Six Easy Ways to Tell If That Viral Story Is a Hoax
“And so it begins … ISIS flag among refugees in Germany fighting the police,” blared the headline on the Conservative Post;
“with this new leaked picture, everything seems confirmed”. The image
in question purported to show a group of Syrian refugees holding ISIS
flags and attacking German police officers.
For those resistant to accepting refugees into Europe, this story was
a godsend. The photo quickly spread across social media, propelled by
far-right groups such as the English Defence League and Pegida UK. At the time of writing, the page claims to have been shared over 300,000 times.
The problem is, the photo is three years old, and has precious little to do with the refugee crisis. In fact, it seems to be from a confrontation between members of the far-right Pro NRW party
and muslim counter-protesters, which took place in Bonn, back in 2012. A
number of news outlets tried to highlight the hoax, including Vice, the Independent and the Mirror, as did numerous Twitter users.
But news in the digital age spreads faster than ever, and so do lies
and hoaxes. Just like retractions and corrections in newspapers, online
rebuttals often make rather less of a splash than the original
misinformation. As I have argued elsewhere, digital verification skills are essential for today’s journalists, and academic institutions are starting to provide the necessary training.
