Category Archives: Fake News

Last Thursday, President Joe Biden pledged at a virtual climate summit that the United States will cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 50%52%, from their 2005 levels, by 2030. Among the efforts cited by Biden and the White House that will help the country meet such a target were cutting-edge tools to make American soil the next frontier in carbon innovation, retrofitting buildings, and improving vehicle efficiency. At no time during his speech, before his speech, or after his speech, did the president make any mention, direct or indirect, of requiring Americans to change their diets. Nor did the West Wing, or anyone employed by the U.S. government, say one single thing about mandating that anyone stop eating anything. Not! One! Single! Thing! You might be wondering why were taking such pains to note the absence of Biden saying, again, literally anything about forcing people to stop eating certain foods, and the reason is because in the days since his pledge, numerous Republican members of Congress, Fox News hosts, and Donald Trump Jr. have lost their minds over the extremely fake news that Biden is going to pass a law saying they can only eat four pounds of red meat a year.

As CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale notes, the origins of this not-at-all-real story appear to have begun, ironically, with an article by the British tabloid The Daily Mail, which, per CNN, baselessly connected Bidens climate proposal to a 2020 academic paper estimating how greenhouse gas emissions would be affected if Americans, in theory, change their diets in a variety of ways, one of them being reducing their consumption of red meat to four pounds a year. Crucially, the paper was (1) published before Biden won the Democratic nomination (2) does not mention Biden at all (3) has never been publicly mentioned by Biden and (4) says nothing about the government imposing dietary limits. In other words, it could have been about Miley Cyruss quarantine mullet and The Daily Mail would have linked it to Bidens climate proposal. And people like Don Jr., Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Larry Kudlow would still have had an epic meltdown over the fake news because they collectively make up Americas biggest imbeciles.

Per CNN:

Joe Biden's climate plan includes cutting 90% of red meat from our diets by 2030. They want to limit us to about four pounds a year. Why doesnt Joe stay out of my kitchen? Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebertwroteon Twitter on Saturday. No fewer than five Fox News or Fox Business personalities told versions of the scare story on the air since Friday morning. For example, Fox News host Jesse WatterssaidSaturday that Americans are going to have to cut their red meat consumption by 90% in order to reduce emissions to hit Bidens target. That means youre only allowed to eat four pounds of red meat a year. That adds up to a burger a month. Thats it.

In a particularly odd moment on Twitter on Sunday, two Republican governors,Greg Abbott of TexasandBrad Little of Idaho, tweeted their opposition to the Biden red meat policy that doesnt existand cited a Fox News graphic that listed the supposed elements of the nonexistent policy.

Others chiming in to proudly display how easily duped they are included Taylor Greene:

Rep. Madison Cawthorn:

Right-wing radio host Todd Starnes:

And, of course, Donald Trumps not very bright son, who should probably have his arteries checked sooner rather than later:

Perhaps the biggest WTF moment though came from Kudlow, the 45th presidents former National Economic Council director, who, in his haste to jump on the not-real news seemed to suggest that, at present, most beer people drink is meat-based:

Speaking of stupid, he said on his show over the weekend, America has to, get this, America has to stop eating meat, stop eating poultry, fish, seafood, eggs, dairy, and animal-based fats. Okay, you got that? No burgers on July Fourth. No steaks on the barbie. So get ready. You can throw back a plant-based beer with your grilled brussels sprouts and wave your American flag.

As many have since noted, most beer, at present, is plant based, so its not clear what Kudlow has been drinking or, for that matter, smoking. (On the other hand, Kudlow has been famously wrong about everything for most of his career, so theres that.)

Follow this link:

Nations Imbeciles Lose Their Minds Over Fake News Biden Is Taking Their Red Meat Away - Vanity Fair

Greenwashing is back with a vengeance.

