Ministry of Defence calls on YouTube to axe Ben Wallace hoax call
The Ministry of Defence have called on YouTube to remove videos of a hoax call to defence minister Ben Wallace.
The department argued the video had been doctored by the Russian state, and The Ministry of Defence (MoD) wrote on Twitter: “We are calling on YouTube to help us support Ukraine by taking down videos doctored by the Russian state and disseminated to try and sap the morale of a people fighting for their freedom”.
“The doctored clip asserts that the UK’s supply of NLAWS to Ukraine have “often failed”. Our NLAWS have not failed, this is factually incorrect,” the MoD added.
The demand comes after Wallace was tricked by imposter into thinking he was on a call with the Ukrainian prime minister.
He ended the ten-minute phone call after he was asked “misleading” questions, including topics like nuclear weapons and NATO.
Various videos have circulated across the internet, leading the UK’s defence department to write a letter to the Google-owned YouTube.
It points to the tech giant’s decision to block access to channels associated with Russian state-funded media., and argued that the same policy should apply in this instance.
The MoD suggested that the videos had been manipulated by the pranksters, but said that in their “modified and edited” form they could be used by the Russian state to support its actions in Ukraine.
“I am confident you would not wish to be a conduit for Russian propaganda or be in any way associated with the potential consequences of this type of media manipulation,” the letter said, according to reports by Reuters.