Category Archives: Fake News

Any political strategist hoping to get a controversial message across to an educated audience would be hard-pressed to look beyond a letter in theFinancial Timesfrom the president of France. TheFTis widely viewed as a peerless newspaper of record one read by power brokers everywhere whilethechefdetatof the French republic is one of the most powerful chief executives on earth.

Hence, EmmanuelMacronwas taken very seriously indeed when hespreadfake newsabout his countrysfive million Muslimsin theFTlast November. In a fewtoxicparagraphs, he conjured up a picture of lawless council estates whereMuslimparents arepoisoning the minds of little girls whilecoveringtheir bodiesunderburkas.

The problem was that hardly anything thatMacronwrote was true. The president had simply reproduced despicable tropes with no facts to support them

Without a shred of evidence, the president wrote:Visit the districts where small girls aged three or four are wearing a full veil, separated from boys, and, from a very young age, separated from the rest of society, raised in hatred of Frances values.

The presidentalso statedthatthese childrenspend their time in hellhole communities surrounded by hundredsof radicalised individuals, who we fear may, at any moment, take a knife and kill people. Introducingdisturbingbiologicalreferences into his narrative,Macronsaid these areas were breeding grounds for terrorists in France.

If the purpose of thissulphurous prosewas to spread collective guilt, itcertainly had the desired effect. An actual president had confirmed what venal propagandists have been saying for years that France has been overrun by alien hordes, and that murderous, cradle-to-grave radicalism is widespread. Everyone from anonymous social media trolls with swastika avatars to the kind of racist pop-philosophers who currently dominate French political thinking now had the presidents backing.

The letter was a particularly important one, and received much international publicity, becauseMacronwas also using ittoaccuse theFTof fake news. He was angry about anFTcolumn that, he claimed,had misrepresented his position on Islam. The article byanFTcorrespondent waswiped off theFTwebsite, while the presidentswriting billed byMacronhimself as a collection of simple facts was published in full.

The problem was that hardly anything thatMacronwrote was true. The president had simply reproduced despicable tropes with no facts to support them. We now know this for surebecause, four months on, nobody hasbeen ableto provide a scrap ofevidence to prove Macrons wicked deceit neither the French authorities, nor the FT.

Financial Times investigating complaint over Macron's claims aboutFrench Muslims

Followingreaders queries, theFTput barrister Greg Callus, the newspaperscomplaints commissioner, on the case.He was asked to justify a letter that continues to do untold harm to French Muslims, butafter an excruciatingly lengthy process, hasnot been able to do so.

Callus launched an investigation last December, and it was onlyin March that his convoluted adjudication was published. It stated:I must admit that I myself washighly scepticalof one aspect of this claim, namely the use of the term full veil being used in respect of the head-coverings worn by girls of this age.

The defamation lawyer added that these claims trouble me and that I might still not be content to positively assert that these facts are true or have been established definitively.Yet, Callus stopped short of correcting or apologising for these untruths, saying he hadno general jurisdiction to fact-check or adjudicate statements by world leaders or others who appear in the news.

FT editor Roula Khalaf has in fact opposed a Society of Editors statement about the alleged lack of bigotry in the media, noting: There is work to be done across all sectors in the UK to call out and challenge racism. The media has a critical role to play, and editors must ensure that our newsrooms and coverage reflect the societies we live in.

In light of the Callus adjudication, Khalafs words might sound hollow and hypocritical. This is especially the case now that Macrons incendiary allegations have been exposed.

In fact,the burka(or niqab) a full-veil garment thatcovers a womans body, including her face,apart from the eyes isactually banned in France,andanyone would face a possible prison sentence if they forced a child to wear one. There is not a single recorded incident ofa child in a burka, let alone any prosecutions or convictions.

The urban myth that Muslims hide their offspring away,while teaching them to hate, is similarly obscene.This simply plays into macabre legends about communities who prey on the young, including their own.

