Category Archives: Fake News

Fake news problem: Cases of fake news have been on the rise for the past few years. Sometimes fake news also becomes the reason for riots and violence. At the same time, religion also plays an important role in inciting hatred, but the question arises: why are the cases of fake news continuously increasing? This reason was revealed by a research report, according to which the mode of viewing and reading information is changing among young people.

Young people today watch news from social media platforms which is very dangerous because people on social media change the news according to their own and this gives rise to fake news.

UK research report revealed

According to a UK-based study, young Britons use social media platforms such as Instagram, Tiktok and YouTube to get their news. Social media is not the main source of information. In such situation, news is presented on these platforms as per their wish, it helps a lot to spread fake news.

People of this age read social media news

According to Ofcoms latest report from Bitrain, most young people read the news via Instagram. Instagram remains a major source of information among young people. According to the report, 29% of young people use the meta-platforms Instagram for information. While 28% of young people use YouTube for information. Apart from that, short video platform Tiktok also remains the main news source in Britain. In Britain, people who watch Tiktok news are between 16 and 24 years old.

Fire-Boltt Visionary Smartwatch Launched, Will Get Call Feature, Specifications and Price

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Why is the case of Fake News increasing? Revealed in research, know the reason here - News84Media - News84Media.com

The Lucknow police on Tuesdayarrestedfour persons for performing Namaz at the newly opened Lulu mall in thestate capital, videos of which had gone viral on the internet and sparked a massive controversy. The arrested men were identified as Mohammad Rehan, Aatif Khan, Mohammad Lokman, and Mohammad Noman.

The suspects were arrested under sections 153A(1), 341, 505, and 295A of the Indian Penal Code.

The development came days after social media platforms were awash with videos from Lulu Mall in Lucknow, where a group of men were seen offering namaz. The videos triggered a raging controversy over the use of public places for religious purposes. Several Hindu organisations protested against turning the mall into a place of worship, with many announcing Hanuman Chalisa and Sundar Kand recitals inside the mall.

One such protest by Hindu organisations took place on July 15, three days after Muslim men performed namaz inside the Lulu Mall. However, police arrested three men, ostensibly Hindus, for gathering at the mall entrance and reciting Sundar Kand. Later on Twitter, the Lucknow police shared a press note informing about the arrest.

However, the usual suspects, forever on the prowl to shield Islamists, quickly pounced on the press note and twisted it to malign Hindus. Citing the Hindus arrested in the case, they weaved a warped narrative that involved painting apprehended Hindus as Muslims and accusing them of defaming the Muslim community by assuming their identity and performing namaz inside the mall.

Arfa Khanum Sherwani, a journalist with the leftist propaganda website The Wire and known for her penchant for spreading fake news, peddled disinformation that Sanghis were arrested for offering namaz inside the mall.

Her colleague, Rohini Singh, also joined her in the routine exercise of shielding Islamists. Without sharing evidence to substantiate her claims, Singh took to Twitter to declare that those offering namaz at Lulu Mall in Lucknow were actors who wanted to stir social unrest. Singh also pontificated that it does not behove good on the majority that actors knew that people would get triggered at the sight of namaz inside the mall.

In less than 24 hours since Singh posted her tweet, the Lucknow police revealed the names of youth arrested for offering namaz in the mall, all of whom turned out to be Muslims. Yet, Singh did not bother to delete her tweet or offer an apology for peddling disinformation on Twitter.

Radio Mirchis Sayema, who has often displayed little hesitation in promoting fake news that serves to bolster Islamist propaganda, also shared the misinformation being peddled about the arrest of Hindu men. Sayema quoted Khabeers tweet and promoted the misinformation that Hindu men posed as Muslims to offer namaz inside the mall.

Ahmed Khabeer, Editor of the Islamist propaganda portal The Jamia Times, shared a screenshot of a tweet posted by Lucknow Police to allege that Hindus posing as Muslims had offered namaz in the mall.

However, the arrest of four persons involved in namaz inside the Lulu Mall and their identities revealed has served as a body blow to the usual suspects who had desperately tried to implicate Hindus in the matter so as to cover up for the Islamists and their tendency to turn public spaces into places for communal prayers.

The Lulu mall in Lucknow, the largest in Uttar Pradesh, was embroiled in a conspiracy just days after it opened after a video of a few people offering Namaz inside the mall went viral on July 12. In reaction to the incident, the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha announced that a Sundarkand recital will be held within the mall. The Hindu Mahasabha cancelled the Sundarkand recitalafter the malls management apologised for the Namaz incident.

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Four Muslim youth arrested over namaz inside Lulu Mall: How the usual suspects in media spread fake news to malign Hindus - OpIndia

MUMBAI: Imlie has done well on the TRP charts since it hit the screens.

Also read: Imlie: OMG! Imlie loses her child, Aryan is shaken up

The audience is in love with the chemistry between Aryan and Imlie. Aditya is still disturbed by their relationship. We had exclusively updated about the exit of Aditya aka Manasvi Vashisht from the show.

Currently, Imlie puts an end to the practice of forced marriage in Pagdandiya and saves the girl from getting exploited. On the other hand, Malini decides to ruin everything in Pagdandiya and bring shame to the village as it stole her husband and father from her. Imlie tells Cheeni that she wants to change all the superstitious practices and bring hope to the Village. What will happen when Imlie and Malini will come face to face?

