Tag "fake news"
By Polygraph The government of the People’s Republic of China“Late December 2019 ‑- The Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in central China’s Hubei Province detected cases of pneumonia of unknown cause.” Source: Xinhua News, April 6, 2020 False Scientific studies suggest the first novel coronavirus cases were detected as early as December 8, 2019 On Monday, April 6, China’s Xinhua News agency published the full text of…
By EU vs Disinfo One of the core elements of disinformation is persistence. Sticking to a few comfortable tropes makes lying easier. Lying repeatedly can create an impression of conviction and access to facts and sources that are not known to everyone. Repeat a lie from somewhere else, and you can claim that you have a source. Lies are easier to remember if you stick to the same stories. Professional…
By Dr. J. Scott Brennen, Felix Simon, Dr Philip N. Howard, Professor Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, for Reuters Institute Download a PDF version here Key findings In this factsheet we identify some of the main types, sources, and claims of COVID-19 misinformation seen so far. We analyse a sample of 225 pieces of misinformation rated false or misleading by fact-checkers and published in English between January and the end of March…
By Polygraph Sputnik NewsRussian state-owned media outlet“Johnson will undergo artificial lung ventilation, a source close to the UK healthcare authorities told Sputnik later. “ Source: Sputnik, April 5, 2020 False Johnson’s spokesman called the report “disinformation.” This story has been updated. On April 5, the Russian state-owned media outlet Sputnik News reported that U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who had earlier tested positive for COVID-19 coronavirus, had been admitted to…
By Polygraph Alexander LukashenkaPresident of Belarus“People on tractors are working, nobody is talking about the virus. There the tractors will cure everybody. The field cures everyone!” Source: STV, March 16, 2020 False Rural life will not shield people from COVID-19. Many world leaders are under fire for allegedly not taking the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic seriously enough. However, few have dismissed the threat more resolutely than Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenka, who…
By Polygraph Dominic Gregoriosenior, University of Pennsylvania“I wish the economy and the academy were not so easily incapacitated by the common cold. I wish (U. Penn) President Gutmann had heard the COVID-19 mortality rates in the U.S. were just above 0.1 percent, very similar to the seasonal flu, and acted like it.” Source: The UPENN Statesman, March 18, 2020 False COVID-19 is no common cold In a blog written for…
By Polygraph Alexey PushkovChairman of the commission on information policy of the Federation Council, the upper chamber of Russia’s parliament“Poland did not let Russian aircraft carrying aid to Italy pass through its airspace. This is meanness at the level of public policy. Moreover, the help was for an ally of Poland in the EU and NATO. From now on, Russia should not meet Poland half-way, on any issue.” Source: Sputnik,…
Source: Global Voices This edited article by Nan Lwin is from The Irrawaddy, an independent news website in Myanmar, and is republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement. Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19. Since the COVID-19 outbreak began in China’s Hubei province, social media has spawned countless fake news stories and hoaxes in Myanmar, including promises of false cures that…
By Polygraph All across the Internet“Read the classics. This is a quarantine letter by F. Scott Fitzgerald, who was isolated in south of France in 1920 due to the Spanish influenza.” Source: Twitter, March 20, 2020 False The letter is fake, translated from a satirical piece A Russian translation of the “Quarantine letter” purportedly written by renowned American author F. Scott Fitzgerald during the Spanish flu epidemic is making the…
By EU vs Disinfo Alexander Dugin, a Russian nationalist philosopher with close ties to the Kremlin, is relishing in the COVID-19 outbreak. We are living in the period of the end of liberalism and its “obviousness” as global meta-narrative, the end of its measures and standards. Human societies will soon become free floating: no more dogmas, no more dollar-imperialism, no more free market spells, no more Fed dictatorship or global…
