Dear People of Jersey
What you are about to read is a summary of research that took place between September 2018 and April 2020. In 2018 I joined a Facebook group called “The Real Rock” it described itself as being pro Jersey, I can only assume the word "Real" related to Jersey issues that were't being spoken about.
The groups description specified what the group was for and against. They said:
“We are for law and order, Preservation and protection of our traditions heritage and history, controlled immigration that is beneficial to the island, support for those who serve or have served in the armed forces, supporting charities that benefit local people.
They say they are against, "The devaluation of Jersey Born People, Uncontrolled immigration, Political correctness, Racism and Bigotry".
You can see a screen of the rules and description shot from the group below.
In my opinion there’s nothing wrong with those values, but it soon became very clear that members of this group were somewhat willing to contradict their own values. The majority of posts and comments were complaints about mass immigration, the Syrian refugee crisis and how Jersey was under threat from mass immigration. A vast majority the posts would be deemed offensive , and were aimed at Muslims and anyone who wasn’t from Jersey. There was also something far more dangerous at play. I couldn’t’ help but wonder what any of The Real Rocks content actually had to do with Jersey and its “Real” problems. To give you an idea of what I saw, out of 104 posts In the Real Rock” between November 24th November and December 24th, 2018. Only 7 of the posts were actually relevant to Jersey problems. The other 97 posts were either, directly disrespectful to Muslims or Islam, or contained news about immigration problems in other countries. Watch the brief video below. It contains some stills of some the groups more hateful content.
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Mos were meaningless memes with racist slogans all over them and other posts contained links to far right websites. The problem with this though was that this wasn’t actually news. It was a meme, or a photo with a meaningless caption, yet the members reacted to the posts in a way that seemed as though no one had even bothered to read the articles in full before commenting, but more importantly, no one actually seemed to question the legitimacy of where they were coming from. I started to become more interested in the legitimacy of the articles that were being posted rather than concerning myself with whether or not they were actually racist. We're the articles being really the "The Truth" about muslims ? Where was this information coming from ? More importantly, what F*CK did any of this have to do with Jersey ?
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Throughout this you will find links to other articles and news stories that will help you understand my points. I suggest you open them as you read.
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Take a look at the picture below and headline from The Red Pill Factory
“Whites not Welcome, West Midlands Police BAN white men from applying for Jobs”
When I saw this, my first thought was, why on earth would the Police ban white men from applying for jobs ? Secondly it’s posted on a website called “Red Pill Factory”, I don’t know about you, but I’ve never tuned into Red Pill Factory for its 6:00 PM News broadcast.
Examples of Fake News
The Red Pill Factory article explains how an application for police officers excluded white people from applying for jobs and was only open to people of BAME backgrounds. At the end the article, Red Pill Factory said the following
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“What these engels-s inspired leftists need to understand is that it is they who cause division that we see in society, by attacking white men. They are obsessed with race, when they should instead look at the goodness of peoples hearts”
After some investigation, I found that Red Pill factory have taken a genuine news report from “Birmingham Live”. and twisted it it’s to suit a far right agenda.
The actual story is that white male policeman were blocked from being promoted in order to give female and ethnic minority candidate’s a better chance of reaching senior roles. The system was later removed on the basis of discrimination, a link to the article is below.
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As you can see, when the article was posted in ‘The Real Rock’ it received 4 reactions and a comment ‘Englandstan at its best’. Comments like this would indicate that some people believed it to be true without question, or they saw the headline and didn’t bother to read the article properly. Red Pill Factory have also been found guilty of posting fake news in the past.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-48356351.
Red Pill Factory accuse the leftists of being the ones that cause division in society. However it false news stories like these that really begin to divide us, and this is article is nothing more that right wing spin on a situation that doesn't exist, and in turn divides society but confirming a pre conceived bias.
