Category Archives: Fake News

Many people from Indian, Asian and other non-white communities have been rejecting Covid-19 vaccines due to fake news about what they contain and their effect, prompting authorities to secure a major commitment from social media companies to clamp down on such material.

The Boris Johnson government has launched an information campaign in over 600 publications, including those that have high proportions of ethnic minority readerships, translating core messages in various languages to allay concerns over the safety of the vaccines.

Letting vaccine disinformation spread unchecked could cost lives. We take this issue extremely seriously and have secured a major commitment from Facebook, Twitter and Google to tackle it by not profiting from such material, and by responding to flagged content more swiftly, the health department said.

We continue to work closely with social media firms to promote authoritative sources of information so people have access to vaccine facts not fiction, it added.

Various studies have concluded that there is clear evidence that non-whites have been disproportionately affected by the virus with higher rates of infection, higher rates of serious disease and mortality. Vaccine-related fake news include disinformation that the jabs contain animal products or alcohol.

As of January 13, the highest death toll among non-white patients was that of the Indian group (1,453) in hospitals and care homes, according to NHS England.

Nadhim Zahawi, minister responsible for Covid vaccine deployment, said: Vaccines save lives and it is vitally important that everyone is confident to take up the offer of a vaccine.

We recognise the importance of raising awareness of the myriad benefits of vaccination within Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities, who are known to be more at risk from Covid-19. The NHS provides targeted advice and public information about the vaccination process to build awareness about its benefits.

A recent survey commissioned by the Royal Society of Public Health suggested that 57% of the non-white communities would be happy to have the coronavirus vaccine, compared to over 70% of the rest of the population.

As of January 14, the number of people vaccinated with the first dose was 2,918,252 and 437,977 received the second dose.

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Alarm in UK over fake news prompting non-whites to reject Covid vaccination - Hindustan Times

CANBERRA, Australia -- A pigeon that Australia declared a biosecurity risk has received a reprieve after a U.S. bird organization declared its identifying leg band was fake.

The band suggested the bird found in a Melbourne backyard on Dec. 26 was a racing pigeon that had left the U.S. state of Oregon, 13,000 kilometers (8,000 miles) away, two months earlier.

On that basis, Australian authorities on Thursday said they considered the bird a disease risk and planned to kill it.

But Deone Roberts, sport development manager for the Oklahoma-based American Racing Pigeon Union, said on Friday the band was fake.

The band number belongs to a blue bar pigeon in the United States which is not the bird pictured in Australia, she said.

The bird band in Australia is counterfeit and not traceable, Roberts said. They do not need to kill him.

Australia's Agriculture Department, which is responsible for biosecurity, agreed that the pigeon dubbed Joe, after U.S. President-elect Joe Biden, was wearing a fraudulent copy leg band.

Following an investigation, the department has concluded that Joe the Pigeon is highly likely to be Australian and does not present a biosecurity risk, it said in a statement.

The department said it will take no further action.

Acting Australian Prime Minister Michael McCormack had earlier said there would be no mercy if the pigeon was from the United States.

If Joe has come in a way that has not met our strict biosecurity measures, then bad luck Joe, either fly home or face the consequences, McCormack said.

Martin Foley, health minister for Victoria state where Joe is living, had called for the federal government to spare the bird even if it posed a disease risk.

I would urge the Commonwealths quarantine officials to show a little bit of compassion, Foley said.

Andy Meddick, a Victorian lawmaker for the minor Animal Justice Party, called for a pigeon pardon for Joe.

Should the federal government allow Joe to live, I am happy to seek assurances that he is not a flight risk, Meddick said.

Melbourne resident Kevin Celli-Bird, who found the emaciated bird in his backyard, was surprised by the change of nationality but pleased that the bird he named Joe would not be destroyed.

I thought this is just a feel-good story and now you guys want to put this pigeon away and I thought its not on, you know, you cant do that, there has got to be other options, Celli-Bird said of the threat to euthanize.

