A Facebook video claimed that a US Navy destroyer recently fired on an armed Iranian ship. But the post misrepresented a 6-year-old story as breaking news.
“Breaking: Armed Iranian ship just encountered US destroyer, see what we just fired at it,” read the caption of one May 25 Facebook postechoing the headline of a video he shared.
US encounters with Iranian ships in the Persian Gulf are not uncommon: Earlier this month, the The US Navy said it has increased patrols in the nearby Strait of Hormuz in response to the seizures of merchant ships.
But we found no recent news or announcements of a US destroyer firing on an Iranian ship, so the “breakout” designation indicated something amiss.
A look at the post revealed another clue: the video’s thumbnail shows a photo of Jim Mattis, who was former President Donald Trump’s secretary of defense. Mattis resigned in December 2018.
The video is from Next News Network, a conservative YouTube channel. Was published there on April 26, 2017.
The video describes a real event. The USS Mahan, a Navy guided-missile destroyer, fired a warning flare toward an Iranian Revolutionary Guard vessel that had come within about 1,000 meters, according to multiple reports. reports published April 26, 2017. Mahan forced to change course, CNN reported.
The account who posted the video and framed it, as recent news stories often share old videos as current events from the Next News Network, a Chicago Tribune site. reported promotes conspiracies; it was recently demonetized by YouTube.
The claim that a US Navy destroyer recently fired on an armed Iranian ship is false.
