Fact Checking: Misinformation Spread Quickly on Chinese-language Social Media after Lebanon’s Pager and Walkie-Talkie Explosions in September
Fact Checking: Misinformation Spread Quickly on Chinese-language Social Media after Lebanon’s Pager and Walkie-Talkie Explosions in September
cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/3385576
The pager and walkie-talkie explosions that occurred in Lebanon on September 17 and 18 resulted in serious casualties and shocked the world. False information quickly circulated over social media among Chinese language users. [...] For Chinese nationalists, the explosions provided an opportunity to justify the concerns about Western products and demonstrate that only Chinese-made electronic equipment can provide consumer safety.
Several themes emerged from the Chinese disinformation pieces:
The scenes that falsely depicted the explosions
The incorrect allegation that Taiwan, Israel, Japan, and the United States were part of a conspiracy network
Concerns that iPhones could also explode
The claim that wealthy Middle Eastern countries have quickly abandoned Western-made electronic devices in favor of Chinese products, particularly those made by Huawei
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Some of these are fairly funny, like A-like that iPhones would somehow be allowed in China if they had an explosive inside, B- that someone wouldn’t have found an exploit and exploded them all by now
Aren’t iPhones made in China? Wouldn’t they know exactly what goes into them?
The pagers and walkie-talkies may well have been made in China too.
Yeah that’s my point in another comment here. It’s all so stupid.