At least, thats my take from the firehose of news feeds that cross my inbox each day. And while the term is hardly new it was coined 35 years ago by a New York environmentalist in an essay about the hotel industrys efforts to promote towel reuse as a means of green virtue signaling it seems to have entered a new phase.

"Greenwash" may well be the new "fake news."

What do I mean by that? Just as fake news became a reflexive shorthand for some people (and one person in particular) to dismiss any media coverage that did not comport with their (sometimes warped) worldview, "greenwash" similarly has become shorthand for any corporate activity, big or small, that is perceived by critics to be insufficient, or that doesn't comport with someone's worldview.

At some point, if everything companies do or claim is dubbed greenwash, it becomes more reflective of the accusers than the accused.

Just as there are inaccurate, dishonest or misleading media stories worthy of the "fake news" moniker, there are corporate sustainability claims that arent as significant or impactful as theyre made out to be. Theres no shortage of vague and misleading green marketing claims and a few that are outright misleading. Those companies are worthy of being named and shamed.

But most green claims these days arent patently false or misleading. Far from it. Much of whats criticized asgreenwash seems to boil down to a difference of opinion about how far and how fast companies should be changing, as Ive maintained for years and years. And whether a big company with legacy problems ever can be viewed asa good actor.

Thus, anything thats seen as too little or too late or that sounds too good to be true must be, ipso facto, greenwash. Consider two recent stories:

Im not going to litigate either of these. I can see both sides, and each has a valid point. But both criticisms seem a needless distraction for companies trying new ways to engage environmentally and health-minded consumers and to jumpstart new value chains and business models. Are some of these efforts ham-handed? Probably. But I posit that theyre more sloppy than sinister, the result of well-intentioned companies doing imperfect things.

Probably like the overwhelming majority of companies out there.

Nonetheless, journalists, activists and self-styled critics are quick to pounce whenever a large company makes an effort. If its an ambitious or audacious effort, those critics are quick to point out all of the other things the company in question isnt yet doing right. That conveniently sweeps all of that companys sustainability initiatives into the same bucket: greenwash.

But all that is old business.

Whats new and newsworthy are the regulatory efforts to rein in so-called greenwashers in the financial sector. Over the past few months, the European Union and the U.S. government each have taken aim at banks and investment firms touting some sustainable investment vehicles mutual funds, sustainability-linked loans, ETFs and the like. Media coverage of these efforts more often than not refers to them as anti-greenwashing initiatives.

For example:

Another arena where "greenwashing" is showing up is carbon accounting, a murky and nerdy set of rules gaining critical importance in a world where companies, governments and others are committing to net-zero emissions, and where products are beginning to be labeled with their carbon content. Regulators and nongovernmental organizations are being called in to establish norms for how to do these things.

In the meantime, well-intentioned companies showing the way may face a big challenge: Can they successfully traverse the terrain without being labeled with the G-word? It won't be easy.

Scrutiny of sustainability claims is important and necessary. Marketers that make false or misleading representations need to be policed and held accountable. As sustainability-linked financial products and services and carbon labeling become key parts of the corporate sustainability toolkit, we'll need to clamp down on those stretching the truth.

Whether all of these things rise to the level of "greenwash" is another matter. Yes, marketers jumping on a green bandwagon can be prone to make exuberantly vague and unverifiable claims thats been going on for decades and they deserve closer scrutiny. But are they fraudulent? Not so much.

The problem I have with critics knee-jerk charges of corporate greenwash is that they lump together the worst actors with the companies that are simply trying to find their way through the green marketing thicket. Should purveyors of personal care products or grocery items making overzealous claims be tarred with the same brush as investment firms that place countless millions of other peoples money into insufficiently defined green investments?

And in a world where a climate crisis looms larger every day, and where biodiversity and social-equity crises are on the near horizon, should we really be lambasting companies small-bore marketing claims as if the world hinged on their accuracy?

At some point, if everything companies do or claim is dubbed greenwash, it becomes more reflective of the accusers than the accused.

It becomes, in a phrase, fake news.

