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☆ Sydney: Stabbed bishop delivers first message from hospital as malicious disinformation spreads
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-18 | by ( Hilary Whiteman | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

The rapid spread of disinformation fomented an already volatile situation and days later authorities, faith groups and the bishop are still trying to calm community tension. But regulators are finding it much harder to act against social media platforms for the disinformation that spread online after the attacks – especially after the mass stabbing in the eastern suburb of Bondi. After the church attack, unconfirmed speculation also swirled about the faith of the alleged attacker and his motive. A 16-year-old boy has been charged with terrorism over the alleged stabbing of the bishop, police said Thursday. Video Ad Feedback Police: Australia church stabbing was 'terrorist incident' 04:31 - Source: CNNSystem of self-regulationBut stamping out some of the hateful comments that spread online has not been so easy.

Persons: Australia CNN —, Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, Jesus, ” Emmanuel, –, ”, Chris Minns, “ I’m, Steven Saphore, Australia’s, Meta, Facebook –, Marc Owen Jones, Russia influencer, Seven, Bondi, Jones, Hamad, won’t, he’s “, who’s, “, Elon Musk, That’s, Michelle Rowland, that’s, ” Rowland, Terry Flew Organizations: Australia CNN, Good Shepherd, State, Reuters, Facebook, NSW Police, West, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Police, CNN, Digital Industry Group Inc, Elon, Twitter, ABC Radio Thursday, Digital Communication, University of Sydney, European, Thursday NSW Police Locations: Brisbane, Australia, Sydney, New South Wales, NSW, Westfield, Bondi, Russia, Australian, Queensland, Gaza, Qatar, European Union

☆ Fact Check: Columnist Owen Jones falsely linked to fake Gaza LGBTQIA2S+ headline
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-26 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

An op-ed headline about Gaza being “LGBTQIA2S+ Mecca” is a fake and has been falsely attributed online to The Guardian columnist Owen Jones. The fabricated headline, shared on social media in a screenshot resembling a page in The Guardian newspaper, reads: “Without Israeli oppression Gaza can become a LGBTQIA2S+ Месса”. A spokesperson for The Guardian told Reuters in an email that the screenshot “has never been a published Guardian headline or story”. Jones said that the image was "definitely faked" in a message over X.Reuters has previously addressed other fake Guardian headlines. No such headline was written by Jones or published by The Guardian.

Persons: Owen Jones, Jones, ”, Read Organizations: Guardian, Facebook, British, Reuters, The Guardian, Thomson Locations: Gaza, Mecca

Reuters fact-checking unit has identified numerous cases of social media posts using fake images and information about the Israel-Hamas conflict, and others in which confusion rather than deliberate disinformation appears to have heightened tensions. loading* A video of Russian President Vladimir Putin speaking about Ukraine last year was shared this month with fabricated subtitles warning the U.S. not to interfere in the Israel-Hamas conflict. The sheriff’s office said they were "targeted by the suspect due to them being Muslim and the on-going Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis". Marc Owen Jones, a disinformation expert and professor at Hamad bin Khalifa University in Qatar, said there was often a rise in disinformation during conflicts. Clearly they seem directed at different audiences, but the combined effect is to muddy the waters about the truth in the conflict," he said.

Persons: Khan Younis, Abu Mustafa, Joe Biden, we’ve, Biden, Farida Khan, Al Jazeera, Jazeera, Vladimir Putin, Pink, Gerald Darmanin, Thierry Breton, Rafi Mendelsohn, Abu Obaidah, Tayyip Erdogan, Marc Owen Jones, Hamad, Stephanie Burnett, Stephen Farrell, Hardik, Abdel Fattah Sherif, Neha Mustafi, Jonathan B Mathew, Nidal, James Mackenzie, Andrew Mills, William Maclean, Angus MacSwan Organizations: REUTERS, Al, Hamas, Reuters, Louvre, Facebook, Meta, YouTube, Israel’s Office, State Attorney, Twitter, Palestine, Hamad bin Khalifa University, Hardik Vyas, Thomson Locations: Gaza, AMSTERDAM, LONDON, Israel, ., Al Jazeera, Ukraine, Guatemala, Israeli, New Zealand, kibbutzes, France, In Illinois, London, Middle, Tehran, Turkey, Qatar, Amsterdam, Bangalore, Jerusalem, Doha

☆ The difficult task of verifying truth in a war zone, especially now
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-16 | by ( Claire Atkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

A report of "40 beheaded babies" in Israel made the rounds last week as journalists worked to verify it. AdvertisementAdvertisementLast week, I was watching CNN and heard a someone describing the Hamas attacks on a kibbutz referencing 40 beheaded babies. The i24news' online story references "40 babies and young children" taken out on gurneys from the town of Kfar Aza. "I just wanted to clarify that I did not tweet 40 babies had been beheaded. Clearly fed up with the mess, BBC's Sardarizadeh, wrote on X, "War is not a game for retweets and likes on social media."

Persons: Claire Atkinson, —, Cooper, Nic Robertson, Robertson, Rashida, Kfar Aza, Marc Owen Jones, JK, Bel, Anna Botting, hadn't, Justin Peden, Sardarizadeh, Elon, Elon Musk, Thierry Breton, Musk, BBC's Sardarizadeh, Rupert Murdoch, She's, Atkinson Organizations: Media, Service, CNN, Fox, Fox News, The Independent, Sky News, Comcast, Times, The Media Locations: Israel, Kfar, Gaza

☆ Fact Check-The Guardian columnist’s headline on use of word homosexual is fake
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-07 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

An op-ed headline likening the use of the word homosexual to a hate crime is being falsely attributed online to The Guardian columnist Owen Jones. The fabricated headline reads: “Addressing me as homosexual is a homophobic hate crime.” It is shared within an image that copies the layout, formatting and typeface used by The Guardian and includes a headshot of Jones. Reuters also did not find an op-ed by the headline elsewhere online (rb.gy/4jsep). A spokesperson for The Guardian told Reuters in an email that the screenshot has “never been a published Guardian headline or story”. Jones regularly writes opinion columns for The Guardian on topics encompassing politics, LGBTQ+ rights and workers’ rights among others.

