Inadvertently sharing fake news

Like many others, I shared a video of Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan carrying a card saying, “The Butcher of Iran will not be missed.” Perhaps part of the reason the video did not arouse my suspicion is because I agreed with the act, I believed Erdan the kind of person who would do that kind of thing, and I did not see any similar posts before this.

Facebook caught me out:

Because in an earlier instance, when a Jordan TV station accused me of using a video to which they had copyright, when, in fact, it was a Hamas video they had released to the public domain (and FB reposted that after accepting my appeal), I was sure that this was going to be another instance of having false complaints lodged against my pro-Israel page.

Unfortunately, the video was a doctored one. Factly had checked it out and they found that it was edited from an original post uploaded by Ambassador Erdan, himself, in September 2023. In that original version, Erdan was escorted out of the UN assembly room when he held up a sign protesting the prison death of Mahsa Amini with the text “Iranian Women Deserve Freedom Now!”

Sixty-two people “liked” my post with the edited sign and ten people shared it. That’s not a huge number, but it is ten more people sharing fake news than should happen, especially since I pride myself on searching the truth.

I want to be able to post things other people put together and not just share my own writings. What happened this time raises the question about how social media users can adequately vet everything they post and share. When I write articles, I do lots of research. When I share things others post, I usually trust the poster unless the item looks off. This instance shows that that does not always work.

I am glad for the correction, and I deleted the post. But I wish I had a magic formula or sufficiently sharp intuition to filter out the fakes. I do a better job when the fake includes lies against Israel, and am less astute when it includes pro-Israeli material. Something to think about, no?

Feature Image Credit: Screen shot from Factly article.