The video is shocking. CCTV footage shows a group of youths surrounding a teenage girl. A tussle ensues, and at one point one of the youths appears to stamp on the girl's head.
It was widely shared. In December, it was posted on a Facebook page called "Never Again Canada", with the caption: "Islamic migrants try and grab a girl and attempt to rape her somewhere in Europe".
At the Czech interior ministry, Director of Security Policy David Chovanec recognised the footage instantly. It came from a security camera outside police headquarters.
"It did happen 'somewhere in Europe' - right here in Prague. The footage was all over the local news when the incident happened last spring," he told the BBC.
"But they weren't 'Islamic migrants'. They were Czech citizens connected to the local drug scene. They were settling scores," he continued.
The story was demonstrably false. It soon came to the attention of the interior ministry's newly-founded Centre Against Terrorism and Hybrid Threats, of which Mr Chovanec is formally in charge.
The new unit was set up last month to counter disinformation, much of which Czech officials believe is being created by the Kremlin to undermine democracy ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections.
In this instance there is no suggestion the story was spread by pro-Kremlin trolls; Never Again Canada is a pro-Israel website with a strongly Islamophobic tint.
Mr Chovanec says the source is largely irrelevant; the unit's 15 specialists make decisions on the threat posed by the material itself, not its presumed creator.
Main aims of fake sites
Jakub Janda is no stranger to online trolling, and worse. The deputy director of Prague-based think tank European Values, he says his organisation's headquarters have recently moved, for security reasons, into the basement of a villa near Prague Castle.
He says there are around four dozen Czech-language sites peddling fake or exaggerated news - much of which can be traced to Russia.
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