Deepfake Tom Hanks, Biden Tax Returns, Dnipro Attack—Misinformation Watch

Presidential tax returns continue to be a hot issue for the American public, with President Joe Biden's filings now drawing more scrutiny as Republicans promote plans to investigate the Bidens, having taken back control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

But as with any developing controversy, speculative or conspiratorial claims often get dragged into the mix, as Newsweek's Misinformation Watch found.

Plus, we look at Russia's false narratives about the deadly strike on an apartment block in Dnipro, new and worrying celebrity deepfakes, and videos of the horrific airplane crash in Nepal.

Did Biden's Tax Returns 'Disappear'?

Several conservative outlets and social media users reported on Tuesday that Joe Biden's tax returns for the years 2016-18 have 'disappeared'.

The reports referenced the Biden campaign website, which features, among other information, the president's tax filings.

The Biden administration in the spring of 2022 restored the tradition of making the president's tax records public after his predecessor Donald Trump refused to share his tax returns, citing an "ongoing IRS audit."

Biden's tax affairs attracted particular scrutiny after Trump's records were finally made public following a protracted Congressional inquiry.

However, there is little evidence to suggest a conspiracy to "cover-up" or remove Biden's filings, which are already in the public domain. While the statements for the 2016-18 filings do indeed now link to a campaign donations page, the original documents are still available elsewhere.

For example, they can be sourced from the archived versions of the page. Other public service platforms, including the Disclosures website, which publishes records from past and present administrations, also contain the full filings, which can be accessed here and here.

While it is not yet clear why the original links were removed from the Biden campaign website, the records have been in the public domain for years, and removing the direct hyperlinks to those documents would not result in their "disappearance."

Newsweek has reached out to the White House for comment.

Russia claims Ukraine's air defenses caused Dnipro apartment block strike

Posts supporting unevidenced narratives that the destruction of a whole residential apartment block in Dnipro was—either deliberately or by accident—Ukraine's "fault," have proliferated online, fueled by Russian government agencies and accounts known for pushing pro-Kremlin content.

More than 40 residents of the apartment building have been killed in the strike, including several children, with nearly a hundred more wounded and many still missing.

A number of Russian state media "war correspondents" have promoted this theory, citing a quote by Alexei Arestovich, an advisor to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, as proof.

Arestovich came under criticism in Ukraine after making a passing comment that a Russian missile that hit a residential building in Dnipro on January 14 was allegedly shot down by Ukrainian air defense forces.

"It was shot down, it fell on an entryway. It exploded as it fell," he said on political pundit Mark Feygin's YouTube program.

He later apologized for the mistake, saying that he was "half asleep" during the recording, and submitted his resignation.

As Ukraine's military leadership and multiple Western intelligence agencies have stated in the aftermath of the strike, Ukraine currently does not have air defense systems capable of taking down the type of missile, a "notoriously inaccurate" Kh-22, that was used in the Dnipro strike.

"An AS-4 KITCHEN large anti-ship missile, launched from a Tu-22M3 BACKFIRE medium bomber, highly likely struck a block of flats in Dnipro city which resulted in the death of at least 40 people," said a statement from the U.K.'s Ministry of Defence.

"Russia falsely implied a Ukrainian air defence missile was responsible. KITCHEN is notoriously inaccurate when used against ground targets as its radar guidance system is poor at differentiating targets in urban areas.

"Similar weapons have been responsible for other incidents of civilian mass-casualties, including the Kremenchuk shopping centre strike of 27 June 2022."

In addition to the analysis, a video has since emerged on social media that purports to show the moment of the strike, with a missile clearly visible crashing down towards the residential area almost vertically.

On Sunday, Moscow acknowledged the latest missile strikes across Ukraine, but did not mention the Dnipro apartment building.

Newsweek reached out to the Russian defense ministry for comment.

Deepfakes of Tom Hanks and Elon Musk go viral

Deepfake videos are becoming a growing menace in the digital information space, with actor Tom Hanks and Twitter owner Elon Musk becoming the latest victims of these hoaxes.

A video appearing to show Tom Hanks promoting—in rather colorful language—dubious investment strategies went viral after receiving more than 24,000 upvotes on the Wall Street Bets subreddit.

The final product is rather unconvincing as a true "deepfake," with both Hank's lack of hair and poor lip-synching giving the game away. But the combination of the actor's voice spouting profanities and a fairly realistic overlay of his face still offers a glimpse into a terrifying doubt-filled information landscape that may soon become reality.

Deepfakes of celebrities are often used by malign actors to encourage people to invest in questionable assets, including cryptocurrencies and blockchain tech.

This was also the case with another hoax video circulating online in the last few days. Twitter users spotted a deepfake video of Elon Musk, which went viral in Australian social media space, pushing an "AI-based trading software" scam.

Like with the fake "Tom Hanks," the quality of this digital creation is poor enough that it would be unlikely to fool many users, but it once again highlights the danger that such digitally-manipulated content can pose as the technology becomes more advanced.

Is Nepal plane crash footage real?

A horrifying video showing the moment of the tragic Yeti Airlines plane crash in Nepal, in which all 72 people on board were killed, was shared widely on social media despite its very grim nature.

But while several outlets have since verified the video, filmed by one of the passengers, who also died in the crash, another video has emerged since that did not, in fact, show the Nepal catastrophe.

Tweets and Facebook posts featured footage of an airliner catching fire mid-air, and then turning sideways and crashing directly into a forested area.

However, Newsweek found that the video is mislabeled. It does show an airplane crash, but one that happened near Moscow, Russia, in 2021, when a military carrier plane crashed during a test flight in the capital's suburbs. Three people died in the crash, which was widely reported in the Russian media.