Onto the next example. Voice of Europe.com Another right wing media site that claims in this particular article that the Swedish way of life is under threat from a Muslim takeover. This particular article was posted with the comment “Sad Future coming up” and the headline
Ex-Muslim "Swedes will lose Sweden in 50 years"
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The article talks about a lady called Mona Walter, a Somali immigrant who moved to Sweden in the nineties who now speaks out against Islam.
The article says, that the Muslim goal is to take over your country, and also says “The first thing Muslims will do is demand Sharia Courts, Like in the U.K”. What bothers me about this statement is that it implies that sharia law is already in force in the U.K, implying that a Muslim takeover is in force, which will put an end to the British way of life.
I decided to check some facts for myself. To my surprise, Sharia Courts DO exist in the U.K however, they have no power of national law and are only used to dispute family matters in line with the principles of Sharia law or the religion of Islam. They have no power or precedent over any national law, so what’s to be scared of ? No one in Britain can legally be sentenced for anything under sharia law.
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https://fullfact.org/law/uks-sharia-courts/
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The reliability of what was being posted in The Real Rock was certainly dubious. In total there are 36 posts from Voice of Europe and together received 146 reactions and 137 comments. It makes you wonder how much was actually being checked rather than just being taken as true because it's on social media, or that people are reading what they already believe.
The examples from Red Pill Factory and Voice of Europe demonstrate how these type of news articles combined with the comments and reactions create a falsified and biased ideology of muslims, or any ethnic minority that maybe written about in this way. The next problem is that this ideology then spreads beyond facebook into society which in turn drives hatred and racism under false means.
Based on these two examples and others in the Real Rock, I can say that in order for fake news to spread you need two key factors.
1. Your story needs to be laced with elements of truth. Like the example in Red pill factory, the story was based on a true story from another newspaper, reprinted with a new opinion added.
2. You need a time of crisis. What I mean by "Crisis", and for sake of example, is that a crisis, could be anything such as a terrorist attack, a political crisis, any big news story or any story that gets people talking and sharing stories on social media.
When I started this in 2018 it was the height of the Syrian refugee crisis and Britain was in the midst of failing Brexit negotiations and there was a terror attack on the houses of Parliament, all of these are what I would define as a "Crisis" and it is times like these when fake news spreads fastest. Especially via social media.
Based on the evidence above I think it’s fair to say that this comment from the admin of the real rock is somewhat mislaid.
The assumption of misinformation
So now we know what it to takes to spread fake news on social media, lets look at misinterpretation or how easily instant outrage can blur the lines between fake and fact:
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In December 2018, A post appeared related to an incident that happened outside in the Houses of Parliament.
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The post says "This has just happened outside Parliament: Oh Dear another example of uncontrolled immigration, Let's see what the MSM [main stream media] have to say about this, Another mentally ill person perhaps , It won't report that's he's an immigrant or perhaps a follower of the religion of peace?
The above comment relates to this story: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46524839
When one real rock someone asked what had happened, the original poster replied with “A Knifeman tried to attack coppers to gain entry to houses of Parliament”
However, if you do a word search on the article itself, there’s no mention of a knife anywhere ? So where did the idea about the knife come from ? It also said he broke in and was then asked to stop. It doesn’t say he attacked the police to gain entry. Sky news reported the same incident but still no mention of a knife,
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However Sky does mention the following:
The incident happened in the same entrance where PC Keith palmer was fatally stabbed in 2017. Perhaps the poster misread it ?
If we go back to what the original comment said, there’s 2 assumed bias, one, he’s an immigrant, and two he’s a Muslim. I’ve derived this from.
“Oh Dear, another example of uncontrolled immigration and “A follower of the religion of peace”
There’s no confirmation of the mans religion in either the BBC or Sky news article, just a photo. We don’t know he’s an immigrant, we also don’t know he’s Muslim. So where did the poster get his facts from ? Why spread this misinformation ?
This is how misinformation on social leads to assumption and in turn the assumption becomes taken as fact. Thus again causing more unfair commentary and then unfairly leading to biased beliefs.
Moving onto the next example concerning misinformation.
