Overnight, reports began circulating in Israeli media attempting to discredit #PegasusProject by twisting the words of an @amnesty statement.
The twisted version caught fire online and is now being parroted by Indian politicians.
A small #thread on #misinformation:
1/10
The twisted version caught fire online and is now being parroted by Indian politicians.
A small #thread on #misinformation:
1/10
The article in question was posted in Calcalist with a photo of a smiling Shalev Hulio (NSO founder and CEO) and the title:
"Amnesty clarifies: The list of 50,000 phone numbers is not directly related to NSO"
It went live at 6:15 pm on Wednesday.
2/10
"Amnesty clarifies: The list of 50,000 phone numbers is not directly related to NSO"
It went live at 6:15 pm on Wednesday.
2/10
Cherry-picking quotes, the author cast doubt on the list of potential targets selected by NSO clients.
"Amnesty International has never presented this list as a 'NSO Pegasus Spyware List.'"
And later: "This is a list indicative of the interests of the company's clients."
3/10
"Amnesty International has never presented this list as a 'NSO Pegasus Spyware List.'"
And later: "This is a list indicative of the interests of the company's clients."
3/10
Watch out for the word "indicative." It will come back later.
4/10
4/10
The article was then retweeted by a researcher in Turkey who republished the misleading title and quotes:
"Umm..." he wrote.
5/10
"Umm..." he wrote.
5/10
A journalist with more than 70,000 followers retweeted this post, again without context.
6/10
6/10
By morning, news that the list was "indicative" of NSO clients rather than "targets of potential surveillance by NSO clients," was everywhere:
An advisor for #Indian Min. of Information & Broadcasting tweeted the story was "laughable."
The counter-narrative was spun.
7/10
An advisor for #Indian Min. of Information & Broadcasting tweeted the story was "laughable."
The counter-narrative was spun.
7/10
@IndiaToday published this information citing the tweet by the journalist with more than 70,000 followers and the title:
"Amnesty says never claimed leaked phone numbers were of NSO Pegasus Spyware list"
8/?
"Amnesty says never claimed leaked phone numbers were of NSO Pegasus Spyware list"
8/?
Today, @amnesty shut down these rumours, writing: "Amnesty categorically stands by Pegasus Project data set" and that "the data is irrefutably linked to potential targets of NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware."
Read the statement here: amnesty.org/en/latest/news…
9/?
Read the statement here: amnesty.org/en/latest/news…
9/?
An MIT study from 2018 found that fake news travels 70 percent faster on social media than the truth.
Let's flip this trend. #PegasusProject #Misinformation
10/10
Let's flip this trend. #PegasusProject #Misinformation
10/10
Well, this blew up! Check out my SoundCloud: forbiddenstories.org/newsletter/
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