Instead, calls to relevant bodies from Frances InteriorMinistry, to police and prosecutors havenot yielded supporting facts. Sources there were all baffled by suchsensational andrecklessfantasies onesthat would instantly make front-page news if they were true.In an era when cameras are everywhere, there are no images to back upMacronsfabricationsabout these infant sociopaths either.

More than four months on, shining a light on such chronic perversions of the truth is particularly important, because they continue to play avenomous part in mainstream French politics.

Both Le Pen and Darmanin have disgraceful records for Muslim-baiting, and were more than happy to show off their prejudices to a mass audience

Earlier this year, far-rightNational Rally leader Marine Le Pen sparred with Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin in a live TV debate about which one of them is toughest on Islam. They were ostensibly discussing the place of religion in a secular republic, and how to deal with criminals who aredrawn toterrorism, but as usual, the spreading of collective guilt took precedence.

The terms Islam and Islamist were regularly interchanged, asMuslims per se were portrayed as adangerousunderclass largely made up of savage misfitsprone to suicidal barbarism.

There was no mention of the most high-profile lone-wolf terrorist outrages of last year being carried out by a Russian Chechen, a Tunisian and aPakistani instead, the implication was thatMacrons breeding ground estates on the edges of major cities, such as Paris and Marseille, produce all the knifemen.

Both Le Pen and Darmanin have disgraceful records for Muslim-baiting, and were more than happy to show off their prejudices to a mass audience of voters.Le Pen and her father, the convicted racist, antisemite and Holocaust denier Jean-Marie Le Pen, are past runners-up in elections to become president of France. Both represented the National Front, now known as the National Rally, a party founded by extreme nationalists who supported Nazism and Frances collaborating Vichy regime during the Second World War, and indeed by those furious about an independent Algeria.

The partys current incarnation remains a dynastic vehicle for the Le Pens, with Marine Le Pen currently the favourite to once again go head to head withMacronin the 2022 presidential election, just as she did in 2017.

This is whyMacroncovetsLe Pen votes, and is moving so drastically to the right as he tries totake them. Demonising minority groups by using weasel words is very important to this objective, as is obvious from the passage through parliament ofMacrons draft measures seeking to tackle radicalism.

Macronoriginally called it a bill to combat Islamist separatism a concept that fitted in neatly with the kind of Muslim estatesdepicted in hisFTletter but now it is described as legislationbolstering the respect of the principles of the Republic.

Suchrhetorical tweaks have not stopped theMacronadministration from proposing much stricter controls on Muslims, however.Closer monitoringof the perceived enemy within rangesfromtougherrules on the funding of religious organisations, tobanning home-schooling for Muslim children (even in the middle of a global pandemic, when such classes are being encouraged for all others).

The emphasis is on increased security, and the usual crackdowns on those whodisplaytheir religious affiliation via their choice of clothing, for example. Thus,another spectacular inaccuracy inMacronsFTletter was hisclaimthat the French statenever intervenes in religious affairs.

How Macron has become the champion of the far right

Perhaps the most disingenuous, however, wasMacronsallegation that I will not allow anybody toclaimthat France, or its government, is fostering racism against Muslims.

As with somuchof the presidents double-speak, it is not worth the pink paper it is written on, despite its promotion by certain sections of Frances media.

British outlets should know better.TheFTis not a member of IPSO, Britains regulatory Independent Press Standards Organisation, but claims to adhere to the IPSO Code in relation to accuracy and accountability. In such circumstances, theFTshould stop its complicity in spreading hatred against entire Muslim communities in France, andstand up for the truthby apologising and publishingfact-based corrections toMacrons letter.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

Continued here:

Macron's anti-Muslim fake news in the FT needs urgent correcting - Middle East Eye

TALLINN: A fake news site attacking a NATO member recovering from the pandemic is part of the fictional scenario in an alliance cyber war game this week billed as the world's largest.

In the exercise, non-NATO member Crimsonia attacks vital infrastructure such as water supplies and mobile networks on the island state of Berylia, as well as the financial sector.

Crimsonia is also engaging in information warfare, persuading the people of Berylia that their government is responsible for a series of accidents through fake news and social media posts.