There’s two other groups I followed as part of this research, One group called the Rock against Racism, and the other Politics Jersey. Although The Real Rock was a private group, it wasn’t unknown to the rest of Jersey’s social media commentators. Both these groups are used to discuss politics and issues in Jersey and as you can imagine, theres plenty of room for mistruth and opinionated fact.
The following letter appeared in The Jersey Evening Post, the local newspaper, written by a Jersey resident who I shall refer to as "Mr B"
As you can see from the below picture, this letter caused a debate in the Politics Jersey forum on social media, the vast majority of people didn’t agree with the author.
The letter gives reasons why Jersey should not allow refugees into the island, in particular, it refers refugees from Syria. My biggesrt problem with this is the way in which this article further enforces dumbfounded fears and stirs the big pot of racist controversy. Mr B claims to have 'studied' the effects of mass immigration since 2015. Fine, but, how have you studied them ? You’ve done a degree in international development ? Read the daily mail ? Been a reporter for Red Pill Factory ?
The part I find most absurd is the caption under the photo. It says “People aren’t against innocent children, they are against the fact that it will open a gateway that once opened can never be closed”
This caption attempts to install a fear that the way of life that Jersey people know and love will be lost if refugees are allowed in. It also implies that when one refugee is allowed in, there will be thousands waiting behind to follow them, and that Jersey will just have to accept it and this simply isn't true. It is an extremely manipulative way of wording this point of view, and, what are two thing you need to manipulate the masses ? It's Fear and Love.
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Below are some reactionary comments to the article.
I like the last comment, it relates to the next point.
Following the publication, Mr B says he had 47 phone calls, all from people that agree with him, obviously. Another 20 people liked the post when he posted this in a group full of people who already agree with this agenda, presumably, they didn't have his phone number.
Mr B
Mr B
Look at the language used in the full post
“They are scared about what’s happening in Jersey” “If we bring in asylum seekers, Jersey will be finished”
“Many have said that they avoid town at all costs”
Who are the many ? As I said earlier, this is all designed to drive fear into the people of Jersey and an attempt to try make people realise "the truth", but according to Mr B that truth is a serious an imminent threat waiting to be unleashed upon his poor island, but yet there's not really anything to back that up. With that in mind. I checked some facts for myself, I emailed the Freedom of Information centre in Jersey and asked them the following questions.
1. Have any refugees have been allowed to settle in Jersey between 2015 and 2018
2. If yes, which countries are they from?
3. Are their families allowed to join them?
4. How many refugees have been allowed to settle?
5. Are there plans to allow any more refugees to settle?
6. How many legal immigrants have been allowed to settle between 2015 and 2018?
7. How many illegal immigrants have been caught and deported between 2015 and 2018?
8. Which country have the most legal immigrants come from?
More on that later……
Seeing all of these posts in the Real Rock, Politics Jersey and on other forums really began to make me wonder. How easy is it to fake the news ??
I decided to try it for myself and I created: Jerseymash.com. My own very own satirical and fake news website.
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For the purposes of experimentation, I took genuine local news stories and added a comedic twist. I posted every news story onto the Jersey Mash social media page and awaited the reactions. The results were somewhat surprising.
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I chose a local Café and posted a story saying, the café had won a Michelin Star. The café is a small kiosk on the harbour side, selling bacon rolls to harbour staff and the public, I will say they are good bacon rolls, nonetheless the story received a couple of laughs and and a few comments.
https://www.jerseymash.com/post/quayside-caf%C3%A9-gets-michelin-star
This was swiftly followed by a story that said the Customs and Excise department were disappointed with the revenue they’d made from the re sale of seized illegal drugs.
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https://www.jerseymash.com/post/jersey-customs-disappointed-with-drug-sale-revenues
Two completely fake stories laced with some truth, The Quayside Cafe is a real Cafe that sells food, and it is the job of Customs and Excise to seize drugs. Secondly the source of this news is called “The Jersey Mash” and the logo is a Jersey flag with a bowl of mash potato under the cross. You’d have to pretty be naïve not to realise these two stories shouldn’t be taken seriously, wouldn’t you ?
