The South China Sea is a hotly contested area, and a recent false Facebook post claiming warships were converging on the region has caused quite a stir. The post, which was shared widely on social media, received over 1,000 shares from multiple sources. Despite some users believing the misinformation, there were no official reports of any warships in the area as of June 20, 2024.
However, on June 19, 2024, Ariel Coloma, spokesperson for the western command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), confirmed that they had not received any reports of warships in the South China Sea. In fact, photos accompanying the false posts were actually from an exercise in the Sea of Japan. Reverse image searches showed that the pictures were originally posted by the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS), capturing joint operations between the US Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force in the Japan Sea.
The DVIDS photos taken in the Sea of Japan were unrelated to any activity in the South China Sea. The US Navy had also published a video of similar ships in action in 2017. Philippine news organization Rappler has previously debunked similar posts misusing old photos to spread misinformation about warships in the South China Sea. To combat false information about this sensitive issue, AFP has conducted fact-checks on various aspects of
