Amazon’s Ring Faces Boycott Over Misrepresented ICE Raid Alerts
PLUS: Fake Russian Video Claiming USAID Funded Celebrity Trips to Ukraine Goes Viral; No, Trump Did Not Fire 3,000 Air Traffic Controllers; Parody Account Claims DOGE Found $600 Million Spent on Sushi
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Today:
Amazon faces boycott call over false claim that its Ring home security system sends alerts about imminent ICE raids
Kremlin falsely claims USAID funded Ben Stiller and other celebrities’ trips to Ukraine — and Elon Musk and Donald Trump Jr. fall for the hoax
Liberals push a concocted claim that Trump fired air traffic control personnel ahead of fatal D.C. plane crash
A satirical claim about frivolous government spending is treated like real news
And More …
Today’s newsletter was edited by Eric Effron and Sofia Rubinson
1. Who’s There? Conservatives Call for Boycott Over False Claim that Amazon’s Ring Home Security System Warns When ICE is Nearby
What happened: Conservative X users are calling for a boycott of the Amazon-owned Ring home security system, citing false reports that Ring notified customers in the Phoenix area that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were nearby.
A closer look: The claims began spreading on Feb. 2, when social media users shared screenshots of a Ring notification that stated: “Neighborhood Alert near Phoenix - ICE- immigration is near be aware.”
X user @MilaLovesJoe, a self-described Donald Trump supporter, shared the screenshot and posted: “It’s time to BOYCOTT Ring Doorbells (@ring). They are OBSTRUCTING JUSTICE. They are sending a notification when ICE is nearby. The CEO Elizabeth Hamren needs to be made an example out of. LOCK HER UP.” The post received 79,000 views and 3,500 likes in one day.
Conservative X account @americasgreat garnered 67,500 views and 240 likes in a post that stated: “Ring cameras are notifying neighborhoods ICE is in the area. Arrest [former Ring CEO] Jamie Siminoff, @JamieSiminoff president and ceo for obstruction. Turn off your Ring camera.”
Actually: The message was not sent by Ring. It was an alert created by a Ring customer.
The Ring system comes with a “Neighbors” app, a platform for users to post community news, such as nearby police activity, lost pet notices, and traffic alerts, according to the Ring website.
The notification in the shared screenshot states, “Neighborhood Alert,” which is how notifications from the Neighbors app are labeled.
The Neighbors app is not a platform through which the Ring company communicates with customers, Ring spokesperson Emma Daniels told NewsGuard in an email. “Ring is not notifying customers about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity. Ring customers who have Neighbors App notifications enabled may be notified about posts authored by other Neighbors App users in their location,” she said.
The Arizona Republic (NewsGuard Trust Score: 100/100) reported that an ICE operation took place in northwest Phoenix around the time the false narrative began spreading.
Macrina Wang contributed reporting.
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2. Russia Concocts Claim that USAID Funded Celebrity Visits to Ukraine; Prominent U.S. Conservatives Fall for the Falsehoods
By Macrina Wang
What happened: U.S. conservatives and pro-Kremlin sources are circulating a fabricated video, falsely credited to entertainment channel E! News, claiming that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) spent millions of dollars to sponsor celebrity visits to Ukraine.
The video, and the claim itself, are both bogus.
A closer look: In the faked clip, which featured E! News’ logo, a voiceover said:
“USAID sponsored American celebrity visits to Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale invasion began. Angelina Jolie, $20 million. Sean Penn, $5 million. Jean-Claude Van Damme, $1.5 million. Orlando Bloom, $8 million. Ben Stiller, $4 million. This was done to increase Zelensky’s popularity among foreign audiences, particularly in the United States. The involvement of celebrities made it easier to coordinate funding programs for Ukraine during the conflict.”
You can watch the video here:
Where it spread: The video, which was originally published in the pro-Kremlin Telegram channel @OdessaRussi on Feb. 5, spread on Russian and American social media networks and pro-Kremlin websites.
Elon Musk, who has been leading the effort to dismantle USAID, reposted the fabricated clip from conservative account @ImMeme0 that was captioned, “Did you know that USAID spent your tax dollars to fund celebrity trips to Ukraine, all to boost Zelensky’s popularity among Americans?” The repost garnered 3.3 million views and 24,000 likes within a day.
Donald Trump Jr. posted the fake video alongside the text, “USA ID may be the biggest scam ever perpetrated on the American people under the guise of doing good.” The post received 410,000 views and 5,400 likes in one day.
Russian language state-run RT (Trust Score: 20/100) also posted an article advancing the false claim.
Actually: The video does not appear on E! News’ official channels and bears strong indications of inauthenticity.
An E! News spokesperson told the Agence France-Presse (Trust Score: 100/100) that the video “is not authentic and did not originate from E! News.”
NewsGuard did not find any record of the video or any reporting on the story on E! News’ website and social media channels.
NewsGuard ran the video through AI detection tool Hive, which found with complete confidence that the voiceover was AI-generated.
While the celebrities named in the video all have visited Ukraine since the war began, NewsGuard did not find any evidence on federal databases or elsewhere that USAID paid them to do so.
Actor Ben Stiller denied the claim that he was paid by USAID to visit Ukraine in 2022. In a Feb. 5 X post, Stiller responded to a post sharing the fabricated video, saying: “Totally false. Untrue. These are lies coming from Russian media. I completely self-funded my humanitarian trip to Ukraine. There was no funding from USAID and certainly no personal payments.”
Sean Penn’s litigator Matthew Rosengart told NewsGuard in an email: “USAID funding was never used to pay for Sean Penn’s travel to Ukraine; Mr. Penn self-funded his travel.”
