US-Iran Ceasefire Amid Viral Misinformation: Old Military Footage Falsely Portrayed as New Deployment

A wave of misinformation has swept across social media platform X this week as users shared footage of military aircraft, falsely claiming it showed fresh US troop deployments to the Middle East amid tensions with Iran. The video, which garnered millions of views across multiple accounts, actually dates back to June 2023 and depicts a routine military homecoming ceremony in California.

The misleading posts emerged Wednesday, just as the United States and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire following weeks of escalating hostilities. The diplomatic breakthrough came after intense backchannel efforts by Pakistan, which successfully facilitated communication between the two adversaries at a critical juncture in the conflict.

One viral post that accumulated nearly half a million views claimed: “Breaking: According to Reuters, the US has more than 50,000 troops deployed in the Middle East, within the area of responsibility of Central Command (CENTCOM), and this number is still increasing.” The post further alleged that “thousands of Marines from San Diego” were being transferred to the region.

Another account sharing the same footage received over 2.2 million views, while a pro-Iranian user claimed the deployment indicated “a large-scale ground intervention is inevitably coming” despite the ceasefire announcement. Collectively, similar posts across the platform received hundreds of thousands of additional views.

A fact-check investigation revealed the footage originated from a US Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) blog posted on June 6, 2023, titled “B-Roll: VMM-362 (Reinforced) Deployment Homecoming.” According to the official description, the video shows US Marine Corps aircraft with the Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron conducting a flyover at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in California.

The footage was also published on YouTube on June 15, 2023, under the same title, confirming it predates the current tensions by eight months.

While the viral claims referenced Reuters as their source, keyword searches across major international news outlets found no corroborating reports of such massive new troop movements. Reuters did publish a report on March 30, 2024, about 2,500 Marines arriving in the Middle East as then-President Trump considered options against Iran, but this predated the ceasefire agreement and involved significantly fewer personnel than claimed in the viral posts.

The spread of this misinformation comes at a particularly sensitive moment in US-Iran relations. After weeks of intensifying conflict triggered by US-Israeli strikes on February 28, both nations have agreed to pause hostilities for two weeks. Pakistan has emerged as a key diplomatic intermediary and will host talks between US and Iranian delegations in Islamabad on Friday.

The false claims about massive troop deployments appear designed to undermine confidence in the fragile ceasefire by suggesting military escalation is imminent despite diplomatic progress. Such misinformation risks inflaming tensions at a time when delicate negotiations are underway to prevent further regional destabilization.

This incident highlights the importance of verification in an era where social media can rapidly amplify misleading content, potentially affecting public perception of critical geopolitical developments. The fact-check was originally conducted by iVerify Pakistan, a joint project of CEJ-IBA and the United Nations Development Programme.