Disinformation campaign uses fake footage to claim attack on USS Eisenhower

False claims about a missile attack by the Yemeni Houthi rebels The attacks on an American aircraft carrier in the Red Sea over the weekend were followed by a flood of manipulated images and fake videos on the Internet, which were further shared by pro-China and pro-Russian social media accounts.

The U.S. Navy said there was no truth to reports that the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower was badly damaged or possibly sunk.

“USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) remains in the U.S. Central Command region. The sailors and ship are ready and able to respond to any contingency at a moment’s notice,” a Navy spokesman told CBS News on Tuesday. “We are committed to working with our partners and allies to protect the freedom of navigation and commerce in the region.”

On Friday, Houthis’ military spokesman Yahya Saree announced rocket attacks on the Eisenhower in response to US support for Israel in the fight against Hamas militias in the Gaza Strip. Shortly afterwards, videos and images purporting to show the Eisenhower under fire and damaged in the port were viewed millions of times on social media platforms.

Captain Chris “Chowdah” Hill, the commander of the Eisenhower, posted photos on social media showing him visiting the ship’s bakery while the ship is presumed to be badly damaged or sunk. On X, the former Top Gun instructor joked, “I think we’ve only sunk twice this year.”

More than 5,000 American soldiers serve on the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, which is deployed to the region after the October 7: Hamas attacks in southern Israel. The Eisenhower and her flotilla of supporting warships form the Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group.

Since October, the aircraft carrier group has been involved in protecting important shipping routes from Houthi forces, which continue to launch attacks on merchant ships.

Several users of X, formerly Twitter, linked the alleged footage of the attack to Arma 3, a popular military video game developed by Czech company Bohemia Interactive. Arma 3 gameplay footage has been used before to spread disinformation about the conflict.

A CBS News analysis found that the gameplay footage quickly spread across Chinese and Russian social media sites after being published by Russian disinformation sites such as The Intel Drop and. the Pravda networkand several influential Chinese bloggers on Weibo.

When asked about the recent use of game footage to depict the alleged Eisenhower attack, Pavel Křižka, public relations manager at Bohemia Interactive, told CBS News: “We try to crack down on such content by reporting these videos to the platform providers, but frankly, it is very ineffective. With every video reported, debunked or removed, ten more can be uploaded every day.”

He added: “We’ve found that the best way to address this is to actively engage with leading media outlets and fact-checkers. Sometimes it’s great to see Arma 3 players and our community members in comment sections actively help debunk such videos – by pointing out that the footage is actually fake.”

Manipulated satellite images of the damaged Eisenhower also quickly made the rounds on social media. They show the ship with a large explosion on its bow. Users of X used the platform’s Community Notes feature to also point out that the doctored photos came from a Google satellite image of the ship docked at Norfolk Naval Station in Virginia and that the “explosion” was digitally inserted into the ship from a Shutterstock image.

“The Houthis control more than half of the land in Yemen, including military equipment, but are not recognized as a legitimate government by the majority of nations,” Alex Plitsas, an out-of-country senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, told CBS News.

He added: “Their attacks on ships belonging to Israel, the US and their allies, as well as their propaganda claiming false attacks, are all aimed at gaining them recognition and legitimacy as a power on the world stage.”