Swapnil comes to Malini with news from Pagdandiya and she quickly gets it published as it shows the village in a negative light, later, Swapnil comes and reveals that the news is wrong but Malini refuses to change it and threatens Swapnil that he will lose his job if he doesn't listen to her orders. On the other hand, Aryan is stuck in Imlie's memories but refuses to accept them. Malini comes home and tells Aryan that they have published an article against Pagdandiya's evil practices and Aryan gives a go-ahead without even listening.

In the upcoming episode, While Imlie is taking Cheeni to school the villagers come to her with the fake news Bhasker Times has published. She rushes to her office and asks the editor what can we do to stop the fake article. She reveals that she has the footage as proof but remembers that Cheeni has taken her phone. On the other hand, Aryan drives to Pagdandiya to investigate the truth behind the news. This would be their first face-off after 5 years, how will Aryan and Imlie react when they see each other.

Also read: Imlie: OMG! Imlie loses her child, Aryan is shaken up

For more exciting updates, stay tuned to Tellychakkar.com

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MAJOR UPDATE! Imlie comes to know about the Fake News, Aryan drives to Pagdandiya the first face-off of Arylie to soon happen in StarPlus' Imlie -...

The popular actor Will Smith is not dead as reported by some social media outlets on Monday evening.

The fake death reports all started with a tweet under a bot (fake or false) account, that the actor had died in Wyoming, United States.

The tweet gathered some steam with many searching on Google on whether or not this was true. However, with a quick search of the Twitter account, under the handle Daily reports of deaths in Wyoming, the claims can be easily debunked. The account makes numerous false death claims concerning celebrities even animation characters.

The spike in Google search on this fake death report clearly shows theres still much interest in Will Smith after the Oscar drama.

The year 2022 has been considered the pinnacle of his acting career as he received numerous accolades for his lead role in King Richard, including an Oscar. However, much of this was overshadowed after he lost his temper and slapped actor-comedian Chris Rock.

The incident occurred on the Oscar stage moments before he would win Best Actor. Rock made a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smiths hair loss, comparing it to Demi Moore in G.I. Jane.

Jada suffers from alopecia, a hair loss condition.

Smith apologised to the Academy Awards and Rock, however, it wasnt enough as he was banned from attending the Oscars for the next ten years.The actor also removed himself as a member of the Academy and described his actions at the Oscars as shocking, painful and inexcusable.

However, during the duration of the ban, Smith can still be nominated and even win an Oscar award.

The Academy board found that Smiths actions were unacceptable and exhibited harmful behaviour.

The last time Smith was seen in public was during a spiritual trip to India in April after the Oscar debacle.He also has taken a social media break, as his last post was his public apology on 29 March.

READ NEXT: WATCH: Will Smith in India for spiritual purposes after Oscar drama

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Fake news: Will Smith is not dead - The Citizen

The video depicted Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob as saying that goreng pisang sellers cannot use the subsidised packet cooking oil as it is meant for domestic use only. Bernama pic

By Radzi Razak

Tuesday, 19 Jul 2022 1:55 PM MYT

KUALA LUMPUR, July 19 The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) is looking into claims that an individual from a political party spread fake news on Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

Communications and Multimedia Minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa revealed the matter today as he expressed his disappointment over the sharing of a video of Ismail Sabri talking about subsidised packet cooking oil being used illegally by goreng pisang (banana fritter) sellers without context.

I was told that MCMC had identified an individual making a TikTok posting in his account, and we asked MCMC to act.

The individual is not an MP, but he holds a position in a certain political party, he told a press conference in Parliament today.

The video depicted Ismail Sabri as saying that goreng pisang sellers cannot use the subsidised packet cooking oil as it is meant for domestic use only.

However, Annuar said the video was cut short and it depicted Ismail Sabri as making an example out of such sellers because it would be difficult to ban restaurants and hawkers from using the oil.

Yesterday, Ismail Sabri told the Dewan Rakyat that the government risked incurring public backlash if it sent enforcement officers from the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry after hawkers who used the subsidised cooking oil for commercial purposes.

If the enforcers fine them or seize the cooking oil packets from them, we will be labelled as acting cruelly towards the poor.

There are many things that the government needs to consider, but believe me, the government will not stay silent. We will do our best for the country, he said.

He was responding to a question from Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (Port Dickson-PH) on targeted subsidies during Question Time.

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Annuar: Viral video on PMs goreng pisang statement in Parliament fake news, MCMC to act against TikTok creator - Malay Mail

In the modern age, social media has the power to make anything viral within mere seconds. While it can be useful for important topics requiring attention, such platforms can conversely also create unnecessary alarm.

Recently, a post of police officials inspecting illegal firearms at Johor went viral on social media.

The caption had insinuated that someone had brought military equipment and firearms into Singapore.

However, authorities later clarified the situation and stated that the inspection was in fact, a routine check. They have thus urged the public not to spread such posts around on social media.

On Saturday (23 Jul), a netizen posted a few pictures of police officers inspecting firearms at the Johor Bahru (JB) checkpoint.

The same images were also circulating around WhatsApp, according to the New Straits Times (NST).

