In April 2018, a false BBC Report depicting an escalating armed conflict between NATO and Russia circulated on WhatsApp.

The 4-minute clip was a shortened version of an hour-long film created by the Irish marketing company, Benchmarking Assessment Group. Intended to look like a nonfiction news report, the film was designed as a “psychometric test” for clients to see how they would react in a disaster scenario.

Circulating beyond its intended context, the film reached viewers via WhatsApp and without the disclaimer about it being a “fictional dramatization.”

The BBC quickly issued a statement to quell the mounting confusion and assert that the content of the video was not created by the BBC.