How to Fake the news
I built a small following for the page and of course, 'Face value’ played its part because it wasn’t long before people were writing comments that took the stories seriously.
Like the following example
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Restaurants encourage "dress down dining"
To give you a bit of context, the reason I posted this was in response to a post on a forum called “Good or Bad Jersey Business”. The original post ,that I based this story on, said that it was shameful that some people were dressed down in a restaurant. Obviously this caused a huge stir and the post received over 700 comments, all attacking the original poster for being a snob.
So I went into the same group, posted the dress down story and one person wrote the following comment.
I'm not sure I can believe the report by JerseyMash.com, as there's no restaurants named, but in light of anecdotal comments about diners complaining about fellow diners' dress standards, I feel a bit shocked that anyone should feel 'judged' in this way?
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I’m going to reiterate my previous points, The article is written by “The Jersey Mash” and the headline is somewhat ridiculous. This lady only seems to disbelieve it on the basis of the restaurant not being named.
Why did this work ? The original post had over 700 angry comments on a post about someone who dressed own in a restaurant, it is a crisis, or a topic that got people talking. It’s also laced with an element of truth in response to a previous post in the same forum. This combination is what led to that comment.
With those two points in mind, I moved on and posted the following on the Jersey Mash facebook page, the headline
Frenchman killed with Crossbow whilst swimming in St Ouens Bay
There’s an old folk tale in Jersey that says you can still legally murder a Frenchman with a crossbow if he’s seen swimming in St Ouens bay. This supposed law dates back to the days of the French civil war.
I posted this as a head line and the post received 186 link clicks and 224 views on the website. I can't help but feel that some people probably didn’t see or recognise the humour and believed the story to be true. Especially considering the post had 4 shares, received one “Wow” reaction and reached over 886 people in total.
This didn’t come from a real crisis but it was layered with a small element of truth, relating to a well know Jersey folklore. The crisis element refers to the murder of an innocent Frenchman who was out for a swim. Thankfully murder in Jersey is extremely rare, so it’s not surprising that the headline caught some attention.
Sadly, not long after posting this article, something awful happened.
I know I don’t need to tell you what kind of reaction this caused on social media but the way in which the views were put across and became manipulated to suit one agenda over the other caught my attention.
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Let's look at how the argument unfolded. I’m going to use An argument between that took place over social media between the aforementioned Mr B and someone called “Miss O'C" to demonstrate how easily the same information can be misread, manipulated and misinterpreted.
Mr B posted in a group called “Jersey Islanders Alliance” saying “I’ve warned of this happening for so long” with reference to this rape incident.
This was then re-posted in the Rock against racism and this where the argument really started. What annoyed members of this forum was that Mr B was using the rape incident to push his already controversial anti immigrant agenda.
Miss O'C commented on of Mr B's warning, in the Rock against Racism forum and pointed out that a local Jersey man, Derek Allan, had, in the same week as the Romanian incident, also been convicted of Rape. Probably to ensure no one began accusing all immigrants in the island of being rapists.
What Miss O'C said specifically was “Lets not forget the Jersey Born Scum who was convicted of rape today”.
Derek Allan: https://jerseyeveningpost.com/news/2018/12/19/man-found-guilty-of-raping-teenager/
But of course, as we’re dealing with social media, and lot of upset people who all had to voice their opinion, it wasn’t long before the immigration issue took over and the misinformation began to spread.
Mr B came back with the following “Do you see this as justification then, We do have our own scum, but there’s no need to import more, nothing like this has ever happened"
Of course, that statement from Mr B is not true.
Two Men were recently convicted of raping a 12 year old, this incident happened over 30 years ago, out dating the Romanian incident by 28 years. These men were also, from Jersey.