The inspections were being carried out at the lane for lorries to pass through the checkpoint.

The pictures displayed at least ten crates of weaponry, containing high-grade rifles, bullets and other such equipment.

In the caption, the netizen implied that someone had attempted to bring the firearms from Malaysia into Singapore, and was subsequently caught.

Despite the lack of sources, the post went viral, with more than 2,000 shares at the time of writing.

Addressing the post, Johor police said on Saturday (23 Jul) that the inspection was for a routine check, according to a report by The Star.

Police chief commissioner Kamarul Zaman Mamat said officials inspected a trailer and a four-wheel vehicle at the exit lane of the checkpoint between 2.30pm and 4.30pm on Friday (22 Jul).

The inspection was a routine check for every weapon, ammunition and related equipment as per the interim license approval letter issued by the Inspector-General of Police, he said.

He added that after a joint military exercise with the Malaysian Armed Forces, the firearms were inspected for clearance to enter Singapore.

Mr Kamarul Zaman has also stated that police officials would be taking action against those who intentionally spread false information.

We also urge the public not to easily fall for anything that goes viral on social media and check its accuracy first, he said.

It can be tempting to give in to the public tide of easily buying into alarming news on social media.

However, we should be more discerning of the posts we come across on these platforms. Doing so avoids inciting unnecessary alarm and fear amongst our peers.

Hopefully, this incident will remind all netizens to exercise discretion when perusing social media.

Have news you must share? Get in touch with us via email atnews@mustsharenews.com.

Featured image adapted from Facebook.

Originally posted here:

Viral Johor Firearms Images Are Of Routine Inspection, Police Warn Against Spreading Fake News - MS News

Somsak Jiteurtragool stands in a sun speckled field, saplings lined in rows behind him. Hello viewers, today Im bringing you to Principal Uncle and Aunties Forest Garden plot, he says. A tour begins, and the camera pans up and down various plants: from red wood to makha and mahogany.

He tells the camera that his 600 seedlings, which cost just 27 baht [0.73 USD] each when he planted them five years ago, could be worth up to 10,000 baht [271.19USD] per plant in 10 years time.

Somsak, a 62-year-old retired headteacher from central Thailand, isnt your typical social media influencer. Yet his Facebook video on growing trees as an investment has been viewed by almost 8,000 people, and his Facebook page dedicated to gardening, set up six months ago, already has more than 900 followers.

Somsak is one of about 50 people who took part in a digital training scheme designed for over 60s by the Thai Media Fund, a government agency. The project, which will soon accept a new intake of students, aims to help Thailands rapidly ageing population use social media more effectively, and to generate their own content.

Most older Thai people are already using social media, says Somsak, but they dont consider themselves as content creators. As the older generations, we should get up and give it a go, he says. Do something that you like, present something that you are enthusiastic about.

Our knowledge can be valuable to society. The younger generation can learn from us, he adds.

Almost 78% of Thailands population is online, according to a report by DataReportal and the creative agency We Are Social, while a 2021 estimate suggested that Thais spent almost three hours every day on social media.

This is likely to include many from Thailands older age groups, says Dr Dhanakorn Srisooksai, chief executive officer of Thai Media Fund. We are entering the digital era with elderly people, more and more elderly are using media right now, but with limited skills, says Dhanakorn. Forecasts suggest more than 30% of Thailands population will be aged over 60 by 2035.

Older users tend to face different risks online, Dhanakorn adds. While online bullying and addiction to social media are the biggest problems affecting young people online in Thailand, older generations are more vulnerable to scams and disinformation, he says. They might believe some sort of fake news about vaccines, for example, that it can have an effect on their health or some fake news about a certain diet or about a nutrition supplement that might have an effect on their actual health and cause them to lose a lot of money.

Alongside training on areas such as disinformation, the Thai Media Funds project partnered participants with university students who provided mentoring on the technical skills needed to develop an online presence, including editing videos. Participants created online pages sharing their areas of expertise, from learning English to advice on caring for children who are autistic. A grandad in Ubon Ratchathani created a YouTube chatshow with his grandson in Bangkok, so that they could stay in touch even while living far away from one another.

Nadrda Suksuthamwong, 61, a personal trainer and fitness influencer, another of the participants, credits the course with teaching her about how to illustrate and cut her videos more effectively. She has used social media for 10 years and has a TikTok following of more than 68,300 people. My children are in their 30s, they tell their friends my mom is a TikTok star, she says. Her videos feature the shuffle dance trend, as well as advice on proper form when exercising. I think our livelihood is from working so I dont think of retiring at all, she says.

Older people are perhaps put off producing content online because they worry about making mistakes, she adds. They dont want to be compared with other people and that can make them lose their confidence, so they dare not present themselves in the media.

Pojai Poonnat, director of the project, which is called Soong Wai Huajai Young Work, said that some participants were shy about appearing on screen. Theyre worried about being bullied over how they look and or how they behave in front of the camera, she says, adding that trainers suggested alternatives such as doing voiceovers.

As a former school headteacher, Somsak wasnt nervous about presenting. Environmental conservation was a topic he promoted at school, he says, and now he hopes to share the same messages among his own generation. They have time and some of them have land, he says.

