Verdict: A photo collage circulating within the Facebook social network, which claims that a chemical attack in Syria was staged, is Fake News.

Resume: A photo collage posted within the Facebook social network by its user Beka Vardosanidze and captioned “How the so-called ‘White Helmets’ rescuer organisation stages scenes and then these scenes are later circulated by the world’s mainstream media. Hollywood will be envious of their professionalism” is fake. In fact, the photographs, which are part of the photo collage, are shooting scenes taken from a Syrian film entitled Revolution Man.

These photos have nothing to do with the chemical attack which occurred in the Syrian city of Douma because the photos were posted on the film’s Facebook page on 24 February 2018 (the chemical attack took place on 7 April 2018). It is also groundless to mention the White Helmets organisation in the context of these scenes since the film’s production was supported by the Ministry of Culture of Syria.

The photo collage and its content circulated by a user of the Facebook social network, Beka Vardosanidze, does not correspond to the truth and aims to discredit the White Helmets.

Analysis Facebook social network user, Beka Vardosanidze, started to disseminate the aforementioned photo collage

in regard to the chemical attack which took place in the Syrian city of Douma on 7 April 2018. The photo collage was captioned as follows:  “How the so-called ‘White Helmets’ rescuer organisation stages scenes and then these scenes are later circulated by the world’s mainstream media. Hollywood will be envious of their professionalism.”

Some images in the photo collage do indeed depict actors. However, they are shooting scenes taken from the Syrian film, Revolution Man, and have nothing to do with the April chemical attack. Film photos were made available throughout the internet (link 1; link 2; link 3; link 4; link 5, link 6) on the film’s official Facebook page

one month before the attack in Douma on 24 February 2018.

Of note is that the shooting of the film, Revolution Man, was supported by the Ministry of Culture of Syria and touches upon the conspiracy theories concerning the internationally recognised voluntary organisation, the White Helmets. In accordance with the pro-Syrian government’s leading news agency, SANA,

the film is about one photo journalist’s story who stages the scenes of chemical attacks in Syria in order to win the Pulitzer prize (the prize is awarded for an outstanding contribution in a newspaper or magazine as well as internet journalism, literature and music).

With the aim of proving the Douma chemical attack false, the aforementioned photo collage has been widely disseminated by the supporters of Bashar al-Assad and Russian state media outlets. Facebook user, Beka Vardosanidze, indicated the Truth Seeker was the source of his information whilst in accordance with the Media Bias/Fact Check,

the Truth Seeker is involved in disseminating a conspiracy theory.

Therefore, the photo collage and its content does not correspond to the truth and aims to discredit the White Helmets.