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- A video with fake audio appeared to show CNN's Clarissa Ward staging a rocket attack in Israel.
- The video went viral on X, with over 5 million views, but it's since been debunked.
- A CNN spokesperson said the audio was "inaccurate and irresponsibly distorts the reality."
A viral video that appeared to show CNN correspondent Clarissa Ward and her crew staging a rocket attack has been debunked.
The viral clip, which was filmed near the border between Israel and Gaza, included a "fabricated" audio track of an off-screen voice that seemed to be directing the CNN crew on how to pretend they were sheltering from rockets.
"Look around as if you're in danger," the voice can be heard saying, among other things. "Try to look nice and scared."
A CNN spokesperson told the New York Post that "the audio in the video posted and shared on X is fabricated, inaccurate and irresponsibly distorts the reality of the moment that was covered live on CNN, which people should watch in full for themselves on a trusted platform."
Since the beginning of the conflict between Israel and Hamas on October 7, social media has been awash with misinformation, particularly on Elon Musk's X, formerly known as Twitter.
Video game footage, old videos, and even Algerian football celebrations are some of the ways that misinformation has been spread online during the conflict, Insider previously reported.
The original clip, first broadcast on October 9, actually showed Ward detailing the situation to CNN anchors.
The fabricated video, which was shared by TheQuartering, a social-commentary account, has been viewed more than 5 million times and reposted over 12,000 times since it was published.
Elon Musk even replied to the video with a laughing emoji, which was retweeted over 1,500 times.
The post now includes a community note — a feature on the platform which allows users to add context and extra information to potentially misleading content.
In a followup post on X, the TheQuartering account clarified that the voice-over was fake.
Musk's many changes to the social-media platform could be behind the increase in misinformation on the site.
"I would be fairly confident to say that a lot of what we're seeing right now is a direct result of the policy changes that were implemented by Musk," Sander van der Linden, a professor at the University of Cambridge and author of "Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects our Minds and How to Build Immunity," said.