Each morning, he films a short video while out in the garden, which he spends about 30 minutes editing later in the evening, ready to post the next day. Somsak doesnt obsess over his follower count and number of likes. I let it go naturally, he says. If [people online] like the same thing as me, they can come and join.

During my official work before I retired, I was quite happy with my work and happy being busy, he says. Now, he says, social media has become his new classroom.

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Instagran: meet Thailands new generation of over-60s influencers - The Guardian

On Thursday (July 21), the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) tendered an apology and assured to compensate a former nanny of the British Royal family for falsely claiming that she had aborted her child after an affair with Prince Charles.

The nanny, identified as Alexandra Tiggy Pettifer, had served as the personal assistant to the Prince of Wales family between 1993 and 1999. She looked after Prince William and Prince Harry after Prince Charles had separated from Princess Diana in 1992.

Reportedly, false allegations about an affair between Prince Charles and his personal assistant were made by BBC journalist Martin Bashir to land an interview with Princess Diana in 1995. Pettifer had sued the national broadcaster of the UK for the harm caused by the scandalous portrayal of her life.

It was in that explosive interview that the late Princess Diana disclosed intimate details of her failed marriage to Prince Charles.

In May 2021, an inquiry committee set up by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) to look into the allegations made by Charles Spencer, brother of former British Princess Diana,ruledthat BBC journalist Martin Bashir had used deceit to secure an interview with the former Princess in 1995. Charles Spencer said the BBC reporter linked these events to Dianas death.

Following a hearing at the High Court in London on July 21, BBC Director-General Tim Davie issued an apology and assured to not telecast the said interview on BBCs channel ever again.

The BBC has agreed to pay substantial damages to Mrs Pettifer and I would like to take this opportunity to apologise publicly to her, to the Prince of Wales, and to the Dukes of Cambridge and Sussex, for the way in which Princess Diana was deceived and the subsequent impact on all their lives, he stated.

It is a matter of great regret that the BBC did not get to the facts in the immediate aftermath of the programme when there were warning signs that the interview might have been obtained improperly. Instead, as the Duke of Cambridge himself put it, the BBC failed to ask the tough questions, he added.

Tim Davie apologised for letting the audience and the Royal Family down. Had we done our job properly Princess Diana would have known the truth during her lifetime, he emphasised.

The BBC Director General further said, It does of course remain part of the historical record and there may be occasions in the future when it will be justified for the BBC to use short extracts for journalistic purposes, but these will be few and far between and will need to be agreed at the executive committee level and set in the full context of what we now know about the way the interview was obtained. I would urge others to exercise similar restraint.

Alexandra Tiggy Pettifer was successful in settling her claim against the BBC after a long legal battle. In a statement, she said, I am disappointed that it needed legal action for the BBC to recognise the serious harm I have been subjected to.

The former nanny added, Sadly, I am one of many people whose lives have been scarred by the deceitful way in which the BBC Panorama was made and the BBCs subsequent failure to properly investigate the making of the programme.

She has expressed grief over the distress caused to the British Royal family. I know first-hand how much they were affected at the time, and how the programme and the false narrative it created have haunted the family in the years since. Especially because, still today, so much about the making of the programme is yet to be adequately explained.

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BBC and fake news: British broadcaster to pay a large sum in damages to the former nanny of Prince William, Harry for false claims of her affair with...

Unlike other political and ideological currents, the extreme right and the so-called libertarians have been better able to read the changes in societies, take advantage of the weaknesses and cracks in liberal democracies and understand the advantages offered by new technologies, and they demonstrate this, above all, in their campaigns not only of fakenews, but also of shitnews.

By Aram Aharonian

The far right has understood that fragilities and vulnerabilities can be exploited and that deconstructing shared reality and sowing confusion can further polarise society and remove them in the imposition of collective imaginaries and at the electoral level. Hence their interest and efforts to generate and disseminate fake news. In Europe, the United States, Asia, Oceania and Latin America.

The growth of extreme right-wing parties throughout the world, especially in countries such as France, Italy, Spain, Hungary, Poland, Brazil and the United States, has put every democrat and anti-fascist on alert, and from this concern arises debates on how to combat their racist, xenophobic, sexist, homophobic or aporophobic hate messages, i.e., those who reject, dislike, fear and despise the poor, the underprivileged.

And then thinkers ask themselves old questions such as whether intolerance should be tolerated, or whether any idea, even if it is discriminatory, is respectable for the sake of the sacrosanct freedom of expression.

But the real concern is how to counter them and how the media and social organisations, trade unions, democratic political parties should deal with the extreme right. And we are back to the eternal dilemma of whether the media should ideally ignore the far right or whether it is better to counter-argue their discourses. The issue is once again on the agenda of academics and communicators.

From March 2020 to October 2021, more than 400 politicians, civil and religious leaders, and some 200 civil, religious and political organisations have been counted in Latin America pushing messages and lobbies against a rights agenda: they do not believe in a gender focus in education, nor in LGBTI rights, nor in equal marriage, nor in sexual and reproductive rights. And they question the UNs efforts to push for gender equality, the globalist agenda.

The far right 2.0 has been able to read the changes in society better than others, to take advantage of the weaknesses and cracks in liberal democracies and to understand the possibilities offered by new technologies, unlike other political and ideological currents. It has understood that existing weaknesses and vulnerabilities can be exploited.