Miss O'C's response to Mr B's never happened before comment was “How am I justifying gang rape ? How about understanding that a predators are predators regardless of nationality”, Wow, just wow Mr B'
Quite right Miss O'C, no matter who commits the crime it is equally as abhorrent.
Miss O'C then continued to say to Mr B “Evidently it is not the act of rape that offends you, but the nationality of the rapist”
Mr B then takes his argument back to the “The Real Rock” This time though. He posts the following
"This gives you an idea about how dangerously delusional some people are, coming out in defence of the rapists with the comment What about the Jersey scum”
Mr B
Miss C
Mr B
This is a highly manipulative twist on whats been said.
Miss O'C was referring one particular ‘Jersey Scum’ Derek Allen. You’ll also notice that when Mr B posted this back in the real rock, he left out Miss O'C's comment on the justification of gang rape.
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Earlier, you will have noticed Mr B said that Jersey has it’s own scum. But he also chose to leave this comment of his out of his new post. And of course, people immediately sided with Mr B with comments like "the looney left" or "that is the way of people who don't have a decent argument, have to resort to insults or their default setting which is racism.
Mr B
Miss C
Mr B
Ann idiot
Stu Pid
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To summarise, Mr B blocked out lot of information to suit himself, taking it to another group of people, who he knew would agree with his point. Manipulating the use of the phrase Jersey scum to make it seem as though one side thought all Jersey people were scum. This is frankly despicable, and shows Mr B will try anything to push his point.
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This also hows us how easy it is provide misinformation and how easily comments are often misinterpreted, and in turn causing a further divide among us as people .
Another comment that came up in the midst of argument was this.
Again, this is another ill informed comment and simply isn’t true. In my opinion the worst crimes, are sex crimes involving children and Jersey has a sad history of this the perpetrators are mostly Jersey born people
Ed Le Galle, Jersey Born: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-20772610
Ian Bartlett, Jersey Born: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-31426989
Edward Paisnel: “The Beast of Jersey” Jersey Born https://jerseyeveningpost.com/news/2015/02/19/i-saw-this-face-staring-at-me-i-think-it-was-the-beast-of-jersey/
The Newall Brothers: Jersey Born: http://www.bbc.co.uk/jersey/content/articles/2007/10/22/newell_20_years_feature.shtml
The Haute De La Garrenne Scandal: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-30842891
I could go here, but I will say that to my memory, one other serious crime that stands above all others involving foreigners is the Victoria Crescent Murders. To my memory this is certainly one of, if not the worst crimes, ever committed in the island.
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-19210360
https://jerseyeveningpost.com/news/2018/04/02/victoria-crescent-killer-dies-in-uk-jail/
Thankfully, all crimes like those above are very rare in Jersey. To simply blame foreigners for the worst crimes is wrong.
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Earlier on I requested information from the freedom of information centre in response to Mr B’s letter.
Lets take a look at the answers:
1. Have any refugees have been allowed to settle in Jersey between 2015 and 2018
Yes – one, however the individual re-settled in the UK
2. If yes, which countries are they from?
Iran
3. Are their families allowed to join them?
Yes, there is provision in the Jersey Immigration Rules to grant permission for the partner or child of a person who has refugee status to join them.
5. Are there plans to allow any more refugees to settle?
This is not a question that can be answered by the Jersey Customs and Immigration Service. Each claim is examined on a case by case basis.
6. How many legal immigrants have been allowed to settle between 2015 and 2018?
2015 – 86
2016 – 114
2017 – 60
2018 - 74
7. How many illegal immigrants have been caught and deported between 2015 and 2018?
The total number of illegal entrants refused entry at the ports and those removed after entry are as follows
2015 - 23
2016 - 18
2017 - 19
2018 - 18
8. Which country have the most legal immigrants come from?
The nationality of those individuals granted indefinite leave to remain in the Island varies widely from year to year.
As you can see, Jersey hasn’t exactly been over run by, immigration legally or illegally or refugees and a certain number have been deported. There certainly isn’t a queue art St Malo Ferry Port, and the one refugee that was granted leave to remain, has left.