Read more:

Is 'greenwash' the new 'fake news'? | Greenbiz - GreenBiz

The Delhi Police Crime Branch registered an FIR against persons who are spreading false news on social media, said officials on Monday.

Police said there are several motivated elements on social media whove alleged that the police are stopping oxygen tankers/cylinders and are also preventing people from sharing and amplifying Covid resource information.

Delhi Police shared a tweet by a man named Ratnesh Pal. The tweet said, Police stopped an oxygen tanker for an hour at Rajeev Chowk. The tanker was on its way to Delhis Fortis hospital. Lives of people are in danger. Why is Delhi Police misbehaving like this? You are stopping tankerscognizance must be taken

Officials said the news is fake. Dr. Eish Singhal, DCP (New Delhi) replied to Pals tweet saying Mischief is out yet again. Fraudsters are spreading misinformation. The alleged place (in the tweet) is not Rajiv Chowk, Delhi. No truck detained in Delhi yet. Delhi Police.provides green corridor to oxygen cylinders and tankers to reach the hospital. #SayNoToMisinformation. Police said tweets like these with pictures and videos were being uploaded. This discredits the good work the police are doing at the time of crisis.

Delhi Police PRO Chinmoy Biswal said Crime Branch has taken cognizance of such misinformation mongering. Amid pandemic crisis, this can cause panic and lawlessness. We have initiated legal action on such social media posts and an FIR has been registered, said DCP Biswal.

See the article here:

Delhi Police file FIRs against those spreading fake news on social media - The Indian Express

Vulture journalism views every disaster as the perfect opportunity to further its nasty propaganda. In the latest incident, journalists like Abhisar Sharma and Ravish Kumar took to social media to share fake news, unable to mask their Hinduphobia. On Monday, Amar Ujala carried false news suggesting the funeral pyre of a 25-year-old Anubhav Sharma was lit by his Muslim friend Yunus in Muzzafarnagar. The report also suggested that Sharma lost his battle to corona.

Soon pictures of Yunus lightning Anubhav Sharmas funeral pyre went viral on social media with the liberal media making most of the occasion to spread Hindu hate.

As per a Swarajya report, upon contacting Anubhav Sharmas elder brother Sharad Sharma, it was revealed that Anubhav had not died of corona and that the family members performed his final rites. Calling the social media posts misleading, Sharma said, I have performed the last rites of my brother with my own hands. People from my (Hindu) community, from my family, were all present,

Sharma informed that Mohammed Yunus worked as a driver for the family and was a good friend of Anubhav. He is my friend too and he was with us all the time, but the last rites were performed by me, in presence of my family and my community, he added. Sharma clarified that Yunus just added the raal to the pyre.

The liberal gang was quick to take notice of the Amar Ujala article and sprang to spread this misinformation with additional commentary almost instantly.

Ravish Kumar, the NDTV journalist shared a screenshot of a Tweet talking about the incident giving the title think, understand and wake up.

Former news anchor Abhisar Sharma too shared this on Facebook which has about 27,000 shares already. Sharma, who is not new to spreading falsehood, wrote (as translated), Mohammed Yunus performed the last rites of Anubhav Sharma in Muzaffarnagar. The day you understand the hypocrisy of religion, the wall of sand will collapse

A journalist named Kashif Kakvi, who supposedly works with a website called Newsclick.in and is a columnist with the likes to The Wire and TheQuint said in his Twitter post that Anubhavs family did not come forward to perform his last rites and it was for this reason that skull cap-wearing Yunus lit the pyre. This Tweet was retweeted by alleged fact-checker Mohammed Zubair who failed to fact-check this bit before retweeting.

As their fake news factory was busted, Kakvi issued a clarification and apologized for spreading misinformation.

Another alleged journalist named Aadesh Rawal Tweeted the photo with the same caption given by Abhisar Sharma. Not sure who copied whom but both managed to create communal disharmony using a mournful occasion of death.