The Locked Shields 2021 exercise included 2,000 experts from 30 countries and was organised by the Estonia-based NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE).

This year the exercise featured several new dilemmas, said Commander Michael Widmann, Head of the CCDCOE Strategy Branch.

The exercise examined how evolving technologies, such as deepfakes, will shape future conflict. The cyber domain and information warfare operate hand in hand in the modern environment, he said, calling for governments to have strong strategic communication policies to mitigate these risks.

In the exercise, he said the teams had to find ways for the government of Berylia to communicate in a manner that does not confuse or, worse yet, panic members of the general public.

Adrian Venables, a British academic who has been involved in the exercise for the past seven years, told AFP that while the information campaign part of the exercise was voluntary it was designed so that teams taking part would score higher.

Venables said the information warfare elements provide additional realism and context although the main focus of the exercise is still technical.

The exercise was taking place alongside a real-world cyber defence conference in Tallinn at which NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana on Thursday warned that the pandemic has made countries more vulnerable to cyberattacks.

Russia and China have tried to use the Covid-19 crisis to exploit vulnerabilities, including those in cyberspace, with cyber-enabled disinformation campaigns, designed to sow distrust and division in our democratic societies, he said. AFP

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Fake news attacks feature in NATO cyber war game - The Star Online

The coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) has been a super-spreader event of misinformation online, leading to an all-time high level of fake news online, according to a report of Tech.co late last year. The unprecedented rise of misinformation and disinformation online about the coronavirus started at the onset of the pandemic in 2020.

For instance, in April last year, the CoronaVirusFact Alliance database recorded nearly 4,000 coronavirus-related hoaxes circulating around the world. In the UK during the first week alone of the countrys lockdown last year, 46 percent of adults on the internet saw false or misleading information about Covid-19, according to a study by telecoms regulator Ofcom. In France just this March 2021, 58 percent of adults surveyed by Statista said that the media they consult the most have reported false information about the Covid 19 outbreak.

Even the US President Donald Trump said in October last year, without evidence, that recent spikes in Covid-19 cases throughout the US are a fake news media conspiracy and that reporting on them amounts to pre-election politics.

Fake news in this time of the coronavirus has become an increasingly pressing issue in news and media, resulting in confusion and harm among people, and a slowdown and even to the outright rejection of vaccination by the public.

According to fact-checker Boom in April 2020, most of the fake news were circulated with videos (35 percent), followed by text messages (29.4 percent) being shared with fake cures, treatments or quotes from celebrities, along with images (29.4 percent) that were either misrepresented or doctored. There was a small number of audio clips (2.2 percent) going viral with false contexts.

But why do people spread fake news about Covid-19, when all of us are affected by this menace? Lets dissect the anatomy of fake news to further understand.

Fake news can be categorized in two quite different ways misinformation and disinformation.

Misinformation involves misleading information, advice or statistics usually spread by well-meaning but ill-informed individuals. This type of information could be spread by governments or organizations releasing skewed data, or a family member wanting to help keep their loved ones safe by sharing information in social media. Examples of this include disputed causes of coronavirus, confusion over lockdown rules, and unproven coronavirus treatments.

Misinformation can be addressed by guiding citizens on how to fact-check and verify the news and its sources. Governments, organizations and family members should continuously educate their constituents and members on how to spot fake news and therefore not share or spread it.

On the other hand, disinformation is malicious and false information, aimed at disrupting public order or manipulating an agenda. Examples of this include news about coronavirus being a hoax or coronavirus as propaganda of government. Misinformation is made more dangerous due to the speed at which fake news spreads during a crisis, on social media or messaging platforms.

Since disinformation is deliberate as it is crafted by viperous groups or individuals aiming to sow belief among people. They dont need to win the factual argument to win the race to belief, according to Mark Gray of the Canada Free Press. He further breaks down the structure of fake news to help us understand the motive behind it.

Fake news has three components the claim, the frame, and the aim, according to Gray.

