Did rock stars reject Pashinyan? A new wave of fake videos spreads online

According to posts online, international rock stars are turning down offers worth millions of dollars, refusing to be drawn into Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's election campaign. Meanwhile, cast members from the series "Stranger Things" are calling on people not to vote for Nikol Pashinyan. 

For the past week, more than a dozen videos have spread on X and TikTok in which the likenesses of international rock stars and actors have been used to push false claims. For example, a video allegedly from Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine announces the band is withdrawing from a non-existent Yerevan rock concert because it is actually part of the ruling Civil Contract party’s election campaign. 

"We were assured the event was not political, but that wasn't true. This is actually part of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's election campaign. In my opinion, Pashinyan is the worst thing that has happened to Armenia since the genocide," says the alleged Mustaine in one of the circulating videos.

Video from fake posts circulating on X

These widely shared videos are fabricated. They use footage taken from real videos, which have been edited and supplemented with false statements.

The same script, attributed to different rock stars

Videos circulating on X show international rock stars supposedly refusing en masse to participate in the upcoming "Yerevan Rock Festival," which does not appear to be a real event, after discovering it is part of Pashinyan's election campaign.

Video from fake posts circulating on X

Besides Mustaine, other videos feature Nekrogoblikon's John Goblikon, and vocalist for the British band Cradle of Filth Dani Filth, among others.

All of these videos were posted on the same day, March 30, and the posts were tagged with international and Armenian media outlets to attract attention.

That same day, the videos were also posted throughout TikTok as well, through pages where the only activity had been the posting of those videos. 

All of the videos share the same structure and core messages. They repeat the themes of the festival being politicised, of financial offers being refused, of being "deceived," and of betrayal and genocide.

Some videos also include insulting characterisations of Pashinyan, portraying him as a leader who has "sold" the country to Turkey.

#CivilNetCheck found no information about a rock festival scheduled to take place in Yerevan in the coming months.

How the videos were made

At the start of the videos featuring rock stars, they mention that they have joined the Cameo platform before going on to explain their reasons for cancelling their participation in the festival.

Cameo allows users to order short personalised videos from celebrities for a fee. 

In this case, real videos taken from that platform were used: the opening portion is genuine, while fabricated voiceovers about Armenia were spliced in afterwards.

Video from fake posts circulating on X

In some videos, the celebrities even address the individuals for whom the original video was made by name. They say things like "Jack, it's me" or "Hey, Chris" before immediately pivoting to an entirely unrelated topic. In the real Cameo videos, by contrast, they are simply passing along greetings to those people (videos 1 and 2).

Fake/real video comparison

Although Cameo has previously been used to create political content, in this case, #CivilNetCheck did not find the full Armenia-related anywhere on the platform. 

How the videos spread

The spread of these videos follows the pattern of the Russian "Matryoshka" campaign, a method in which fabricated or manipulated content is first published on social platforms by a limited number of anonymous accounts, often mimicking the style of authoritative news outlets or institutions. The content is then systematically amplified through bot accounts, posted beneath publications by journalists, media organisations, and fact-checking outlets in an attempt to solicit "verification" or a response from them.

The same script, this time attributed to Hollywood actors

Since March 31, similar videos have also been circulating in the name of Hollywood celebrities. In these, well-known actors are purportedly urging viewers to donate to the Armenian Museum of America and not to vote for Nikol Pashinyan in the elections.

In one video, for instance, "Stranger Things" actress Cara Buono states that the show's cast has raised one million dollars for the museum over the past month, in order to preserve the memory of the Armenian Genocide.

"Today more than ever it is important to keep the memory of the Armenian Genocide alive, especially because the Armenian government is turning the country into a Turkish colony," the actress appears to say in the video.

The video also uses the logo of the Armenian Museum of America, but no information about any such fundraising campaign could be found.

The opening segments of the videos are again taken from Cameo, in which the real actress introduces herself and her participation on the platform.

Notably, the pages that spread these videos published similar content featuring other Hollywood celebrities during the same period, in which those celebrities purportedly join a fabricated "#HollywoodLeavesFrance" campaign.

In sum, the videos circulating on social media in which celebrities make political statements about Armenia are fabricated. They use segments from real Cameo videos that have been edited to insert targeted content.