The photo was also shared by verified Twitter accounts like Imran Pratapgarhiwho has about 9 lakh followers.

Sharad Sharma, on being asked to put out more images from the funeral remarked, It was not an occasion to take pictures. We dont know who clicked Yunuss picture, but I am sure that anybody who took pictures of the event would have pictures of me, my family and the gathering.

Originally posted here:

Columnist with The Wire, Al Jazeera amongst others apologises over spreading fake news of a funeral, NDTVs Ravish Kumar continues to be brazen -...

For all those out there that are concerned about fake news, Ive got a humdinger for you.

The headline Man Dies After Medical Incident During Police Interaction is from May 25, 2020.

"On Monday evening, shortly after 8 p.m., officers from the Minneapolis Police Department responded to a report of a forgery in progress. Officers were advised that the suspect was sitting on top of a blue car and appeared to be under the influence. Two officers arrived and located the suspect, a male believed to be in his 40s, in his car. He was ordered to step from his car. After he got out, he physically resisted officers. Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and noted he appeared to be suffering medical distress. Officers called for an ambulance. He was transported to Hennepin County Medical Center by ambulance where he died a short time later."

Heres an updated correction not offered up by the Minneapolis Police Department:

A 12-member jury found Derek Chauvin guilty of all three charges of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter. The trial of three other former police officers who were involved in Floyd's death is set to begin on Aug. 23 in the same Hennepin County government building where Chauvin was tried. The former officers J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao will be tried together. The state has charged them each with two counts of aiding and abetting one for second-degree murder and one for second-degree manslaughter.

Im sure the Minneapolis Police Department would like to apologize for any misunderstandings and confusion the originally released police report may have caused, but I guess well have to wait on that.

Dennis Shain

Centralia

View original post here:

Letter to the Editor: Here's Some Fake News From the Minneapolis Police Department - Centralia Chronicle

The president and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada said the corporation is reviewing security for its employees in the wake of an act of vandalism on a CBC Kamloops vehicle, on which paint was splashed and Fake News was spray-painted in its door as it was parked downtown on April 4.

First and foremost, I think we need to protect our journalists, Catherine Tait told KTW in an interview. We are looking at what security we need to provide so that people feel safe in their jobs. We cannot have people feeling anxious and nervous. You know, we've had incidents where a camera was slapped out of someone's hand. Luckily, nobody has been physically attacked so that's the good news, but we really need to understand how we can better protect better protect our journalists first and foremost.

Tait said she believes the number of people who subscribe to the conspiracy theory/fake news agenda is probably stable and not necessarily growing.

The difference is that they have been emboldened by social media and that dovetails to another very important conversation that we're having internally about online harm and online hate and how do we protect our journalists and, in particular, women journalists and racialized journalists who are disproportionately targeted by vile, vitriolic, really unacceptable levels of attack online or whether its on Twitter or Facebook or on other social media platforms, Tait said.

Ahmed Al-Rawl, assistant professor of social media, news and public communications at SFU, where he also runs the Disinformation Project, is an academic who analyzes social media commentary about fake news and Canadian politics.

In 2019, in the months and weeks before the federal election, Al-Rawl extracted 10,698 tweets on Twitter that contained the hashtags fakenews and fake news from a larger dataset of 2,5-million tweets that referenced Canadian politics with the #CDNpoli hashtag.

Retweets often indicate what people online are mostly focusing on, and so I conducted a closer examination of the data set by investigating the most retweeted posts, Al-Rawl wrote in an article posted on The Conversation.

Al-Rawl found there were systematic and targeted attacks accusing Canadian mainstream media outlets of a liberal bias. He found the most mentioned outlet was CBC (1,243), followed by Global News (301) and CTV News (105) in terms of stories that were often flagged as possibly fake, while the words most frequently associated with fake news were CBC, CBCNews and Global News. Though not all the references were negative, many of the tweets targeted those specific outlets and their journalists to express dissatisfaction with their reporting, Al-Rawl wrote. In Canada, attacks against mainstream media seem to be systematic and continuous, even when the news coverage sounds objective and neutral.