The claim represents the false factual aspect of fake news, the frame emotionally guides perceptions towards the desired narrative (belief), and the aim is the ability of that information to reach a mind. Furthermore, fake news is repeated by the purveyor in order to persuade, because after all, it works for real and fake news.

One example of fake news that spread like Covid-19 is the one that claimed the ingredients of a vaccines for Covid-19 could rewrite your DNA and embed microchips. This fake news was of the widely viewed videos on Facebook and YouTube in 2020 made by US-based osteopath Carrie Madej. Without giving any evidence, she also claims that these vaccines will link people up to an artificial intelligence interface.

The claim in this fake news is obviously the altering of the DNA and the microchip story, the frame is how Madej, in her video delivers the message powerfully and convincingly, and the aim is to gather a following, which it did in 2020, with thousands of believing followers. This fake news affected the acceptability and rollout of vaccination in certain parts of the world.

But this fake news has been debunked also last year, with pronouncements from medical practitioners and published studies revealing evidence that the claims were not true.

There is more fake news being manufactured and spread out there. Some are spread out of ignorance, while others through malicious intent. We need to stop its fabrication and distribution, and understanding how they are structured is one big step to detect them and consequently stop them.

The author is the founder and chief executive officer of Hungry Workhorse Consulting, a digital and culture transformation consulting firm. He is fellow at the US-based Institute for Digital Transformation. He teaches strategic management in the MBA Program of De La Salle University. The author may be emailed at rey.lugtu@hungryworkhorse.com.

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The anatomy of fake news about Covid-19 The Manila Times - The Manila Times

Thiruvananthapuram: Actor Maniyanpilla Rajus son Niranjan has rubbished the fake news on his fathers health. He appealed to all not to circulate rumours on his fathers health condition. Maniyanpilla Raju who was hospitalised after testing COVID positive has recovered from the disease. He is currently taking rest at home.

The actor who is also a producer is expected to resume work soon after his health improves.

Maniyanpilla Raju was hospitalised for more than two weeks after pneumonia along with COVID-19 infection. When this news was reported, many people circulated fake news on his health condition.

Now, his son Niranjan took to his Facebook page reacting to the fake news.

I kindly ask everyone and those medias to stop publishing fakes news about my father, he recovered over two weeks ago and is doing well and fine at home. Thank you!, wrote Niranjan on his Facebook page.

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Maniyanpilla Rajus son rubbishes fake news on actors health, says he recovered from COVID - Mathrubhumi English

Is Pakistan interested to acquire the latest military hardware from Russia? Recently, Sergy Lavrov visited Islamabad where he said Russia was ready to supply special military equipment to Pakistan to boost its counter-terror capabilities.

Earlier, Pakistani media outlet the Express Tribune wrote Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on his visit to Islamabad had delivered an important message to the Pakistani leadership from President Vladimir Putin.

Senior Pakistani official quoted FM Lavrov as saying I came with a message to inform the Pakistani government that Moscow is ready for any cooperation, whatever Pakistan needs, Russia is ready for it.

The media outlet claimed In other words, the Russian president has offered us a blank cheque.

Indian media outlet the Economic Times quoting diplomatic sources countered the Blank Cheque claims and wrote Pakistans claim about getting a blank cheque from Moscow is false propaganda and fake news.

ET quoted Russian officials as saying There is no basis for blank cheque theory. Pakistan has a habit of inflating its ties with Russia. There is no attempt to threaten President Putins commitment to PM Modi and Moscow will not sell defense equipment to Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Indian news agency PTI reported After promising defense equipment to Pakistan and admonishing the Indo-Pacific strategy, Moscow has reassured India by describing it as a trusted partner and said there were no divergences between the two nations and that it has limited cooperation with Pakistan based on independent relations.

In a press conference, the Russian embassys deputy chief of missionRoman Babushkin said We are all members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and develop cooperation in various fields including regional security, fight against terrorism and to deal with other threats, he said.

Russia has limited cooperation with Pakistan as compared to India. However, the fight against terrorism is our common agenda. So we also help Pakistan in providing anti-terrorism equipment and holding dedicated exercise, he added.