It also disproves part Mr B’s letter that implied whole families of refugees will suddenly be able live in the island, Only immediate family is allowed to join a refugee. There is also no gateway awaiting to be opened and the only refugee in 4 years that was granted leave to remain wasn't from Syria and left the island anyway.
So what are Mr B’s points being made upon ? What research are they based on ?
If interested here is the link to my original request:
https://www.gov.je/government/freedomofinformation/pages/foi.aspx?ReportID=2522
About that letter
What I've found is that social media opinion is very often biased and more often than not, there is often no evidence for the opinion posted. We see mostly headlines and someone’s opinion of them. Someone’s opinion is now more often mistaken as fact. It makes you wonder why are we so quick to react when we comment ?
Is it the amount of anger we see that causes this reaction ? To quote a favourite film of mine “The imitation game” Alan Turing says “You know why people like violence, because it feels good” perhaps angry commenting on social media feels good too. Maybe it’s given a new voice to those who wouldn’t dream of speaking up anywhere else.
The next story, is probably the best example I have of how to fake news.
There’s a forum on Facebook called Jersey Ask Advise Advertise, It’s a forum for Jersey residents to ask about local information, where to buy certain things, B&Q’s opening hours etc.
One day a post appeared on the forum from a user who said “Two Romanian girls have just knocked on my door asking for money, not cool” Now in a forum of 16,000 members you can imagine this caused a bit of an upset, so much so that the person who posted actually deleted it. I wasn’t able to screen shot this post before it was deleted, so I hope you’ll trust me by now.
In response to that post, I posted the following headline on the Jersey mash “Romanian beggars actually asking for directions”
https://www.jerseymash.com/post/romanian-beggars-actually-asking-for-directions
In order to see what would happen, I posted the link in the Jersey Ask Advise Advertise forum. Which was met with the following comments.
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A Perfect Storm
As you can see from the comments, some people immediately thought this to be true, these are the comments from the link posted in Jersey Ask Advise Advertise.
There was one particular comment on the link on the Jersey Mash Facebook page that really stood out.
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Remember our Friend Mr B from earlier ? He commented the following:
This isn't true. I have spoken to some of the people involved. Two women were knocking on doors saying. Money money. They were asked where they were from. They said Romania. Not much English. Then they were followed back to where they lived and they found it without issue or the need for directions so why lie about it
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What gets me is the comment, “so why lie about it ?” Which must mean Mr B thought the article was genuine, even though what I said wasn’t true, he even corrected another commentator saying he’d interviewed the people involved. What this goes to show is that it seems anyone will fall for something if it suits their agenda when it comes to commenting on social media, regardless of what may or not be fact.
The above shows how quick we are to judge a situation seen on social media before we start to comment. If what we see relates to our preconceived bias then we are extremely quick to react and we lose ourselves in a comments war. I had always found it strange how easily people could be fooled into thinking something was real, and this is why I set out to find out for myself. Using stories from local news and based on my experiences of living in Jersey made the headline relevant to Jersey life and thus enticed people into reading.
2020
In the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic, social media was flooded with false stories or misinformation relating to the pandemic. Everyone became an expert in virology but there was one particular image that was doing the rounds more than any other, chances are you probably saw this image or a version of it in your social media feed.
This photo, is nothing to do with Corona virus Pandemic. This photo was taken in a church in Lampedusa in 2013. A boat full of migrants sank off the Italian coast and the bodies were stored in various churches. Over 100 migrants lost their lives in this particular incident.
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-italy-coffins/false-claim-photo-shows-coffins-of-coronavirus-victims-in-italy-idUSKBN21F0XL
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24380247
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Coronavirus caused a huge panic on social media and this image was shared countless times. It is a blatant fake, yet people believed it to be true. When I commented on post to say it was fake someone replied with a comment "does it matter as long as it makes it point?" Yes it does matter, this is spreading false information, and thus your point has no basis in any truth.
