No, Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t have six fingers in a viral press conference video
Social media posts claimed a press conference video showed Netanyahu with six fingers and suggested he might be dead. The video shows five.
On March 12, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave his first press conference since the U.S. and Israel first attacked Iran. Some social media users doubted the authenticity of the video address, and led them to question whether Netanyahu was still alive.
“Rumors swirling that the Prime Minister of Israel – Netanyahu – is dead after this video has been released of him LIVE on TV,” one March 13 X post read. “Look at the 6 fingers.”
“Breaking: Latest video released by the israeli government shows that it was ai generated because netanyahu has 6 fingers,” read another March 13 X post. “Is Netanyahu dead?”
Related Knowledge Center: Fact-checking and its detractors
Fact-checking has become a familiar tool for political reporters to hold office-holders and candidates accountable. But critics ask if fact-checkers sometimes miss the forest for the trees, and if the practice often struggles with false equivalency the way conventional political coverage does.