While conceding there is greater polarization in society, Tait said social media platforms have made it almost acceptable for some people to engage in misogynist, racist and violent language.

As a result, Tait said, the CBC is reviewing physical security at CBC Kamloops and at all of stations nationwide, in addition to devising a plan to train journalists on how to de-escalate a situation in which they might become involved.

And then we're also working on, what do we as a corporation do to stand up to those platforms and say this isn't acceptable? Tait said.

And start to be very clear with them about takedowns and be much more proactive to protect our journalists and, finally, working with other media companies like you or the Star and the Globe and Mail and all the other news organizations to say, Listen, we have a collective duty to protect our journalism in Canada because without our journalists, where's our democracy?

More:

CBC reviewing security at all stations in Canada following 'Fake News' vandalism in Kamloops - Kamloops This Week

A Torah scroll. Photo: RabbiSacks.org.

Have you ever heard of Veles (pronounced veh-less)? I dont expect you have. Its a small town in a European country called North Macedonia which, until 1991, was a province of Yugoslavia. Truthfully, this sleepy little city that was once part of both the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, and included the name of Marshall Tito in its official name between 1945 and 1996 should have no bearing on the 21st century.

Indeed, Veles might well have retained its obscurity had it not been revealed in 2016 that a group of intrepid Veles-based teenagers had set up and were coordinating more than 140 websites which actively promoted fake news articles in support of then US presidential candidate Donald Trump.

I started the site for an easy way to make money, a 17-year-old Veles resident who set up a website called DailyNewsPolitics.com told BuzzFeed, as reported in The New York Times.Ironically, you couldnt make this stuff up.

The fake news phenomenon is actually fascinating. While not entirely new, it has blossomed in the age of the Internet and social media, with unverified and patently false stories gaining traction and then going viral with alarming speed, causing untold damage and leaving disaster in their wake.

April 16, 2021 10:45 am

After all, which mainstream outlet would ever have had the audacity to publish false stories like Pope Francis Shocks World, Endorses Donald Trump for President and FBI Agent Suspected in Hillary Email Leaks Found Dead in Apparent Murder-Suicide?

Donald Trump likes to tell us that he was the first tier-one politician to use the phrase fake news but guess what, thats fake news.

In fact, his erstwhile election opponent, Hillary Clinton, used the term before him in December 2016, when she railed against the epidemic of malicious fake news in a speech to supporters, adding that it is now clear that so-called fake news can have real-world consequences. Trump turned the phrase into a media-bashing weapon soon after taking office, the first time when responding to a question posed to him by CNN reporter Jim Acosta in January 2017 by telling him, youre fake news.

But although fake news may not have been known by that name before 2016, and there were certainly no centers of misinformation with an international reach like Veles before then, the concept of fake news is as old as information itself.

The British philosopher and statesman Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was already writing about it in 1620, noting that it is human nature to seize eagerly on any fact, however slender, that supports his theory; but question, or conveniently ignore, the far stronger facts that overthrow it. Modern psychology refers to this as confirmation bias the desire to see things only from our own perspective, and to dismiss any information that undermines our viewpoint, or even to airbrush it out completely.

Most of what is referred to as fake news is not actually completely fake; it generally contains elements of truth, or is at least derived from an existing truth.

Everything boils down to presentation, context, perspective, and circumstances. Individual facts may be true, or even a combination of facts, but do they represent an objective truth? Media outlets, even those that pride themselves on objectivity, are by-and-large riddled with bias and prejudice, which inevitably affects how they tell a story, or even which stories they choose to tell. Inconvenient facts are omitted, while those that underscore the viewpoint of those writing the story are all included.