Celli-Bird had contacted the American Racing Pigeon Union to find the birds owner based on the number on the leg band. The bands have both a number and a symbol, but Celli-Bird didnt remember the symbol and said he can no longer catch the bird since it has recovered from its initial weakness.

The bird with the genuine leg band had disappeared from a 560-kilometer (350-mile) race in Oregon on Oct. 29, Crooked River Challenge owner Lucas Cramer said.

That bird did not have a racing record that would make it valuable enough to steal its identity, he said.

That bird didnt finish the race series, it didnt make any money and so its worthless, really, Cramer said.

He said it was possible a pigeon could cross the Pacific on a ship from Oregon to Australia.

In reality, it could potentially happen, but this isnt the same pigeon. Its not even a racing pigeon, Cramer said.

The bird spends every day in the backyard, sometimes with a native dove on a pergola.

I might have to change him to Aussie Joe, but hes just the same pigeon, Celli-Bird said.

Lars Scott, a carer at Pigeon Rescue Melbourne, a bird welfare group, said pigeons with American leg bands were not uncommon around the city. A number of Melbourne breeders bought them online and used them for their own record keeping, Scott said.

Australian quarantine authorities are notoriously strict. In 2015, the government threatened to euthanize two Yorkshire terriers, Pistol and Boo, after they were smuggled into the country by Hollywood star Johnny Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard.

Faced with a 50-hour deadline to leave Australia, the dogs made it out in a chartered jet.

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Fake US leg band gets pigeon a reprieve in Australia - ABC News

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Despite Donald Trumps impending departure from the White House, fake news, as both a slogan and a phenomenon, is here to stay.

When it comes to fake news, human beings have been particularly addicted to the narratives of character assassination from time immemorial. The future of reputation assaults will be the distant past the informational viruses of inquisitions and witch hunts that tap into pre-existing fears that spread without intervention from referees.

Indeed, character assassination is the weapon of our age; the only things that have changed since the times of our barbaric ancestors are the technologies of attack and the false belief that were more advanced than they were.

To understand why fake news is here to stay we first have to look at what the term means and differentiate it from biased news. Fake news consists of factually fabricated stories spread mostly on social media. Biased news is corrupted by the ideological agendas of the news outlet and has been the cornerstone of the mainstream American media for decades. News can be biased both in its content and in what the outlet chooses to cover and not to cover.

Mr. Trump deliberately conflates biased news or news he does not like with fake news, which is not the same thing.

Fake news, especially information designed to damage a target, will remain for a few reasons. First, there is a bottomless market for it.

Billions of people are actively seeking to have their worldviews validated, especially if it involves confirmation that we are victims of an adversarial elite that is standing in the way of our dreams or sense of justice. If one of these elites can be sacrificed in the manner of the proverbial virgin tossed into the volcano, were all in. Lying or spreading false information in the new climate is a perverse act proving that the trafficker has grit and tribal affinity.

Comic actor Rowan Atkinson recently said, The problem we have online is that an algorithm decides what we want to see, which ends up creating a simplistic, binary view of society. It becomes a case of either youre with us or against us. And if youre against us, you deserve to be canceled.

Another reason why character assassination using dubious data is here to stay is that it has never been easier to do. Aiding in the unfettered spread of politically-motivated fake news is its overseas origins, beyond the reach of U.S. law enforcement. In colonial America and medieval Europe, character assassination took the form of verbal gossip alleging, during times of great anxiety, that an unlovable person was possessed by demons. Today, we have Twitter.

For much of the 20th century, the media were deeply biased but there were referees. If someone wanted to level an allegation, most journalists even biased ones felt an obligation to vet the charge or assess its merits before publishing it. The Internet has wiped out the referees.