Persons: Owen Jones, Jones, “, “ I’ve, ”, Read Organizations: Guardian, Facebook, Reuters, The Guardian

☆ COP28 in Dubai: Inside the push to greenwash the next climate summit
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Ivana Kottasová | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

The country has embarked on a major PR campaign to boost its green credentials ahead of the COP28 UN climate summit in Dubai later this year, prompting heavy criticism from climate groups and some politicians. The controversial road to COPThe climate summit takes place at a different location each year, with responsibility for hosting rotating among five regional groups. But the UAE stands out because of the way it chose to intertwine the summit with its oil business. In January, the UAE announced Sultan Al Jaber would be the summit president, to the horror of many climate groups. The country is “ideally suited to host” the summit, a spokesperson for the COP28 presidency told CNN.

Persons: ”, Jennie King, Sultan Al Jaber, Al Jaber, CNN Al Jaber “, Al Jaber’s, John Kerry, Frans Timmermans, “, ” Al Jaber, It’s, it’s, Al, ADNOC, Marc Owen Jones, Hamad, Jones, King, Cop28, Kat Ainger, ” King Organizations: CNN, United, United Arab Emirates, Centre, Climate, Guardian, Institute for Strategic, Abu, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, US, Associated Press, EU, Hamad bin Khalifa University, Twitter, UAE COP28, UAE Ministry of, Environment, UAE, US Justice Department, Corporate Locations: United Arab, Dubai, UAE, Katowice, Glasgow, Abu Dhabi, Al Jaber, Qatar, Paris, China, India, ”

☆ Middle Eastern regimes have a history of shutting down the internet. But it’s costing them
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-03 | by ( Nadeen Ebrahim | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —When authoritarian Middle Eastern regimes feel threatened by their public, they often shut down the internet. Internet Society, a US-based non-profit organization that advocates for global internet access, last week released a new tool called NetLoss, which calculates the economic damage of government-imposed internet blackouts. After tracking global internet shutdowns in 2022, the organization found that countries in the Middle East and North Africa tightened restrictions on internet access over time. In the Middle East, internet shutdowns are correlated with authoritarian regimes, particularly during social unrest or conflict, Jones said. Neither country has ever imposed a complete internet shutdown, according to Internet Society, and both have a shutdown risk of under 10%.

Persons: ”, Marc Owen Jones, Hamad, Jones, Hanna Kreitem, Kreitem, ” Kreitem, “, ” Jones Organizations: CNN, Internet Society, Rapid Support Forces, Bank, Society, Hamad Bin Khalifa University Locations: Libya, Egypt, Syria, Bahrain, Iraq, Algeria, Iran, US, East, North Africa, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, India, Ukraine

☆ Fact Check-Embassies say there is no truth to claims about Western diplomats fleeing Turkey before the Feb. 6 earthquake
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Reuters found no evidence supporting claims online that eight ambassadors to Turkey left the country 24 hours before the Feb. 6 deadly earthquake. The U.S. and Belgian embassies in Turkey did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment. There is also no evidence to support claims these countries’ ambassadors knew about the earthquake beforehand. The online claims may have been inspired by this news, but this meeting took place in Turkey. Reuters found no evidence of claims that eight Western ambassadors to Turkey left the country 24 hours before the Feb. 6 earthquake.

The running of the World Cup is the only opportunity that Qatar sees for redemption," said Marc Owen Jones, an associate professor at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. "The markers of a successful World Cup would be as a nation-branding exercise, to position Qatar as an important sports hub in the Middle East and the wider Arab world," he said. 'HYPOCRISY'The first Middle Eastern country to host the World Cup, Qatar hailed it as a regional milestone when it was awarded the tournament in 2010. "The reasons given for boycotting the World Cup do not add up. Pressing back against its criticism, Qatar points to labour reforms aimed at protecting migrant workers from exploitation and says the system is a work in progress.

The mayor of a small Oregon town who iis accused of opening fire on motorists in a Halloween night road rage incident was arrested Tuesday, authorities said. The alleged shooter was later identified as Dowen Jones, the 47-year-old mayor Rufus, a city with fewer that 270 residents about 100 miles east of downtown Portland, the sheriff said. No one in the family car, two adults and two children, 5 and 8 years old, was wounded. The allegations are totally out of character for the well-liked mayor, according to Holliday. Nobody wants to see somebody that they like, that they know and that they like a lot, in trouble."

☆ Anti-vaxxers evaded social-media content bans by replacing the word 'vaccine' with a carrot emoji, BBC investigation finds
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-16 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

One large Facebook group used the carrot emoji to replace the word vaccine, per the BBC. The shot glass emoji was also used to replace the word "shot" and disparage vaccines. Per the BBC, several social media groups were using the emoji as a code for the word "vaccine." He said in a Twitter thread on Sunday the carrot emoji symbol was used to replace the word vaccine "presumably to evade censorship. Turqay Melikli/Getty imagesThe BBC flagged the group using the emojis as code to Facebook's parent company Meta, which took them down.

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