Hence its interest in and efforts to generate and disseminate fake news. In the 2016 US election campaign, the vast majority of fake news were pro-Trump messages, while in Poland, twice as many fake news pages were classified as conservative as progressive ones.

The far-rights medium-term goals are to undermine the quality of public debate, promote misperceptions, foster greater hostility and erode trust in democracy, journalism and institutions.

Up to 22 new websites that function as opinion generators and content creation by influencers, to fabricators of hoaxes or fake news or the whitewashing and naturalisation of the far right were identified in Europe by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, in a report that states that the genesis of the new right lies precisely in the internet and in these types of portals.

The viralisation of messages, videos or memes on social networks is the most widely used tactic through a complex network where so-called far-right influencers are aided by an endless number of fake or automated profiles -bots and sockpuppets- and activists who engage in trolling and shitposting. Techniques that border on illegality or are punishable as a crime are becoming increasingly common.

These include doxing the disclosure of a persons personal details in order to intimidate, silence and publicly discredit critical voices and political opponents or coordinated attacks known as shitstorming.

Often these practices are supported by what have been called troll factories or troll farms, companies dedicated to creating automated accounts, spreading fake news and harassing journalists or users on social media. These companies can be funded or created by governments, but also set up by individuals apparently not linked to political formations or governments. But generally, the financiers are the same.

In the far-rights strategy, fake news is a central element, and there is a distinction between short- and medium-term objectives. Among the former, as the case of Cambridge Analytica shows, is that of winning elections or increasing electoral consensus.

The ability of fake news to modify voting intentions seems to be much more effective than traditional electoral advertisements. The slogans used Take Back Control, Make America Great Again, Italians First have sold their political products, have managed to connect with the sentiments of the citizenry and have displaced rational reflection on technical issues.

This connects with social media studies, which allow us to analyse peoples feelings, opinions, prejudices and fears, and thus personalise propaganda and push certain messages over others. Content that provokes highly stimulating emotions is more likely to be shared. That is, a Facebook post or tweet that provokes astonishment, anxiety or anger is positively linked to virality.

Already Cambridge Analytica (CA)-a private British company that combined data mining and data analysis with strategic communication for the electoral process-which came to fame in 2018 for the so-called Facebook-CA scandal-had shown that provoking anger and outrage reduced the need for rational explanations and predisposed voters to a more indiscriminately punitive mood.

In his study of the far-right US Alt-Right, The New Yorkers Andrew Marantz showed how memes that is, an image, video or text, usually distorted for caricatural purposes are key to this strategy. The algorithms used by the major social platforms were not designed to assess whether an idea was true or false, prosocial or antisocial, but to measure whether a meme triggered a surge of activating emotions in a large number of people.

Memes are associated with the tactic of shitposting, i.e., trolling and attacking political opponents and filling social networks with low-quality content to divert discussions and render what is posted on a site useless or, at the very least, worthless. Shitposting also has the function of desensitising listeners over time.

It is therefore evident that the publication of fake news and conspiracy theories favours both the viralisation of news and the emotional and visceral reactions of a significant percentage of users. And the viralisation, moreover, does not remain only in social networks, but also reaches the traditional media and even parliaments.

The phenomenon of feedback between social networks, traditional media and places of public debate such as parliaments demonstrates the existence of global networks for the dissemination of far-right discourse, such as Steve Bannons Movement, one of the promoters of far-right libertarianism, but also important lobbies such as arms or Christian fundamentalism that promote a common agenda and finance far-right parties.

This is what explains the spread of truly incredible plot theories such as Pizzagate, according to which the main leaders of the Democratic Party in the US, starting with Hillary Clinton, had created a human trafficking network and organised child sex abuse sessions in restaurants such as the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Washington.

Or that of Qanon which interprets the world as a struggle between Good and Evil, represented by Trump and a supposed System, respectively or that according to which Bill Gates is the creator of the coronavirus. In a bewildering and ambiguous reality, conspiracy theories offer a mould of order, whose attractive simplicity eclipses their absurdities, Forti points out.

Spains far-right Vox party studies the formations website and profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, Flickr, Youtube, Instagram, TikTok and Gab. The use of these channels differs in their format and style, as they target different audience profiles.

An analysis by Andrea Castro and Pablo Daz points out that all the content generated by Vox for the digital sphere responds to the same discursive patterns: simplification and the use of direct and clear language, with belligerent expressions and calls to action, which it exploits to disqualify and ridicule its political opponents and praise its leaders. His use of networks focused on young users, such as Youtube, Instagram or TikTok, where he adapts his stylistic resources, stands out.

Also relevant is its presence on Gab, a social network characterised by not limiting any content and whose users are associated with extreme right-wing political positions.

In Germany, the AfD, the new German far right, did not become the countrys social media party by chance. They knew that the mainstream media would not let their racist and disrespectful messages get across so easily. And so, they started to sell themselves as victims who build their own rebel loudspeaker and begin to generate distrust of the mainstream media.

No other political party in Germany has more followers than Alternative fr Deutschland (AfD) on Facebook. It has 4.5 million users in Germany. The more emotion a post conveys, the more reactions it provokes. This is how the algorithms score. More user interaction with a post means more visibility and more attention.

