which includes a picture corresponding to the footage (archived here). Image Screenshots of the image from Kirov's website (left) and the false post, taken on June 18, 2025 Meanwhile, search results for the clip of people walking in the hills established that it was originally posted on Telegram on June 2, 2025, more than a week before the start of the Israeli-Iranian conflict. The clip shows a crowd of people in search of a medical fungus known as Yarsagumba around Mount Dolpa in western Nepal. Every year, people head to the highlands of Dolpa to harvest Yarsagumba, a rare and highly valued medicinal fungus (archived here). Neither of the three clips is related to Israel or the ongoing conflict with Iran.