Lifestyle self-promoter Hilaria Baldwin (wife of actor Alec) was recently exposed as a well-to-do American White woman as opposed to the Spanish continental of her fierce marketing. All it took was an anonymous tweet from someone who didnt dig her act based on some superficial research. The close cousin of character assassination is, after all, character suicide.

In our age, all sins are essentially equal. Harvey Weinstein is rightly ruined for being a habitual sexual predator while Sen. Al Franken loses his Senate seat for being photographed making a crude gesture during his days as a comedian. Woe to anyone who suggests there is a spectrum of wrongdoing.

John Kerry, like all politicians is a self-promoter, but he lost the presidency in large measure because his honorable military service in Vietnam was attacked by detractors in the searing Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign.

Where one stands on an attack or a person or institution depends upon pre-existing biases. Nevertheless, penetrating attacks with fraudulent elements include charges that: Bill Gates created the coronavirus in order to profit from it; Donald Trump is actively controlled by the Kremlin; Dr. Anthony Fauci led the way in downplaying COVID-19; Justice Amy Coney Barrett is fully indoctrinated in a cult where women must obey their husbands and provide sex on demand.

Despite the colossal lies that wrongly convicted the Duke lacrosse players in the court of public opinion of rape, there is also enough recorded footage of genuine injustice as in the death of George Floyd that it makes the less provable ones plausible.

Issues of the day all have character assassination element #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, climate change. A woman who has been assaulted will be the recipient of demeaning rumors if she comes forward, the accused will have his reputation and job prospects shattered. With Black Lives Matter, profiling is an act of character assassination as is being accused of being a Karen, a White woman acting out her latent racism through accusatory behavior. Climate change quickly degenerates into ad hominem attacks on scientists and their motives.

And now we have the rise of deep fakes, the manipulation of video and audio technology that can make fake words come out of a real persons mouth, which happened when former President Obama allegedly cursed about his successor and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted his objective was to manipulate users for profit. Both of these examples were deep fakes.

Whether you call it fake news, biased news or character assassination, there is no current antidote. The only hope that I can see is intense awareness all along the ideological spectrum.

Comedian Ricky Gervais recently spoke about the hazards of being misunderstood in our digital Dodge City: The scary thing is being canceled if you say the wrong thing and suddenly Netflix can take you off their platform. You could be the most woke, politically correct stand-up in the world at the moment, but you dont know what its going to be like in 10 years time. You can get canceled for things you said 10 years ago.

Eric Dezenhall is the author of the new novel about character assassination, False Light, and the CEO of Dezenhall Resources, a crisis management firm.

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Why fake news is here to stay - Washington Times

Malayalam actress Lena was in the UK filming for her next Footprints On Water for a month now and the actress has returned to India recently. She shared that she came to know about fake news circulating on social media and several online media that she has tested positive for COVID-19 and is admitted to a hospital in Bangalore. The actress has put a note on her social media handle and has urged to stop spreading the false news. A fake news is spreading through online media and social media that I am (Actress Lena) tested covid positive and hospitalised in Bangalore. This is totally fake, I came from UK with a covid negative RTPCR test result and as part of the current covid protocol for passengers coming from UK, I am quarantined at Govt. Hospital Bangalore and waiting for the genome sequencing test result, Lena said in her Instagram post. Online media has been falsely reporting that I am Covid positive. Please do not share this news. I am safe here. Thank you for your concern and prayers. Love, Lena, she added. Lena has also attached the test results of her test with the note. Check out the post here.Directed by Nathalia Syam, Footprints On Water will feature Lena in a pivotal role. The film revolves around an illegal immigrant family based in London. Adil Hussain and Lena will play a couple and Nimisha Sajayan will step into the shoes of their daughter.

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Lena urges to stop spreading fake news; shares that she hasnt tested positive for COVID-19 - Times of India

Sorry to be the one to break the news but, the image you saw and liked of Anushka Sharma looking at her precious baby girl? Yeah, its not real and definitely not of the freshly minted mother-daughter duo. Our weird and twisted obsession with pictures of stars doing anything and everything had gotten its way when somebody had leaked a picture of Kareena Kapoor Khan and new-born Taimur back in the day. But thankfully no one has breached the privacy of new parents Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli. Not, yet anyway!