Nonetheless. I had to have my fun with Jersey mash. I’m going to use two more examples one was made up, and the other was taken from a true story.
Victoria Avenue is arguably, the main link road between the East and West of the island. It is islands only dual carriageway. Before lockdown had come into full force, I posted this
someone decided to tag the States of Jersey Police to ask if this was true. A heightened state of panic was of course at play here. Maybe this was a bit cruel but for the sake of this research it really couldn’t helped me prove my point any further.
For my next and final trick. When Jersey went into lockdown they had to pass a law to make the lockdown legal, There is a website called jerseylaw.je that lists all the laws in Jersey, both past and present. The law is known as the COVID-19 (RESTRICTED MOVEMENT) (JERSEY) ORDER 2020
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The initial lockdown was for period of 2 weeks beginning Monday 30th March 2020 and ended Monday 13th April 2020. On Sunday 12th April I posted the following
This time though the link I posted led directly to the Jersey law website, not to Jerseymash.com This was a genuine link to a real law. I hadn’t made this up.
The post received my highest ever engagement at over 2500 clicks
And of course the comments followed.
It wasn't long before this caused a a much bigger furore than expected and following the comments, one of the Parish Police forces posted the following:
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Now,
I will confess something here, I missed a detail. On the Jersey law website, the law WAS updated and the lockdown extended beyond the 12th April, but this had not been published in any local news outlets. Not BBC Jersey, ITV Jersey, the Bailiwick express, The Jersey Evening Post or the States of Jersey Police updated the public to say that the law had been extended. The only update I could find was on the Jersey Law website.
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Imagine if the law hadn’t been updated, What if it did end on 13th April an no one was informed ? What if everyone was living under the guise of a law that wasn’t in force ? People could’ve been fined illegally or even arrested for breaching a law that didn’t exist. ? As already established, the one thing we need in a time of Crisis is clarity.
On Tuesday 14th April, day after bank holiday Monday the following happened.
Calls were made for the government to be more transparent.
I doubt that this was a direct of result of what I had posted on the Sunday evening but nonetheless it highlights the importance of making sure information is correct, for both parties.
If you've read this far I'd like to say thank you.
When I started this I was looking into racism on social media. What prompted me to start this was the way the real rock claimed not be racist or bigoted, yet almost every post was racially motivated and aimed at mostly one specific ethnic minority.
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The other thing that annoyed was the way in which the Real Rock were acting as if the problems they were posting about were happening in Jersey. Jersey's way of life is not under threat, and, frankly probably never will be. There isn't a hoard of illegal immigrants waiting at St Malo either. It seems as though social media has actually done more to divide us then it has to bring us together and to connect the world in the way it way its use was intended for.
I also saw how that racism spreads beyond Facebook and causes an unfair hatred in society toward the innocent among those ethnic minorities. Fake news stories are what caused that hatred which is based on falsified facts and thus innocent minorities end up being hated for no reason.
I also found that faking the news is actually quite difficult. I believe fake news is more easily perceived as true when there are elements of truth woven into the story like the example from Red Pill factory, or the Lampedusa Photo. There are many time you may have heard the phrase “Oh, I saw it on Facebook or "I saw it on twitter” and there are probably many times you've seen the article on your phone and gone straight to the comments and commented without reading the article before finding yourself locked into a debate with a complete stranger. I think this also relates to how we use social media. We scroll past so much information on a daily basis, that we no longer take the time to investigate, we simply just react to it.
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Something else that needs to be added, is the 3rd ingredient of fake news. This is the information vacuum. When there’s a lack of clear information surrounding one story, like the Coronavirus pandemic, it is very easy to spread misinformation. Especially when peoples comments are taken so seriously and no one is able to back up their sources and everyone wants to be an expert too, and social media itself cannot answer back, but in a person to person debate one commentator may not be so stubborn.
More importantly we seem only to seek the information that confirms our opinion, as mentioned earlier it is a form of confirmation bias, our opinion maybe confirmed, but not necessarily the facts.
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