In tabloid newspapers, or on presenter-fronted TV programs, facts that are in line with the media-outlets stance are exaggerated or repeated; meanwhile, usually no credence or space is allowed for a broader, more nuanced presentation of the facts. On social media its even worse. Often, a 15-second clip of some eye-jarring infraction becomes the sole source of truth, and anything that may have happened before or after the clip was shot which might mitigate or offer perspective is consigned to irrelevancy.

Rashi on Parshat Tazria quotes the sages of the Talmud, who state that tsaraat the skin, clothing, or wall discoloration that dominate this parsha and the next comes about as a punishment for lashon hara, which is Judaisms term for gossip and slander. All of the punishments in the Torah represent some sort of quid pro quo, with the punishment fitting the sin. So, how is tsaraat an appropriate punishment for lashon hara?

One of the characteristics that define lashon hara is that it isnt an outright lie. In which case, what is so bad? Why would the Torah want to ban the dissemination of truth? The answer is:that is exactly the point. Just because something is true doesnt mean it reflects the whole picture. It can be fake news a distorted picture, calibrated to vilify, or to present a slanted point-of-view. The Torah prohibits lashon hara because it represents a one-sided, negative view of its intended target, even if it is based on fact, turning someone who has erred in one small aspect of their behavior into a full-on monster with no redeeming features.

And this is a lesson that can be learnt from tsaraat. Although it may only be a tiny spot of discoloration, tsaraat contaminates an entire person, or a suit of clothes, or an entire house. The sin of lashon hara is reflected in the punishment, teaching the perpetrator that what they did to their intended target was a heinous wrongdoing.

You may not be from Veles, nor even have heard of it before today but that doesnt mean you are immune from the dangers of becoming a purveyor of fake news. The fundamental lesson of Tazria and Metzora is that molehills can become mountains, and we must be ever diligent not to fall into the trap of fake news both by spreading it or by believing it.

The author is a rabbi in Beverly Hills, California.

Read the original here:

Why Fake News Is an Affront to God - Algemeiner

Photo for representation

Action will be taken against those spreading fake news on social media in Madhya Pradesh's capital Bhopal.

Bhopal Collector Avinash Lavaniya has issued an order saying that those spreading fake news will be punished under the IT Act.

The administration is fearing that fake news will deteriorate the law and order situation in the city.

In his order, the Collector has written that recently it has come to the notice that some people put misleading news, false and objectionable messages, videos, pictures, and audio clips on social media. Such information creates panic among the public without any reason. These types of messages can sometimes provoke religious sentiments of different communities.

The notice says, "Do not send or share any such thing which is full of degrading discrimination against any community and religion, creates a state of fear or doubt in the public. If found doing so, legal action will be taken under Section 188 under the other provisions of the Information and Technology Act.

Also read: Facebook showed ads for fake Clubhouse for PC app with malware

Also read: Maharashtra HSC, SSC Exams 2021: Gaikwad dismisses fake news, no decision announced yet

See more here:

Action to be taken against those spreading fake news on social media in Bhopal - India Today

The Kumbh Mela has become a matter of concern for several people who had defended the Tablighi Jamaat when they had deliberately spread the virus by hiding in mosques, spit in places, pelted stones at police personnel and even defecated in hospitals. Almost determined to undermine Hindus and obfuscate facts, the propaganda has been at its highest. In the midst of this, Siddharth Varadarajan has resorted to spreading fake news again. In fact, the same fake news that the Logical Indians had apologised for just a day ago.

Siddharth Varadarajan took to Twitter to tweet The Wire article, with a comment why godi media warriors were not demanding he be arrested under the IPC and NDMA and Epidemic Diseases Act?, referring to the BJP leader Sunil Bharala.

The headline that was visible in the tweet preview of the article he plugged read, BJP MLA Says He Visited Kumbh Mela and Was COVID-19 Positive. The preview headline clearly insinuates that Bharala was actually COVID-19 positive at the time he visited the Kumbh Mela.

