With all the fake news and tensions I've been seeing for the past few months, I've decided to conduct a little investigation to make sure if what was shared online was true or false. This is a small list of things I found. Thread.
2/ The famous "Nasrallah crying over Soleimani but smiling over the Beirut blast", is of course a fake. Nasrallah crying happened in September 2018, more than a year before Soleimani's death. Nasrallah was commemorating Ashura back then.
Here's a link: ynetnews.com/articles/0,734…
Here's a link: ynetnews.com/articles/0,734…
3/ "Aoun sleeping during Macron's speech." Many "activits" have been sharing a photograph showing Aoun sleeping or falling asleep during Macron's speech. It is obviously a fake, a screenshot taken at the right moment when Aoun lowers his head. Check the video in the next tweet.
4/ Clearly Aoun was not sleeping and people failed to check the video as usual.
5/ Tayyar.org hid the army logo off Maurice el Chamii's T-shirt. The retired soldier was arrested for destroying Aoun's picture in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs while pictures of him blindfolded were shared on social media soon after.
6/ People have been sharing pictures of Bassil and Aoun meeting Macron in the last couple of days. Some can be dated back to CEDRES in 2018, others to international events such as the Francophonie Summit that happened in October 2018. It's easy to cut out a press title.
7/ As if the Beirut blast didn't provide social media with enough photographs of apocalyptic and devastated landscapes, some felt the need to share older explosion pictures such as Wissam al-Hassan's in 2012. Two buildings away from my house.
Real source: timesofisrael.com/beirut-car-bom…
Real source: timesofisrael.com/beirut-car-bom…
8/ During Bassil's interview with Albert Kostanian on July 27, people were shocked at the number of lights on Bassil's terrace. This house is actually the "Diaspora House" in Batroun, not Bassil's. For more info: nna-leb.gov.lb/en/show-news/7…
beirut.com/l/60460
beirut.com/l/60460
9/ Falling for fake news can happen to anyone, even the Beik. This time, a picture showing dozens of trucks smuggling fuel & crossing the Leb-Syrian border. In fact, this convoy was driving through Yemen & this link shows it first appeared in October 2018: yaqeenagency.net/2018/10/05/%D9…
10/ Took some time to go back and find some of these, but it was fun. Of course, I didn't address fake data, rumors, COVID, and other things shared during or following a major event or crisis, but just photographs and videos that went viral at some point.
11/ Also, we know most people share anything they see online without checking, it's shocking to see that many from "civil society", who call for transparency & accountability, do the same frenetically. Both political parties & activists accuse each other of spreading fake news.
12/ To conclude, the amount of fake news online is frightening & is having a dire impact on our society while polarization dangerously increases. Political parties, journalists, bloggers, & average Joe's are all responsible for this. A bit of due diligence is not that hard to do.
