Thread by @AlanRMacLeod

[Thread] There is a coup d'etat attempt underway here in Venezuela 🇻🇪, fueled by tons of fake news.

In this thread, I'll debunk some of the most egregious and viral fake stories circulating.

Add your own in the replies.

A viral video claims that leftist thieves are stealing ballot boxes.

In reality, these are aircon units.

Ballot boxes are small brown cardboard boxes, barely larger than a shoebox.

These giant appliances bear no resemblance to ballot boxes.

This is what a ballot box in Venezuela actually looks like.

This video, claiming to show huge clashes between protestors and police today is going viral.

But, as @ldejesusreyes and others have noted, this video is 7 years old.

This image, which many claim to be official election results, has been seen by tens of millions of people.

It claims that the vote count is 109%.

But actually, all that happened is that the three minor opposition candidates pictured got 4.6% of the vote together, not each.

This is a simple data entry error from someone making an infographic for the TV.

These are not the official results. The official results add up to 100%.

Dishonest actors are promoting this to spread the idea that the official election results are fraudulent.

@ldejesusreyes People are claiming this image is from the national electoral council (CNE), and the charts on the screens show a Gonzalez victory.

But this isn't from the CNE at all. Rather, it is from Mercal Aragua, a totally different organization with no access to voting information.

The opposition is also blatantly using a bot network to boost their narrative on social media

HT: @JulianMaciasT

I know for a fact that this is fake news, because I was right there in this crowd as this video was taken.

It was, in fact, the opposition that tried to shut down this Caracas polling station.

A group of over 100 right-wing demonstrators crowded round the entrance to stop people from entering.

Elon Musk himself retweets a video purporting to show protestors tearing down a statue of President Hugo Chavez today.

But this video is from 2017.

The widely circulated images of a man in Aragua "murdered by government" are completely fake, as this video, shared by @BrianMteleSUR clearly shows. He just gets up and leaves, after he "dies".

Blatantly fake news!

Perhaps the most important fake news is that the opposition actually won 73% of the vote.

The US government has fueled these allegations.

But I spoke to dozens of American electoral observers here, and they told a very different story.

My report:

mintpressnews.com/venezuela-whil…

Versions of this image, which purport to show a police officer pointing a gun at a defenseless woman and child, have been seen by millions of people.

But video evidence clearly shows that the police officer is unarmed, and is actually waving his arms at her.

HT: @JulianMaciasT

This is total nonsense. I've been speaking with people flying out from the airport, and it is operating completely normally. There is no takeover of the airport at all.

And as for Maduro, he just gave a speech tonight at the presidential palace, in front of thousands of people. So much for fleeing the country!

This video has 1.7 million views, and 21,000 likes. But it is highly misleading: the video is from 2017.

Right-wing Spanish politician Isabel Diaz Ayuso jumps on the fake news bandwagon, sharing a 2017 clip, as if it was from this week.

Expect a lot more of this in the coming days.

HT: @JulianMaciasT

@JulianMaciasT This viral video has been seen by millions.

It claims to show the Venezuelan 🇻🇪 military massacring peaceful protestors.

Two problems:

1. It is from 2016 🤦
2. It is from Turkiye 🇹🇷

You'll never believe this, but Alex Jones is putting out fake news on Venezuela, falsely claiming Maduro has ordered the arreat of his opposition opponent, Edmundo Gonzalez.

Right-wing Colombian senator Maria Fernanda Cabal shares a video of Maduro's men torturing their opponents.

The problem? It is actually a clip from the Netflix show, Simón.