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Following recent conflict involving the US, Israel, and Iran, social media platforms have seen a surge in dramatic images and purported battlefield updates. Deutsche Welle: DW.com has examined three viral claims circulating online to determine their validity.
No Iranian missile drone attack on US aircraft carrier
A widely shared post on X claimed that Iran launched a massive missile and drone attack on a US aircraft carrier, resulting in fatalities, and included a 15-second video showing an explosion. The post garnered over 643,000 views, but the claim was rated as fake.
Although there were reports of Iranian forces attempting to shoot down a US aircraft, no credible reports exist of a successful, fatal attack on a US aircraft carrier. Furthermore, the video predates the latest US strikes and has circulated since May of this year with entirely unrelated claims.
Frame-by-frame analysis revealed multiple inconsistencies, including visual glitches in a running person’s feet at the three-second mark, a uniform video game-like sea background, and people passing through one another with glitching limbs at five seconds. The audio featured synthetic-sounding voices closely synchronized with the visuals, while AI detection tools from Meta AI and Google Gemini both identified strong indicators of artificial generation.
A burning building in South Korea, not US bases in the Gulf
Another user on X shared a video showing a burning building with dark plumes of smoke, claiming that Iran attacked US bases in the Gulf. The post accumulated over 55,000 views, but the claim was classified as misleading.
A reverse image search demonstrated that the footage actually shows a fire at a Fashion Logistics Center in Cheonan, South Korea, in 2025. Visual elements such as the building structure, the white lettering reading “E-Land fashion” on the right side, and the surrounding mountainous background match street-level views on Naver Maps and satellite imagery on Google Maps.
The reverse image search also showed that the video has circulated repeatedly since July, previously attached to Iran war posts in Tamil and English, as well as conflicts in Yemen and other areas entirely unrelated to the South Korean fire.
Content farm’s posts reach millions
A third viral post on X claimed that Iran launched a major hypersonic missile attack targeting multiple Israeli military bases, reaching 2.5 million views. While Iran claims to possess hypersonic missiles and previously asserted it fired Fattah-1 missiles at Israel in June 2025, no credible reports support claims of Iranian hypersonic missile attacks during the recent escalation.
The publishing account boasts over 100,000 followers and frequently posts more than ten times daily, often utilizing urgent “Breaking” headlines and repeating similar narratives to amass hundreds of thousands of views, with one post reaching over 30 million views. These characteristics point to a content farm operation.
Analyst Charlene Lin from the internet watchdog NewsGuard told Deutsche Welle that the account is a South Asia-based content farm previously flagged for spreading disinformation narratives. Lin stated that such networks typically pose as pro-China, pro-Russia, or pro-Iran users to spread false geopolitical claims, amplifying them alongside allied accounts within short timeframes.
Victoire Rio, an expert on social-media monetization and information integrity, told Deutsche Welle that financially-motivated actors in South and Southeast Asia frequently leverage major news events to generate profits from platform engagement on sites like X.