While the AfDs official pages contain posts on topics such as terrorism and immigration, the far right is at home in private Facebook groups. The modern discourse of the new far right changes and users go straight to sharing quotes from Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitlers book, or links to scientific publications on white supremacy and so on.

As a closed group, this generates a much stronger sense of community or bond, where the constant reaffirmation of the same identity that feels defrauded and deceived by the media and institutions is strengthened. Only three percent of Germans have a twitter account, but almost every journalist in Germany has one. Their tweets are aggressive and direct in order to get their issues on the media agenda and get the other parties to make statements about them.

Conspiracy theories can also be transmitted as a subtly progressive process. They call this redpilling, in reference to the movie Matrix, where the ideological component is added step by step. Personal fear is associated with a picture of the culprit. In most cases these are fears related to migration, sexual violence, social decline or terrorist attacks. Conspiracy theory provides an easy explanation and a simple picture of the enemy.

In the US it was noticed that the focus and resources afterwards were too much on Islamist terrorism. The far-right internet networks were hardly observed. There was a failure to better understand this whole subculture, in order to finally be able to classify it properly.

What is potentially threatening to democracy? What can turn into violence? What is really just trolling? Today, the authorities do not have the full picture, in terms of far-right online groups. On the Islamist side they believe they are much better protected, or at least they do not have accomplices in the upper echelons of power.

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Shitnews and fakenews, tools of the far right - PRESSENZA International News Agency

Original to ScheerPost

No, I still havent got over the report in The New York Times this spring, wherein we learned of a joint AmericanUkrainian campaign to inundate Russians with propaganda intended to demoralize the public as Russian forces advanced in eastern Ukraine. Using a mix of high-tech and Cold War tactics, the government-supervised Times reported, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is circulating information about the Ukraine war among Russian citizens to sow doubt about the Kremlins accounts in an effort to undermine faith in the Kremlin.

Now is this great, disinterested journalism or what?

And here is the passage in the Times report you just have to dig: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a U.S.funded but independent news organization founded decades ago, is trying to push its broadcasts deeper into Russia.

U.S.funded but independent? How does this work? RFE/RL is a news organization now? Foundednote the passive voice herein some distant decades ago?

This piece is the work of Julian Barnes and Edward Wong, and let the bylines of these two perfectly ordinary reporters be noted for the record. Lets clean up their quite disgraceful act very briefly.

Radio Free Europe was founded in mid1949, about two years after the onset of the Cold War, by the National Committee for a Free Europe, an antiCommunist cabal of spooks, pols, and publishers Allen Dulles set in motion as one of his numerous front organizations while he was director of the CIA. It was a big deal in the Eisenhower administrations Crusade for Freedomdont you love the names they give these things?during the 1950s. The CIA funded RFE, directly but covertly, until 1972.

At that point, the policy cliques decided it was poor PR for the agency to write the checks. RFE, which merged with Radio Liberty in 1976, has since been funded by Congress via the Agency for Global Media. Its all above board now, nice and clean.

This is RFE/RL as it is. It is neither independent nor a news organization and has never been either. What Barnes and Wong did get right was their reference to Cold War tactics: What RFE/RL is up to in Russia today is a subversion campaign of exactly the kind they were founded to conduct at the Cold Wars outset.

I was put in mind of this nonsense when I read the latest last week about Rappler, the Filipino news site whose founder, Maria Ressa, won the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this year. Rappler has been in a running battle with the government that dates to 2017, when President Rodrigo Duterte first charged the site with breaching laws prohibiting foreign ownership of Filipino media.

The Times chimes in once again. It describes Rappler as an independent news organization and quotes Ressa asserting, This is harassment and intimidation. If this were Latin America we would describe Duterte as a good, old-fashioned caudillo, and I have a good idea we may indeed be watching as he harasses and intimidates Rappler.

But what about these charges of foreign ownership? A journalist cant go home with a Nobel for her fight for freedom of expression and be other than independent. Are Ressa and Rappler indeed independent?

Not by a long way is my short answer.

The Duterte government first went after Rappler in consequence of an investment Ressa had accepted from the Omidyar Network. Immediately a problem. Pierre Omidyar, the billionaire founder of Ebay, is in the democracy promotion game in George Soros fashion: He uses the civil society dodge to subvert governments on Washingtons running list of adversaries.

Ressas defense, resting as it does on a legal technicality that may or may not hold up, gives off a bad odor. Omidyar did not actually acquire shares in Rappler when it invested in it, she maintains.

For the recordremember the record?Omidyar and some kind of investment vehicle called North Base Media own nonvoting shares in Rappler. North Base bills itself as a pioneer in global digital-media investing and is a partner in another something called the Media Development Investment Fund, which does what it sounds like and lists none other than George Soros among its founders.

See what I mean about odors?

Taking Omidyars dough was Ressas first big mistake. It has since been deeper into the morass for our Maria.

In 2020, Ressa accepted a grant of $180,000 from the National Endowment for Democracy, a known CIA front that long ago inherited the agencys coup function and is the ne plus ultra in civil society subterfuge. I would greatly like to lead readers to the NED page describing this grant, which I cited in a column elsewhere earlier this year, but when I attempted to open the link I discovered, Page not found. Where on earth could they have mislaid it?

Yes, the NED Supporting freedom around the world, as its logo boasts.