Experts on the Russian affairs who wished to stay anonymous told the EurAsian Times that the global order is changing. Pakistan is slowly moving in the China-Russia block while India is shifting towards the western block. It is a role reversal from the cold war.

Russia is expanding its ties with Pakistan firstly on the behest of China and secondly as a warning to India as New Delhi cozies up with the west and forming the Asian NATO the QUAD block.

Russia would not want to jeopardize its ties with India the biggest importer of Russian military hardware. At the same time, Moscow wants to balance its ties with India and China and one way of keeping Beijing happy is to warm-up to Pakistan not only in the defense sector but by also investing in the CPEC project.

Earlier, as EurAsian Times reported, Pakistan has agreed to hand over the management control of a gas pipeline project to Russia through a special purpose company. The new pact would pave the way for Pakistan to hold a 74% stake in the Pakistan Stream Gas Pipeline (PSGP) project, with Russia having 26% ownership.

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Russia Will Not Sell Its Latest Military Hardware To Pakistan; Media Propagating Fake News Indian Experts - EurAsian Times

Faisal Hanif argues that the medias inbuilt prejudice against Muslims leads to a clamour for stories, no matter what the credibility of the source

As Muslim parents protested outside Batley Grammar School after a teacher showed caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad one noticeable feature of the reporting has been the frequent updates concerning a petition allegedly set up by a group of students at the school.

From 10,000 to 20,000 signatures, and now more than 60,000, the petition in support of the teacher has been deemed important enough by the media to generate headlines. The students have demanded that the burley Yorkshire lad (as the Daily Mail and its associated Newspaper group have resorted to calling the teacher) be reinstated.

One noticeable omission from the reporting, however, is confirmation of whether the petition was in fact set up by students. Establishing this is the job of the reporter and is imperative given the ease with which anyone can set up an account and instigate campaigns. Yet, the claim has been reported as fact, and it seems no one has bothered to verify the identity of the petition-master.

In a similar incident, a paramedic who called himself Tom alleged on Christo Foufas talkRADIO show that he had been denied entry to a Mosque to treat a heart attack patient because he was gay. Tom further claimed that he had been threatened with beheadings on the streets of Oldham. This was a hook for the presenter to curate an exchange based on the trope that there are no-go areas in Britain populated heavily by Muslims.

The caller, who claimed to be a 26-year-old veteran of the North West Ambulance Service, said that his piercings and blue Mohican gave away his sexual preferences and caught the ire of his detractors. The allegation was serious enough to make headlines in two national tabloids, yet it seems as though neither they and nor Foufas made an attempt to verify the source of the claims.

After being contacted by the Centre for Media Monitoring, the North West Ambulance service looked over two years worth of call logs and said that the incident, or any of the other allegations, did not happen and no such person fitting the description of Tom had worked for them.

Yet, this was not enough to humble those behind the interview, with the radio presenter citing the context of alleged death threats towards the Batley school teacher as a valid reason for the caller to hide his identity.This was a part of the justification given by Foufas when he explained his reasoning for awarding 17 minutes of airtime to Tom.

The power of anonymous information targeting Muslims was most infamously seen in the so-called Trojan Horse affair in Birmingham schools in 2014-2015. Accusations against Muslim teachers and governors via an anonymous letter led to an entire media and government campaign against them, which in turn ruined lives and careers.

The identity of the individual who made the accusations has to this day seemingly been left unchecked, even though the case against the teachers collapsed, with the integrity of the process called into disrepute.

Platforming the anonymous often seems to be an excuse to air spurious generalisations and tropes against individuals, families and communities alleviating the author and the publication from the burden of proof.

Even the BBC, which prides itself on verifying information before publication, has hosted feature articles under pseudonyms where accusations against Muslims flow freely. One such example is the story of a woman leading a double life who accuses her grandfather of having ruled the roost, with Islamic sermons and prayers five times a day, and older members of the community of living in the 8th Century, not the 21st.