This, however, is not accurate. Logical Indian, that had first reported this, had just a day ago taken to Twitter to a apologise for spreading fake news.

In their statement, The Logical Indian said, The Logical Indian earlier reported that Uttar Pradesh BJP leader Sunil Bharala tested positive for COVID-19 and still attended the Kumbh Mela in Haridwar. However, in an interview with NDTV, the leader said that he attended the event and later added that he is currently COVID positive.

We wish to acknowledge that we inadvertently misrepresented the facts. The Logical Indian apologizes for the incorrect statement that claimed he attended the event while he was infected with the virus, he added.

In the fake news post, TLI attributed a fake quote to Sunil Bharala. The fake quote said, Im COVID positive myself. I still went to Kumbh. Dharma is above Corona guidelines. The news post further claimed that Kumbh Mela has become a Covid hotspot.

Interestingly, even after The Logical Indian apologised for spreading fake news, Siddharth Varadarajan took to Twitter to spread the same fake news and even demand that other media houses join in.

The article that The Wire wrote itself seems to have been updated since it does acknowledge that the Logical Indian apologised for spreading this news, however, Siddharth Varadarajan craftily took to Twitter to spread the fake news further and refused to delete it despite several people pointing out his error to him.

One Twitter user pointed out that if the Uttar Pradesh Government books him for deliberately spreading fake news, Varadarajan would cry FOE (like he had done before).

Another simply plugged the apology statement by The Logical Indian and assumed that Varadarajan had the IQ to understand that he was spreading fake news.

Another demanded that the Uttar Pradesh police arrest him for spreading fake news.

However, despite several such tweets, Varadarajan has refused to delete his post till the time this article was written.

In April 2020, two FIRs had been registered against The Wire Founder-Editor Siddharth Varadarajan for spreading fake news against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Varadarajan, in a bid to whitewash the deeds of Tablighi Jamaat. At that time, he hadwrongly attributed a fake quote to the UP CM.

Mrityunjay Kumar, the media advisor to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, had informed that despite the warning from the state government, Varadarajan neither deleted the false article and nor apologised for the same. Therefore, an FIR had been registered against him.

In January 2021 as well, a complaint was registered in Uttar Pradesh against The Wire Editor Siddharth Varadarajan forpublishingand circulating false propaganda with intent to cause violence after he had tweeted an article void of any facts pertaining to the death of a rioter during the tractor rally.

The complaint was registered against Varadarajan under Section 153B and 505of the IPC in Rampur police station for trying to instigate the crowd by peddling false information about the death of a rioter named Navreet Singh, who had died during the tractor rally after his tractor turtled.

In fact, after the FIR was filed against Siddharth Varadarajan for spreading fake news in a bid to shield the Tablighi Jamaat, several liberals had come out to cry Freedom of Expression and even threatened the Yogi Adityanath government with USA pressure to ensure that the case against Varadarajan was withdrawn.

It is clear that Siddharth Varadarajan has a habit of spreading fake news against Uttar Pradesh, its Chief Minister and its ministers and when the government takes action, he and his coterie cry freedom of expression to shield themselves. If under the current situation, the Uttar Pradesh government decides to act against him, it is almost a certainty that he and his cohorts will cry about how media freedom is under threat while refusing to delete the blatantly fake news that he has clearly chosen to spread.

More here:

Siddharth Varadarajan of The Wire spreads fake news a day after The Logical Indian apologised for the same: Read details - OpIndia

If you've been paying attention the last two weeks, you've heard about Georgia's voting law and the growing corporate backlash. Most recently, the actor Will Smith announced on Monday that he was moving his latest project, the Apple thriller Emancipation, out of Georgia, where it was set to film. "We cannot in good conscience provide economic support to a government that enacts regressive voting laws that are designed to restrict voter access," Smith and director Antoine Fuqua said in a press release.

But like the other corporations and politicians expressing outrage over Georgia's law, it's based on a lie.

