Beware of the spread of false information on social media

September 3, 2017

News, photos and video clips purporting to be from the conflict in Myanmar have been circulated widely on the pages of social media networks including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. In fact those news, photos and video clips were taken in other countries, said a news release issued by Information Committee yesterday evening..

For example, the deputy prime minister of Turkey tweeted photographs of the event that actually occurred in other countries. People who could trace back the origin of the photos discovered that they are inauthentic.

When the ambassador of Turkey to Myanmar was called in to explain the matter there appeared a tweet admitting the inauthenticity of the said post which was later deleted.

Likewise, AFP has to change its photos after confessing to using wrong ones in releasing Rakhine region news.

Although the confessions were made about the false information and images, they have already damaged the image of the government, the security forces and the people.

Sharing or distribution of the information and images on the social media networks pages should be carried out only after carefully checking their authenticity. People should be aware of the false news and images spreading on the social network.

Myanmar News Agency

Ref; The Global New Light of Myanmar