In 2018, the Independents opinion section published an article from an alleged survivor of Rotherham grooming gangs under the pseudonym of Ella Hill. One of the central claims of the piece was how religion was a motivating factor in the gang crimes, with groomers said to have quoted verses from the Quran whilst beating her. The individual behind the pseudonym has gone on to make claims of how over half a million non-Muslim girls have been raped by grooming gangs in the last 40 years on a Hindu Supremacist website known to publish fake news and anti-Muslim conspiracies. She has also made the claim that rape victims of white perpetrators are jealous of grooming gang victims.

The comedian Andrew Doyle showed how easy it was to publish accusatory articles on the Independents comment site when he admitted to writing a hoax article under a pseudonym which slated the stand-up circuit as a hotbed of racism and sexism. Doyle stated that traditional media fabricates outrage to create an anti-woke backlash, and the same can be said of how it reports on Muslims and Islam. This goes to show that, if a particular publication or broadcaster wants something to be true, then it shall be so, even if the claim remains unproven or unverified.

This is particularly the case for reporting on Muslims, who are the subject of misinformation and even blatant fabrication. The narrative has been established that Muslims are a unique danger in British society. Therefore, sources of information who confirm this narrative often receive a platform without basic journalistic due diligence.

A report from the Columbia School of Journalism concluded that pseudonyms were inherently undesirable in journalism as they invite fiction. Given how British newspapers have an established record of concocting stories to demonise Muslims, it is justifiable to be highly sceptical of the use of pseudonym sources by individual journalists and publications. Information should always be presumed to be untrue until its verified.

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How Anonymous and Unverified Information Fuels Anti-Muslim Fake News Byline Times - Byline Times

The public is being reminded to share information on COVID-19 from official sources only.

The reminder comes from the Ministry of Health, following a series of messages being forwarded on WhatsApp claiming that COVID-19 vaccines are being administered to walk in patients below the age of 60 between 4pm and 9pm at the Diego Martin Health Centre.

The Ministry in a post to its Facebook page rubbished the claims, noting that the supposed advisory was not issued by the Ministry or any Regional Health Authority (RHA).

Members of the public are urged to refrain from sharing any false or misleading information about COVID-19 or COVID-19 vaccination, the Ministry restated.

Phase one of the Governments vaccination programme involves the vaccination of people over the age of 60 with non-communicable diseases and frontline healthcare workers.

The second phase of the vaccination programme will begin shortly, which Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said will be accelerated with the donation of vaccines from India. The shipment of 40,000 vaccines was originally expected to arrive in the country today but has reportedly been delayed by bad weather.

The latest count from the Ministry puts the total number of people vaccinated against COVID-19 at 7,146.

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Health Ministry: Beware fake news on COVID-19 vaccination - Loop News Trinidad and Tobago

Domestic disinformers in the United States are probably the best in the world at creating and spreading disinformation. They dont really have to launch a campaign: they just plant seeds that grow with the infrastructure that exists online, and that are distributed with the help of the acolytes theyve created.

They partner with influencers who launder the messages for their followers to consume. Pair that with microtargeting sending really specified pieces of information that they learn about us using things like Facebook groups combined with the public voter file that shows how we voted, what our issues are, who we care about, what weve donated to and its much more effective than anything Russia or China could do.

I mean, theyre good at following events and understanding whats going to be the meme du jour, but in terms of the level of disinformation thats currently being produced and spread, I dont think they could hope to achieve something like this. Its endemically American.

Its really hard to regulate the internet. This is perhaps the most complicated regulation that any democracy has ever pursued because of the ways that the internet has become enmeshed in our lives. It touches commerce, elections and freedom of speech. How do you disentangle all of that to create regulation that works for democracy? And should that be the governments job?

Ive been thinking a lot about TikTok lately, the way it works, the way it is so ultra-personalised. You cant really do an influencer campaign on TikTok. You cant pay for something to go viral. You also cant create a fake account and expect something to go viral.