Politicians and outside groups are using lies and distortions to try to smear Georgia legislators, pressure Georgia businesses and hurt Georgian workers over common-sense laws that protect Georgia's election system. If the spin doesn't stop, Georgia and our democracy will both suffer.

After Georgia's General Assembly passed SB 202 and Governor Brian Kemp signed the bill, a powerful misinformation machine quickly kicked into gear. From cable networks to the U.S. Senate to the White House itself, politicians and pundits slammed Georgia's law as soon as it passed and called for mass boycotts of Georgia businesses. But these attacks don't hold up to the facts.

Senator Chuck Schumer was one of the first out of the gate, stating the General Assembly "recently passed a bill to eliminate early voting on Sunday"a claim which was patently false. The law actually doubles the required days of early voting. President Biden himself weighed in, calling Georgia's new election law "Jim Crow on steroids." His basis for the claim? Biden said that the new Georgia law limits early voting hoursanother obvious falsehood. The new law actually increases both early voting hours and the number of weekend voting days. These false claims were so blatant that even The Washington Post gave Biden four Pinocchios, while Politifact fact-checked Schumer's lie.

But other groups have taken up the claims. MSNBC claimed the law prohibits "food or water in line," yet another false claim repeated across the country. Under the new provision designed to limit electioneering, any voter can bring food or water into line, poll workers can pass out water, and third-party groups can pass out refreshments 150 away from polling places. These distortions are the ammunition for claims of "Jim Crow."

But words have meaning, and these lies have real consequences. I would know: They cost me my job.

Last month, the grifters at The Lincoln Project targeted me in a series of tweets. Among other things, they falsely accused me of co-sponsoring a bill to "suppress black votes" and "institute a new Jim Crow." They made the claims in several since-deleted tweets that also tagged my employer, a major law firm, and several of its well-known clients.

In less than 24 hours, my reputation and employment were destroyed. And all over fake news.

The charge for which I lost my job is, like Schumer and Biden's claims, unfounded. I did not try to take away anyone's vote.

The unreported truth is that I co-sponsored and voted for a bipartisan bill, Georgia Senate Bill 62, which calls for ballots in the state of Georgia to have a watermark, seal and other security elements to include the precinct number. These are simply best practices for voting that any ordinary Georgian should support. The bill even received numerous Democratic votes.

When I called out The Lincoln Project, they deleted their tweets, but no apology was offered, and the damage was done. I was no longer employed.

But my experience is nothing compared to what other Georgians might suffer. The cost of this misinformation campaign is already adding up: After calls from the Left to boycott Georgia employers, the MLB decided to move the All-Star Game from Georgia to Colorado, without specifying their objection to our laws. That move alone will cost the state $100 million. That won't hurt politicians or CEOs, but it will hurt Georgia's workers, fans and familiesjust like Apple moving production of its television show.

If the Left succeeds in pushing boycotts based on falsehoods, they will likely put thousands of Georgian workers out of workmany of them minorities.

Even Stacey Abrams agrees: She said that minorities in Georgia are "the most likely to be hurt by potential boycotts of Georgia," and asked non-Georgians not to boycott the state. Unfortunately, Abrams herself has pushed the misleading narrative that has stoked the fire of woke anger against the Peach State. Now she is recognizing that her words matter. I hope it's not too late.

You don't have to agree with Georgia's common-sense election integrity laws to see the threat that these lies pose to democracy. Out-of-state firebrands with no clue about Georgia's voting laws are using lies and deception to stoke division, pressure powerful corporations, hurt Georgia workers and destabilize our great nation.

When lies and economic terrorism are used to silence voters and lawmakers, democracy is in trouble.

John Albers is a Senator in the Georgia General Assembly, representing the 56th district.

The views in this article are the writer's own.

More here:

The Fake News Outrage Over Georgia's Voting Law Is Costing JobsStarting With Mine | Opinion - Newsweek