How Ressa could have taken NED money is simply beyond me. I would sooner give up the craft and bag groceries.

The NEDs latest escapade involves the Kyiv Independent, a year-old online newspaper, quotation marks required, that is financed by the NED and the Canadian and European equivalents of same. The title tells you much of this operations preposterous pose. These people are given to publishing wildly propagandistic junk and quoting the Azov Battalion, the infamously neoNazi militia whose influence suffuses Ukraines public space.

CNN and Fox News, it is worth noting, quote the Kyiv Independent in turn. Three days before brutal Russians began their brutal intervention in democratic Ukraine, The Times ran an opinion essay by Olga Rudenko, a longtime resident of Sorosland and the Kyiv Independents editor-in-chief. And why not? The Kyiv Independent is the voice of democratic Ukraine against the brutal Russian Federation. And dont forget your democratic and your brutals.

Full credit here: This account of the NEDs Kyiv Independent handiwork comes from Covert Action Magazine, a grand presence in (truly) independent journalism whose distinguished list of cofounders includes Philip Agee and William Kunstler. Wonderfully enough, it is now edited by Philips son, Chris.

Independent: It is independent, she is independent, we are independent. Being independent, or claiming to be, is de rigueur, it seems. Those of us working in the independent press cannot be other than flattered. As I have argued severally, it is among independent publications that the dynamism of our otherwise decaying profession resides. If journalism is to find its way out of its current mess, it will be by way of those publishing or broadcasting independently of powerpolitical power, corporate power, bureaucratic power.

The Times is on the ball in these matters, of course. The good people of Eighth Avenue told us so a few months back, when they launched a new advertising campaign to establish their bona fides. Independent journalism for independent lives is the tagline.

They were at least honest enough to identify this as a new brand marketing campaign, so we know straightaway The Times is not the slightest bit serious about the question of the presss independence. After that, I even liked the pablum: spotlighting how Times journalism is inspiration for the unique lives of our readers. We are shining a light on the power independent journalism has to make readers lives more fulfilling.

What would we do without the light The Times shines on us, we independents? How unfulfilled would be our lives.

In the course of this presentation, text and video, The Timess copywriters rang every identity politics bell I could think of and some I couldnt. Let them fritter away what remains of the papers reputation on such juvenile rubbishthis is their choice. The important point here is the profligate misuse of the worthy idea of journalism as an independent pole of power.

The Times has submitted to government supervision, usually but not always informally, at least since the Cold Wars onset in 1947 and arguably for decades prior to that. This, too, is a matter of record. It is a publicly listed company that, just as the ad campaign indicates, views the enterprise of journalism as, at bottom, a good brand and a profit center. Like the rest of the corporate-owned media and broadcasters, the unique responsibilities media bear in a (nominally) democratic society are at this point the subservient priority.

Radio Free Europe is independent. Maria Ressa and Rappler are independent. Government funding doesnt matter: When The New York Times tells you it is independent, whatever silliness is to come may amuse, but it will no longer surprise. As I have written elsewhere, the colonization of independent media has begun.

Driven out of a nearby village, Natalia Holovenko, 59, was in a line to register for aid when she began sobbing. We dont have any Nazis here! she said, a reference to Russian President Vladimir V. Putins false justification of the war as needed to de-Nazify Ukraine. He just wants to kill us.

That is Roger Cohen, the Paris bureau chief of The New York Times, reporting in midJune from Mykolaiv, a port city lying midway along the Black Sea between Odessa and the Crimean coast. Here we have a near-perfect example of how falsehoods, repeated often enough, can be transformed into accepted truths.

Roger Cohen is a distinguished correspondent, columnist, and once long ago The Timess foreign editor. He has some brilliant bylines in his clipping binder: He once ventured through Chongqing, ate a dinner of dog (more than I could do right there), and wrote an excellent piece of cultural crit about it. To me, Cohen proved on several occasions a supportive friend and colleague during my later Herald Tribune days.

But Roger, Roger, what is this? You now lead readers into The Timess vast hall of mirrors, wherein what is false is true and what is true is false justification? Say it aint so, Joe. There is no such thing as a Nazi problem in Ukraine, you tell us, and in the same piece you quote an official reciting neoNazi ideology, which you reproduce without, apparently, recognizing it for what it is? Alas, man.

The presence of neoNazis in Ukraine has been a touchy topic since the U.S. cultivated the antidemocratic coup that brought the current regime to power in 2014. Yes, antidemocratic: It brought down a legitimately elected president and reflected the sentiments of a very small fraction of the Ukrainian population.

While the putschists gathered momentum and in the years following the coup, the presence of neoNazis, and I sometimes wondered if we needed the neo, was downplayed in the major dailies but never much in dispute. There were mentions of their presence here and there if you read the coverage carefully. I often had the impression correspondents wanted to say more than their foreign editors would allow. Reflecting the new regimes dependence on the Azov Battalion, whose tentacles run through many of Ukraines public institutions, the group was incorporated into the nations National Guard a few months after the coup.

Nothing I write here is in dispute, or shouldnt be. It is all documented. The BBC, The Guardian, The New York Timesthey all reported at length on this. In 2018, none other than the Atlantic Council, the think tank funded by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, published Ukraines Got a Real Problem with Far-Right Violence (And No, RT Didnt Write This Headline). In it, Josh Cohen laid out the whole neoNazi nine. So, a matter of record even among those cheerleading the regime in Kiev.