TikTok is dedicated to being the last happy corner of the internet. And because there are so many teens on the platform, the people at TikTok are not reserved about taking content down if they think it violates their policies things that are blatantly false, or harassment. But TikTok is a private company, owned by a Chinese businessman. They make their own rules.

Certain countries need to deal differently with regulatory questions than we do in places like the UK and US. The Ukrainian government subsidises their telecom companies, along with access to all the main apps. And so, when we say were going to quit Facebook, thats nice for us, but in Ukraine they have a subsidised dependence on social media platforms that we dont. If we regulate, how are people in these countries that depend on these platforms for everyday, free communication everything from baby pictures to work stuff to government staff going to operate?

I used to use the term media literacy, but now I talk about information literacy. Being information literate is broader than understanding how social media platforms work and how they target you. Its about the whole ecosystem that a consumer of information online needs to understand to have the full context, like why am I being targeted with this?

In terms of how we fight this, theres no easy solution. Fact checking people individually doesnt work. People tend to stand their ground when they see something that tells them that theyre wrong.

Ive found that getting into a conversation has some success. Ask them, Why do you believe this article? What appeals to you about it? Understand where theyre coming from and then hopefully equip them without saying, youre wrong. Instead, we can say, I know you care about child trafficking. Here is a better source than that. And then, over time and with better evidence, they come to change their minds.

The emotional approach takes so much more time and energy, but its what you need to do to counteract disinformation online.

Interviewed by Aleks Krotoski

More on how to make the internet great again:

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The simple reasons online disinformation may never be fixed - BBC Focus Magazine

A 27-year old construction worker was arrested yesterday for posting a video on social media claiming that many Cambodians died after being vaccinated with Chinese vaccines.

The suspect was identified as Kong Sambath who lived in Meanchey districts Chak Angre Krom commune.

Captain Hong Kimheng attached to Phnom Penh Municipal anti-cybercrimes department said the suspect was arrested about 3pm yesterday after he posted on his Facebook account named Changhan Huy on Friday that many people died after being injected with the Chinese vaccines and told people not to take the vaccine injections.

He posted a fake news. Whatever the suspect posted is not true. His action has affected the Royal Governments hard work and stringent measures to fight the coronavirus which is causing many people to suffer from the disease, he added.

In this case, he said, the suspect is alleged to have violated Obstacles to the Implementation of Measures under Article 11 of the Law on Measures to Prevent the Spread of Covid-19 and Other Highly Contagious Diseases.

If the suspect is charged and found guilty, then he will face a jail sentence of between six months to three years.

The suspect is currently detained for further investigations by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court before being charged.

Phnom Penh Municipal Court deputy prosecutor Seng Heang who is in charge of questioning the suspect could not be reached for comments.

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Construction worker arrested for posting fake news that many Cambodians died due to Chinese vaccines - Khmer Times

Arvind Malkhede, Divisional Railway Manager, Hubballi Division, in a Press Briefing held on April 9, 2021 jointly with Aneesh Hegde, Chief Public Relations Officer, South Western Railway, at DRM office, Hubballi appealed to media to inform the public that a fake video has been circulated in social media which shows that trains are overcrowded. He pointed out that the video is undated, manipulated and the information is not authentic. He clarified that there is no rush or overcrowd in any Railway Station of Hubballi Division as the Railways are running adequate number of trains. He also pointed out that based on the demand the train services are run regularly in the Division.

He appealed to public through the media to convey that there is no crowd/rush.

Aneesh Hegde CPRO stated that to gear up for the anticipated Ugadi festive rush in view of indefinite strike of Road Transport Corporation workers, SWR, in response to the demand of Govt. of Karnataka is running 20 fully reserved special trains from 09.04.2020 to 15.04.2020 to facilitate the passengers in view of Ugadi festival and avoid hardship due to strike of Karnataka Road Transport Corporation Employees and for clearing rush. These Special trains are in addition to the regular express and passenger special trains which are already operational throughout SWR, he said.

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SWR Hubballi Division appeals to people not to pay heed to fake news/rumours - Free Press Journal