Kremlin-operated RT issued multiple posts on X “debunking” the claim — despite having itself advanced it. This may be an attempt to distance itself from the campaign spreading the falsehoods after they went viral. RT responded to Stiller’s post on X stating, “Why add to fake news by spreading more fake news, Ben? We are 'Russian media' & we are DEBUNKING this.”
The RT “debunk” notwithstanding, the video matches tactics used by Matryoshka, a Russian influence operation that publishes anti-Ukraine content and pro-Kremlin disinformation videos mimicking credible Western media outlets that have included the BBC (Trust Score: 95/100), Bellingcat (Trust Score: 100/100), and CNN (Trust Score: 80/100).
In an October 2024 report, cybersecurity company Recorded Future said that Matryoshka "frequently recycles photo and video materials from publicly available sources and employs artificial intelligence (AI)-generated content, such as voiceovers, to produce professional-quality influence content."
McKenzie Sadeghi contributed reporting.
Click here to find out more about NewsGuard Trust Scores and our process for rating websites. You can download NewsGuard’s browser extension, which displays NewsGuard Trust Score icons next to links on search engines, social media feeds, and other platforms by clicking here.
3. Millions of Views for False Claim from the Left that Trump Fired 3,000 Air Traffic Controllers Before Deadly Washington Plane Crash
By Sarah Komar
What happened: Liberal social media users falsely claimed that the Trump administration fired 3,000 air traffic controllers one week before the deadly plane-helicopter collision in Washington.
Although thousands of federal employees have been terminated in recent weeks, the air traffic control workforce has remained steady, officials say.
A closer look: The claim appears to have originated in a Jan. 30 X post from @TheNewsDeskLive, a self-described breaking news account that regularly criticizes Trump and Republicans.
The post stated: “Trump fired 400 FAA senior officials, the TSA head, and 3,000 air traffic controllers just 8 days ago. Policy choices have consequences. Today, American Airlines Flight 5342 collided with a Blackhawk over the Potomac, killing 65 Americans. This is the Trump #PlaneCrash.” The post received 3.1 million views and 27,000 likes in six days.
Liberal X user @JerryHicksUnite said in a Jan. 30 post: “8 days ago Trump fired 400 FAA senior officials, the TSA head & 3,000 air traffic controllers[.] Now American Airlines plane collides with a Blackhawk 65 dead.” The post garnered 1.5 million views and 10,000 likes in six days.
Actually: No air traffic controllers were fired in the early weeks of Trump’s second term.
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spokesperson Kristen Alsop told NewsGuard in an email that no such dismissals occurred. “Growing the nation’s air traffic controller workforce is a top priority for the FAA,” Alsop said. “We continue to hire and onboard new controllers and none have been fired.”
On Jan. 28, the day before the crash, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management sent an email to millions of federal employees, including those at the FAA, offering a buyout to those choosing to resign their positions by Feb. 6.
However, air traffic controllers are not eligible to accept the offer, the FAA’s Alsop told NewsGuard, repeating a policy clarification first articulated by U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy in a Feb. 2 interview on CNN (Trust Score: 80/100).
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4. Sushi, Starbucks, and Paper Cups? Parody Claim About Frivolous Expenditures Uncovered by DOGE Is Cited as Fact
By Macrina Wang
What happened: Conservative commentators have turned parody into facts. They are claiming that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — an executive-branch unit created by Donald Trump and headed by Elon Musk — reported a series of bizarre expenditures, including that:
The Pentagon spent $600 million a year on sushi
The IRS spent $230,000 a month on Starbucks cinnamon roast K-Cup coffee pods
The Air Force paid $1,280 per paper cup
However, the claims originated from an account clearly labeled as parody. Yet, they were spread as fact on social media by conservative users praising DOGE’s efforts to rid the federal government of wasteful spending.
A closer look: On Jan. 24, X account @iamnot_elon, which carries the platform’s “parody account” label and satirizes Musk, posted:
“Good morning 𝕏! My experience with DOGE has been totally wild so far. I told you yesterday about the $600 million per year the Pentagon was spending on Sushi… Well, I just found another wild one! The Air Force was spending $1,280 per paper coffee cup! Like literally those ones you find at the office. $1280!!! We also found that $230k per month was being spent by the IRS on Starbucks Cinammon [sic] Roast K Cups, but everyone was working from home!”
A week later, Instagram user @d.o.g.e_official, which frequently parodies DOGE, posted the same message, adding “Elon Musk” at the end to make it seem as if Musk had approved the post. From there, social media users appeared to take the claim seriously.
On Feb. 1, conservative TikTok user “The Older Millennial” stated: “What were some of these approved payments that they [DOGE] were gonna ask about? … The Pentagon spends $600 million a year on sushi. Did you know the IRS is spending $230,000 a month on cinnamon roast K-Cups for their headquarters? … And those little plastic coffee cups, they were spending $1,280 per cup.” The video received 1.5 million views and 181,600 likes in three days.
Actually: As noted, this claim started as parody. There is no evidence to support the existence of these expenditures.
NewsGuard reviewed statements by the real Musk as well as from DOGE’s official channels and found no comments regarding federal spending for sushi, Starbucks K-Cup coffee pods, or paper cups.
It is unclear how much the Pentagon, the IRS, and the Air Force, respectively, spend on these items. NewsGuard’s review of publicly available records of federal spending, including on USASpending.gov, found that these agencies do not itemize such expenditures.
Reality Check is produced by Co-CEOs Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz, and the NewsGuard team.
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