So whats the fuss about this supposedly viral image? The doing of an over-excited and over-zealous fan page(s) that shared a close-up image of uncannily similar looking woman holding a baby!

Baby Girl #JuniorVirushka#viratkholi #ViratKohli @imVkohli#AnushkaSharma @AnushkaSharma#virushka pic.twitter.com/NUea6XrjCY

Phir kya? Others lapped it up without checking twice and soon the first picture of the Sharma-Kohlis baby was everywhere.

.Congratulations @AnushkaSharma & @imVkohli on ur beautiful baby girl! Lots of love & good health to all of u

#ViratKohli #AnushkaSharma #Virat pic.twitter.com/tkaAoK0akh

#ViratKohli & #anushkasharma blessed with

baby girl..! ! Jan 11 ! Princess#Virushkababygirl #Virushka pic.twitter.com/9aCMcPMbMr

While that is that, the other half who are still aww-ing over the picture of baby feet, posted by Kohlis brother Vikas Kohli, is a random one too.

SEE ALSO: Anushka Sharma And Virat Kohli Welcome Baby Girl

Cover Image: Twitter

Excerpt from:

Fake News Alert! The Viral Picture Of Anushka Sharma With Her Newborn Is A Stock Image - Mashable India

By Nicola Daniels 110s ago

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Cape Town - The National Office of the Apostolic Faith Mission church has cautioned its constituency not to be misled by fake news, combined with one or two Bible verses, interpreted out of context and presented as fact when it comes to Covid-19 vaccines.

Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize recently announced that the first of 1.5 million vaccines would arrive in the country this month. More would arrive by the end of February.

However, the spread of misleading information has created doubts and fear in the minds of the public which could sabotage that effort because citizens need to give their consent for the vaccine to be administered.

The church said considering the serious nature of the allegations it aimed to give guidance on the matter.

There is a pandemic caused by a real virus. All people, inclusive of pastors, church members, health workers, politicians, high placed individuals, as well as ordinary human beings can be infected. Some get very sick and some even die.

We need to resist evil, in whatever form it manifests itself. To focus on and spread the different (and greatly conflicting) conspiracy theories is in itself playing into the hands of evil. Not only does it take our focus from where it should be as Christians, but it also results in fear, panic, desperate hopelessness and lies, all of which is not from God.

The church said vaccines were nothing new.

In 1796 the first successful vaccine against smallpox was developed. New techniques make the development of vaccines over shorter periods of time possible. Instead of exposing the body to a (weakened) virus so it can build a defence, the so-called mRNA-based vaccines allow our bodies to create a protein that simulates the virus, which then causes the human body to create antibodies.

Quality Assurance manager in the Overberg, Sister Dieudonne Le Grange, said: Read up on the vaccine and make an informed decision. In my opinion, the risk of not being vaccinated is far greater than the risk of not getting it.

Of the tens of thousands of people who have already been vaccinated, some have reported short-term symptoms and a few have reported minor reactions. Compare that to the virus itself, which has infected more than 90million people globally and killed approximately 1.9million people. The overwhelming benefits of vaccines to individuals and society significantly outweigh the risks for adverse reactions, she said.

Cape Times

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Church cautions constituency not to be misled by fake news over Covid-19 vaccine - Independent Online

Prasar Bharati on Wednesday clarified that no All India Radio (AIR) station is being closed anywhere in any state across India.

Taking a serious note of the false reporting and fake news claiming closure of All India Radio (AIR) stations by various media outlets across India, Prasar Bharati made it clear that these reports are baseless and factually incorrect.

Prasar Bharati further stated, no AIR station is being downgraded or converted anywhere in any state or union territory.