But since brutal Russia began its brutal military operation against democratic Ukraine in February, airbrushing the neoNazi presence out of the Ukrainian picture has become an imperative. There simply cannot be any neoNazis in Ukraine.

Graphic case in point: In early March PBS did an interview with a small town mayor named Artem Semenikhin, who was praising the heroic efforts of democratic Ukrainian forces for beating back brutal Russians. Behind Semenikhin was a photograph of Stepan Bandera, the fanatically Russophobic, Jew-hating leader of Ukrainian Nazis during World War II. Bandera is not a hero of present-day neoNazis: He is the hero.

PBS made my point better than I can: It blurred the photograph and ran the interview without commenting on it.

On the kooky side, we have the remarks of Andrey Melnik, Kievs stunningly coarse ambassador to Berlin. In an interview with a German journalist last week, the repeatedly offensive envoy defended Bandera as a freedom fighter. What about Bandera and his followers who, with the Nazis, killed 800,000 Jews in Ukraine along with massacres of 40,000 or so Poles residing in Ukraine? There are no laws for those who fight for freedom, saith Melnik, who likened Bandera to Robin Hood as someone who didnt act according to the law.

In effect, what we witness now with Ukraines neoNazis and its broader extreme-right scene is what the policy cliques and their clerks in the press have long done elsewhere. When alQaeda activated in Syria, they were rebranded as alNusra, which, when exposed, was renamed something else, and then something elseall along referenced in the media as moderate rebels. Those right-wing fanatics the Reagan administration financed to bring down the Sandinistas in Nicaragua 40 years ago were, of course, freedom fighters.

This is all we witness in Ukraine, a rebranding exercise. Not too complicated.

Roger Cohens piece from Mykoliav, a piece very unworthy of his gifts and intellect, is precisely in this line. I single it out because of Cohens stature and because it is wrong three times.

First of all, I wish I could have a quick word with Natalia Holovenko. I would like to know what she meant by here when she told Cohen, We dont have any Nazis here. I cannot know, of course. But I am just short of convinced she meant not here in Mykolaiv, which would turn her exclamation upside down, making it an implicit acknowledgement that there are indeed Nazis elsewhere in Ukraine.

Cohen had no business reifying this statement and implying it meant anywhere in Ukraine when it is at a minimum unclear what Natalia Holovenko meant. He should have stated the case one way or the other. Finally, it beggars belief that a correspondent of his caliber would gratuitously characterize Moscows stated intent to deNazify Ukraine as false justification given the weight of evidence that this is a very good thing to do.

I was especially interested in an interview Cohen had with Oleksandr Senkevych, Mykolaivs mayor, who exudes confidence, a man in perpetual motion in green camouflage cargo pants, with a Glock pistol at his hip and an almost manic gleam in his blue eyes.

It is a little over the top as these things go, but I believe him now about the manic gleam.

Here is the quotation that caught my eye: He sees this as a war between culturesin Russia, the leader says something and the sheep follow, he said, but in Ukraine, democracy has taken hold. In Mr. Putins Russia, everything said means the opposite: protect means invade and military targets means civilians. In Ukraine, Mr. Senkevych said, we live in reality.

There are many good accounts of the etymology of Ukraines Nazistheir history, their various splits, their ideological nuances one group to the next. What looks to me a good one came out three days after Cohens piece. It was written by Dmitry Plotnikov, a Russian journalist who covers events in the former Soviet republics, an interesting line of inquiry. Plotnikovs work appears in various publications; I read this one on RT. I do not know either his byline or his reputation, but he seems here to have a good command of his material.

Plotnikovs topic in Ukraines neoNazi Azov Battalion has built a state within a state, and it despises both Russia and the West is the prevalent ideology among the whole collection of extreme-right fanatics active in Ukraine. The subhead on this piece is an informative start. The Ukrainian regiment adheres loosely to its own brand of National Idea, loosely modeled on Mussolinis Italy.

It is a lengthy piece. What captivated me, having read the Cohen item, was this passage. Plotniov is citing Dmitry Dontsov, an influential far-right ideologist in the 1920s:

Dontsov equated the concepts of nation and race. The latter he divided into master and slave races. According to Dontsov, Ukrainians are a race of masters, while Russians are a race of slaves seeking to enslave Ukrainians. The clash between Ukrainians and Russians is of an absolute, existential nature and can only end with the destruction of one of the parties, Dontsov believed.

I didnt like Oleksandr Senkevych much after reading this passage, with his gleam and his Glock and his cargo pants. I read his remarks to Cohen again, and it is clear to me that Roger had encountered a good specimen of the Ukrainian right-wing ideologue, 2022 version. This is a war of cultures, they are sheep, we are democrats: It seems to me Roger Cohen just demonstrated plainly the presence in Ukraine of exactly what he intended to tell us was not there.

Editors Note: This is the third installment of Patrick Lawrences weekly media critic column. See his previous columns below:

Patrick Lawrence: The Power of Images

Foreign Policy: The Warmongers Game

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Patrick Lawrence: This Week in Fake News / Blurred Truths - Scheerpost.com