About fakes that lead to consequences
"P.S. i learned it from big men!"
authors: ALEKSANDRA VASILKOVA, KAMELIA SAMOILENKO, ASLAN SEITOV, DIDAR KHALYK, RUZALIA TYNALIEVA, UMED UZOKOV
Fake can look like an inoffensive joke or piece of news that affects nothing. But what can happen if you share this fake message? We've collected the examples of fakes in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, whose distribution has led to significant consequences in these countries.
Meme!
- Did you know that dandelion cures everything?
- I - Idiotism?
- Dandelions? It's all about bananas infected with AIDS
- With AIDS? How much are they?
On February 18, 2014, in Kazakhstan appeared messages about the bankruptcy of three major banks. The messages were spread via WhatsApp and Facebook messenger:

"If you have savings in these banks, withdraw them immediately. Info is 100% true! P.S. I learned it from big men!"


On April 17, 2019, a video of the raid by local residents on the uranium deposit in the village of Tash Bulak, Issyk Kul region, Kyrgyzstan, was spread on WhatsApp. The video showed a radiation meter and was captioned as follows:

"Uranium is very radioactive. If they are going to explore it, we'll have diseases, our kids will be born with disabilities. We'll lose the lake! This is a wake-up call!"
KILLER STRAWBERRY
BANKRUPT BANKS
MUTANT URANIUM
By April 19-21, the "uranium scandal" reached its height.

Prominent people, politicians, teams of internet trolls joined the discussion; a petition was created against uranium deposits at Issyk Kul. And the anti-uranium frame became popular on Facebook.
The uranium scandal lasted for about two weeks. Afterwards, the government of Kyrgyzstan revoked the deposit development license from the foreign investor. And the parliament adopted the law prohibiting uranium production.

The next day, the residents of Kazakhstan crowded the banks specified in the mailing list to withdraw their savings.

The management of Kaspi Bank announced 100 million tenge (259,25 thousands dollars) to anyone who can find the author of this provocative message.


The result of the fake news about the bankruptcy of banks was the withdrawal of deposits. 40 billion tenge (10.36 million dollars) were withdrawn from Kaspi Bank.

The fake news about the fake bankruptcy was spread twice – in 2017 and 2018. However, these messages didn't have this strong impact thereafter.

BY THE WAY: over a thousand of Kazakhstanis were ready to confess they launched this fake attack for a consideration.


On April 28, 2019, Dunyoui Dilho Facebook public account posted a message of the group's administration in Tajik with a warning for mothers not to buy strawberry because it allegedly "filled with drugs and minerals". In two hours, this post was liked, commented and reposted many times.



In four days, this message was massively spread on Facebook and Viber. In these channels, they added something new to it – fresh strawberry was declared lethal as two kids died from it.

One day later, the authorities of Khudzhan removed all strawberry from the main marketplace of the town and destroyed it.



Over 9 tonnes of strawberry were destroyed because of the fake news about "killer strawberry", sellers were those who suffered.



CULMINATION
CONSEQUENCES
BEGINNING
Don't buy strawberry. 2 kids died in Khudzhand because of severe poisoning. I've seen a video when a vehicle removes strawberry from the marketplace
There's information that second-tier banks will be declared bankrupt in 3 days:
Alians Bank
Kaspi Bank
CenterCredit Bank

If you have savings with these banks, withdraw them immediately!
Info seems to be 100% true!

P.S. I learned it from big men!
For the sake of our kids' future! It concerns all of us, friends!

The Russians have defended Baikal! Businessmen wanted to build a small bottled water plant there. Here businessmen want to open a uranium deposit and transport this ore across the country to Kara Balta for recovery! We'll lose our country!" Reposted from @issykkul_life #save_issykkul


What are the similarities of these three fake pieces of news?

• they were launched on social media – via Facebook, WhatsApp and Viber, and then went on to the media;
• they caused furious reaction of the public and official agencies;
• to some extent, they had economic consequences;
• the key emotion they caused in the users of information is fear for future, for financial stability, for health of children.

What are the differences?

They are different in format: video, audio, text messages.

Why they worked?

The fake news about "bankrupt banks" involved the financial fears of Kazakhstanis. Moreover, its creators issued their "piece of news" at a very turbulent economic period. In 2014, the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan allowed tenge to float freely and abandoned its official exchange rate corridor. At the same period, the American dollar increased dramatically in rate.

The fake news about "mutant uranium" was spread via influencers, whose opinion is trusted by the internet audience of Kyrgyzstan. Public activists, artists and human rights activists reposted the "news" and added their own emotional comments. As a result, the narrative grew up so big it turned into a governmental conspiracy theory with the purpose to destroy the ecology of Issyk Kul region. People were frightened with chilly consequences: diseases and mutations caused by radiation.

The fake news about "killer strawberry" was spread to a kind of a parents chat on Facebook. A chilling story of the death of children because of a harmless berry caused a relevant effect: mothers who cared for their kids' life and health shared the "news" actively with other users. The narrative about the "killer strawberry" resembles the variation of the fake news about bananas infected with AIDS, which, despite its absurdity, regularly caused panic in parents' chats of various cities and countries.
KNOW WHAT YOU READ!
HOW CONVINCING ARE FAKE NEWS?
BY THE EXAMPLE OF SCREENSHOTS OF MESSAGES IN CHATS AND SOCIAL MEDIA AS SHOWN ABOVE, SHARED BY CONCERNED USERS
WHAT SHOULD YOU KNOW ABOUT FAKE NEWS?
Fake news (or narratives related to the news agenda) often concern the issues of public importance. They are created for mass distribution online in order to increase traffic or discredit public movement, a public person, political campaign, etc.

Fakes can be divided by types:
• hoaxes;
• conspiracy theories;
• hyper-partisan websites that distort facts;
• chain letters;
• confessions by pseudo-employees of companies that allegedly help to get a gift or a discount;
• wrongly interpreted photos and videos;
• viral rumours that have never been verified;
• unintentional errors — say, when a wrong name was written in a obituary, or an error was made in a report due to incorrect translation.

Creators of the Ukrainian website stopfake.org have been exposing propaganda fake news against their country for many years. They determined criteria that can identify fake news.

You'd better fact-check the news if:

1. The message contains dubious statements, inconsistent or unknown facts.
2. The text imposes clear implications.
3. The text contains no links to a specific source. References to "competent opinion", "FBI experts", etc. are unreliable, too.
4. The text contains ready statements without supporting arguments.
5. The material is too emotional or uses pseudo scientific terms that frighten the audience.
6. The event is covered with the misbalance of opinions.
7. The message contains fear, perplexity, uncertainty, many options as the general context if information.
8. The material is presented in an absurd way.
9. The demand is to "immediately spread" the message.

4 RULES OF REPOSTING
cards on how not to become a spreader of fake news
Made on
Tilda