Also, all AIR stations will continue to originate local programming in line with linguistic, socio-cultural and demographic diversity furthering the mission of AIR to nurture local talent, said a statement issued on Wednesday by the ministry of information & broadcasting.

Prasar Bharati said it is moving ahead with its plans to strengthen the Akashvani, All India Radio, AIR Network with several key projects ready for implementation during 2021-2022, expanding its network with more than 100 new FM radio transmitters across India.

The AIR Network, comprising few hundreds of stations and several hundreds of radio transmitters, is one of the worlds largest public service broadcasting networks.

It operates in multiple modes Terrestrial analog radio (FM, MW, SW), Satellite DTH Radio (DD Free Dish DTH), Internet Radio (NewsOnAir App on iOS/Android).

With 48 Satellite Radio channels available on DD FreeDish DTH Service, local and regional voices on radio stations from across India now have a nation-wide platform to make themselves heard, the ministry stated.

Around 200 live radio streams on the NewsOnAir App, Prasar Bharati has given Vocal for Local a new global meaning with over 2.5 million users accessing these 200+ live radio streams from different countries across the world with over 300 million views during 2020.

Prasar Bharati is also moving ahead with its plans to introduce Digital Terrestrial Radio in India. Select AIR channels are already available through Digital DRM technology to the listeners in many cities/regions on an experimental basis, the I&B ministry stated.

Listeners in these cities/regions can experience the power of Digital Radio through a choice of multiple radio channels available on a single radio frequency in digital mode, it said.

Specialised digital radio services of Akashvani available on DRM transmitters include AIR News 247 dedicated to news and current affairs, AIR Raagam 247 dedicated to classical music apart from local/regional radio services and Live Sports, it said.

Prasar Bharati is also in advanced stage of testing Digital Technology options for FM Radio and a standard for the same will be finalised soon to herald the rollout of Digital FM Radio in India, the ministry added.

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Media reports on closure of All India Radio stations are fake news: Prasar Bharati - Northeast Now

ACTING PRIME MINISTER CAUGHT ACTING LIKE A PRIME MINISTER

While PM Scott Morrison holidays in an undisclosed Hawaii, acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack has gotten into strife comparing the January 6 attack on the US Capitol with margarine.

Nutter is better than Marge, he said.

These are unfortunate events, said McCormack. Many people dont remember how you rode the horse; they remember how you dismount the horse.

This sparked a horserace riot.

The Ultra-National Party leaders comments outraged Amnesty International and other inner-city finger-knitting Arts students.

Meanwhile, McCormack has remained staunchly behind (and a little to the right) of Liberal goose-stompers Craig Kelly and George Christensen.

After disseminating non-information about the US election and hydroxychloroquine hair tonic, these two Sky News hopefuls have been accused of sharing ludicrous codswallop and other fish recipes.

The Acting PM said, Facts are sometimes contentious, which he asserted as a fact.

TRUMP TO FORM NEW PARTY: THE REPUBLICATS

Drumming bunny US President Donald Trump will form a new political party that is way more animated.

The new political party is Trumps way of going quietly as loudly as possible.

A new movie, The Republicats, features Trump licking his wounds and his back fur.

Trumps legal challenges over election fraud were laughed out of courts, proof the President has lost none of his entertainment value.

In other cat news, Trump has warned US Vice-President Mike Pence that he will go down in history as a pussy.

Pences security agents are prepared for a grab attack.

Without Trump, the media will have nothing to talk about apart from the inevitable return of Trump.

A White House spokesman who admitted to being a White House spokesman said, Trump is the first US president to be impeached twice, so hes proud of that.

VEGANUARY ADMITS CRUELTY TO LANGUAGE

Vegan stars have thrown their weight (or as much of it as their depleted strength allows) behind Veganuary.

Sir Paul McCartney, Joaquin Phoenix and Kim Kardashian are promoting a vegan diet through January, or as long as vegans can go without mentioning it to everybody.

