Former American adult actress of Lebanese origin Mia Khalifa did not thank Ukraine for helping the Islamic movement Hamas. Neither USA TODAY, which is cited by Russian propaganda, nor any other reputable media outlets have published news with words of gratitude to Ukraine from Mia Khalifa.
Kremlin outlets and social media users spread fake news about former American porn star of Lebanese descent Mia Khalifa had allegedly thanked Ukraine for its assistance to the Palestinian Islamic movement Hamas. In such “news,” users refer to a recorded “conversation” with Khalifa, which was allegedly published by the American publication USA TODAY.
“Porn star Mia Khalifa thanked Ukraine for helping Hamas. In a telephone conversation, she said: “From Ukraine… There is only one good thing in the world from this corrupt black hole. Without them and their corrupt leadership, Palestine would have spent years gathering weapons for liberation,” users write.
The “conversation” itself is presented in a video format and is made in a corporate style similar to the USA TODAY media branding. In the audio, someone in a voice similar to Khalifa’s can be heard “thanking” Ukraine for the weapons. Propaganda distributes two versions of this video. In the first version, only Khalifa’s “speech” is cut out. The second version also has an accompanying text stating that the actress’ comment was recorded on KCRW radio.
After this information was spread, StopFake decided to check whether Mia Khalifa really thanked Ukraine for helping Hamas and told USA TODAY about it. As it turned out, this information is not true.
Since neither Russian media nor social media users provided a direct link to the American media, StopFake decided to try to find this “news” on its own. We checked all of the outlet’s publications related to the military operations in Israel since the Hamas attack. It turned out that neither the website nor the official accounts of this media outlet on Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube published such a conversation with Mia Khalifa. A separate Google search on USA TODAY’s website over the past week also yielded no results.
In addition, StopFake tried to find news about Khalifa’s alleged statement in other reputable English-language media, but this also yielded no results. Almost all the news with her name on it is related to her decision to support Hamas’ attack on Israel and Playboy magazine’s decision to terminate her contract. The website of KCRW radio, which is mentioned in the fake video, also has no news about the actress’s alleged statement.
We also asked USA TODAY to confirm or deny the publication of the “conversation” with Mia Khalifa, but at the time of publication, we had not yet received a response.
This is not the first time propaganda has used the corporate identity of reputable foreign media to publish its fakes. Earlier, Russian media outlets tried to spread a fake video about an “anti-Ukrainian flash mob in Poland” using the style of the German media outlet Deutsche Welle.
