Category Archives: Fake News

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

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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

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

Read more from the original source:

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