(Kardashian admits to dipping in and out of veganism between meals.)

Meanwhile, a vegan from a wealthy country sent pictures of beef, egg and cheese to a starving child in a poorer country. This is what I dont eat, said the vegan. What dont you eat?

The starving child replied, I wont swallow pontificating twaddle.

Veganuary will be followed by Proteinuary, when we can all go back to talking about something interesting.

In other news

Tim Ferguson is a widely acclaimed comedian, writer, TV host, and a member of the Doug Anthony Allstars. You can follow him on Twitter at@RealTimFerguson

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The Ferguson Report: Fake news you can trust - The New Daily

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CBSE Board Exam 2021: Only those passing Pre-Board to get admit card? Here's the truth

A news report claiming that only those who will pass the Pre-Board exams will be given the admit card to appear for the CBSE Board 2021 has been circulating in the social media. This has created a lot of confusion among students as well as the teachers.

The said article, being shared on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp, claims that the Pre-Board exams would be conducted twice and students would need to pass in both to get the admit card for final board exams scheduled to be held from May 4 till June 10in offline mode.

FACT CHECK

The fact check department of the Press Information Bureau (PIB) dismissed the news as 'fake' anddescribed it as baseless.

"In a news, it is being claimed that those students who pass pre-board exams will get the admit card for board exams. This claim in false. CBSE has not made any such announcement," a tweet by PIB Fact Check said.

Board exams for Class 10 and Class 12 will begin May 4 onwards, Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank had announced on December 31. Results of the key examinations will be declared by July 15, Nishank said.

ALSO READ:CBSE Class 10, 12 Board Exam 2021 datesheet to be released this week? Here's how to download

Schools will be allowed to conduct the practical project/internal assessment of Class 10 from March 1 to the last date of conduct of theory exams.

The CBSE Class 10 and 12 exams are scheduled to be conducted next year through the paper-pen mode. Officials from the CBSE board have clarified that there is no proposal to conduct online exams.

Latest Education News

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CBSE Board Exam 2021: Only those passing Pre-Board to get admit card? Here's the truth - India TV News

New Delhi, December 25

As the social media platforms and governments battle the spread of coronavirus-related fake news, a new study has revealed that information on Covid-19 spreads quickly and misinformation or misleading information can take on a life of its own in social media channels.

The consequences can be fatal, since often during a crisis, people are forced to make snap decisions while trying to take care of their mental health, said the researchers from an Estonian-led international network.

The scientists agreed that governments should not be afraid to distribute official announcements on social media but rather make the most of social media for effective communication.

"In the context of the pandemic, information with varying levels of proof and verifiability is being spread, and often this information is distributed via social media," explained network head Mart Susi, a professor of human rights at Tallinn University in Estonia.

The main recommendation to both civil society and social media channels, Susi added, is to create methods for fact-checking and to release the results of such checks consistently.

"Deleting information indiscriminately might seem like an easy way out, but in reality, it's a slippery slope," he said in a statement.

Up to this point, the focus of attention among scientists and practitioners has been on critiquing the relaying of information on what's going on in online media portals and the process of users assessing posts - and blame is being cast on the lack of clear standards and transparency.

Now the focus has shifted from process to outcome: the content of the information that's being relayed.

"We aren't asking how social media can battle misinformation, but whether it's even capable of doing so in the first place," said Susi.

If it is, the 'how' is no longer as important.

"We call this phenomenon the normalisation of arbitrary assessments and of the lack of standards and transparency. What might have taken 10 years under the 'old normal' has taken place in less than a year during the crisis," the authors noted.

The study comes at a time when Facebook, Twitter and Google etc are working hard to fight the Covid-19 related misinformation on their platforms via various means, inducing making the users aware of the consequences.

The study involved 40 scientists and experts from 19 countries in and outside of the European Union.

--IANS

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Covid fake news can be fatal, govts need to step in: Study - The Tribune India