There are cases of misinformation and fake news about today's horrific stabbings in my town, Reading. I'll try to debunk as many as I can in this thread #Readingstabbings
This is NOT the attacker. This is Ahmed Ressam who is in in a US prison right now
There's a weird conspiracy theory going round after left-wing commentator @AyoCaesar tweeted a photo of herself enjoying an orange ice lolly last night. Some claimed the three oranges represented the three people sadly killed. Somehow Don Corleone's also been dragged into this 🥴
As is usually the case with these incidents, some people are talking about a "false flag". Here are two of the most deranged examples in realtion to #Readingstabbings "Forbury Gardens matches in two ciphers with psychological operation"
"A blood sacrifice on the solstice"
🥴🥴🥴
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
While Elon Musk recommends sending around X posts so people can "learn the truth", here's a thread of viral misinformation on X about Hurricane Milton.
Alex Jones baselessly claims hurricanes Milton and Helene were deliberately started by the US government as "weather weapons".
This post by one of X's most prominent conspiracy theorists, viewed 4.8 million times, suggests without any evidence that Hurricane Milton is a result of geo-engineering.
Conspiracy theorist Stew Peters claims Hurricane Milton was pre-planned to directly hit Tampa Bay, in a post viewed 4 million times.
Obviously, Hurricane Milton is not pre-planned. No-one can plan to create hurricanes.
A Russia-based disinformation network run by a former Florida cop has published a new fabricated story on a fake news website called "Seattle Tribune".
It baselessly claims Ukrainain President Zelensky has secretly purchased a Mercedes 770 used by Hitler. It's nonsense.
The story refers to this doctored picture of a Mercedes 770 near the presidential office in Kyiv, posted on Telegram.
But that Telegram channel has never posted the pic, and the Mercedes in it has been lifted from the image on the right. Note the same reflections on both cars.
As is often the case with the network of fake news websites posing as local news outlets run by Moscow-based John Mark Dougan, the "Seattle Tribune" website was set up only five days ago, specifically to post this fake story.
There's no record of such a news outlet in Seattle.
Immediately after the Southport attack, baseless rumours began spreading online.
The main source of rumours has been a report by an obscure US "news" website that falsely claims the suspect is an "asylum seeker" named "Ali Al-Shakati", who "arrived in the UK by boat last year".
Merseyside Police has confirmed that the suspect was born in Cardiff, and has yet to identify the 17-year-old.
The report also adds that the suspect was "on MI6 watch list", despite the fact that it is MI5, not MI6, that deals with domestic counter-terrorism cases.
The name "Ali Al-Shakati" has since been widely shared online in misleading posts viewed by millions.
Some other outlets, including Russia's RT news channel, have also reported this name, citing the US-based website.
Pro-Kremlin influencers claim the captain of the Dali ship is a Ukrainian.
But online records show a Ukrainian man was the Dali's captain from March to July 2016. The ship that hit the bridge reportedly had an all-Indian crew.
Claims by influencers such as Alex Jones and Andrew Tate that the Baltimore Bridge collapsed due to a "cyber-attack" have been viewed millions of times.
Maryland Governor Wes Moore has said the early investigation points to an accident, with "no evidence of a terrorist attack".
This video, viewed 1.4 million times, claims to show evidence of pre-installed explosives causing the Baltimore Bridge collapse.
What the video shows is not explosives, but most likely electrical wires catching sparks.