Tag: misinformation

Photo: Screenshot from the edited video According to the investigative media Bellingcat, QAnon is a conspiracy theory falsely claiming that the former American President Donald Trump has been fighting a long time to defeat “Satanists, pedophiles, the deep state and the cabal” (frequently used terms in the narratives of the promoters). Although Trump is no longer the President and the...

The disinformation is directed against our Euro-Atlantic orientation; in particular, since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, North Macedonia is target of disinformation whose aim is to incite anti-Western sentiments among the citizens of North Macedonia and to promulgate hazy alternatives for the EU and NATO. Due to its potential to undermine the strategic orientation, the disinformation...

Meta.mk, under the cooperation agreement with fact-checking service Truthmeter.mk republishes its latest assessment about a viral media manipulation affecting the US and North Macedonia: Conservative US commentator and a long time media figure, owner of The Blaze media network Glenn Beck published a tweet containing a snippet of his interview with the Arkansas senator Tom Cotton. Here is the tweet (Source:...

A post on Facebook, without any scientific evidence and facts, is trying to convince the people that if they get a vaccine against COVID-19, their blood count will worsen. This is one of the posts on Facebook that are part of the anti-vaxxer campaign, informs Truthmeter.mk. Shocking! The people who have taken a "V" have a worsened blood count! A...

Facing the data from numerous public opinion polls and analyses which indicate that the public opinion is shifting away from the mainstream media toward the Internet, mostly to the social networks, and that more and more people are influenced by the social networks and become encapsulated within their own echo chambers or groups of people they share their opinions...

A manipulation about the coronavirus and the COVID-19 was made with the publication of a Facebook post written in Macedonian, with claims that the real culprit is not a virus, but a bacteria, but also that the disease can be treated with Aspirin only, writes Truthmeter.mk in its latest analysis. The author of this manipulation i.e. the disinformation that was...

Today, Facebook announced that together with the Metamorphosis Foundation and Truthmeter, will launch a third-party fact-checking program in North Macedonia. Besides our country, Facebook is launching this program in other countries in the region: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia, while the existing program in Croatia will be expanded. As part of Facebook’s fight against misinformation, the company is collaborating...

As the world is struggling to deal with one of the most far-reaching crisis in decades, and many aspects of regular life have been compromised around the globe, a certain group of people have been sharpening their swords, so to speak. Or typing more on their computers, while the crisis unfolds. COVID-19, a shortened denomination of 'coronavirus disease 2019', triggered...

Since the humankind’s first moment of awareness of its existence, it has been prone to abusing the communications for spreading gossip and, inevitably, lies. The renowned Israeli author and history professor Yuval Noah Harari argues in his book Sapiens: A brief History of Humankind that gossip is the foundation of our species' survival and stands as one of the main...

Η Τζαμάικα αναγνώρισε την ανεξαρτησία του Κοσόβου – είδηση η οποία χθες επαναλήφθηκε πολλές φορές από τα μέσα μαζικής ενημέρωσης του Κοσόβου, αλλά και της ευρύτερης περιοχής και μόνο μερικές ώρες αργότερα αποδείχθηκε ότι είναι αναληθής. Τα μέσα ενημέρωσης μετέφεραν την είδηση αυτή σχεδόν με τον ίδιο τρόπο, επικαλούμενα ανακοίνωση στο Twiter προφίλ του Κοσοβάρου Προέδρου Χάσιμ Τάτσι, ακολουθούμενη...

At the height of disinformation dissemination, journalists in Kosovo argue that reporting challenges throughout the region have increased immensely. The professionals argue that the media outlets who do not have physical presence throughout the Balkans should pay extra care to filtering the information they republish but should also be very cautious which media outlets' content they republish. The multiple award winning...

The fact-checking service Faktograf has reported on October 31 that the Ministry of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Crafts of the Republic of Croatia has given around 14.5 thousand dollars in subsidies from EU structural funds to the portal Dnevno.hr, “one of the leading producers of disinformation in  the Croatian media space.”  The money from the European fund for Regional Development  was granted for  redesign of their website...

RTL Croatia's journalist, Damira Gregoret, whose specialty is politics, is a reporter, news anchor and hosts political shows. Not long ago the Prime Minister of Croatia, Andrej Plenkovic, apologized to her for saying "You are so sweet Damira" instead of replying to her question he didn't like. What followed was a public apology to Gregoret. We talked with her about...

Robert Boteri, the Creative director of the Mladina magazine in Slovenia, has been for decades a part of this cult magazine, which in former Yugoslavia was renowned for its avant-garde content, most often with controversial subjects. In April this year, there was a diplomatic incident when Mladina published a front cover with a caricature of Hungarian Prime Minister Victor...

Ms Asya Metodieva is a PhD Candidate at Central European University (CEU), Budapest researching radical movements, with a focus on foreign fighter recruitment. Her policy paper “Russian Narrative Proxies in the Western Balkans”, which was recently published by the German Marshal Fund (GMF), explores the growth of anti-West/pro-Russia narratives in the Western Balkans by looking at the role of...

Theodoros Daniilidis is the founder, and Thanos Sitistas is the editor of “Ellinika Hoaxes”, the most famous website in Greece that debunks disinformation and fake news. It has been doing that in the past six years, since 2013. In the interview for “Meta.mk”, Daniilidis and Sitistas say that the Greeks are pretty prone to believe fake news, but also...

Ivan Georgiev is reporter and anchor of bTV, one of Bulgaria’s main TV stations. He has covered some of the leading international and regional events in the past few years,  Macedonia included to a large extent. Ivan is author of numerous short documentaries. In 2012 he was awarded with the World Press Institute Fellowship. He is also holder of several...

With the presidential elections in the Republic of North Macedonia fast approaching, the election campaign intensifies, as the scope of the disinformation promulgated in the public, formed into the so called “fake news”, increases. The term “fake news” is widely used nowadays, mostly to delegitimize news that is completely accurate, but disliked by the person classifying them as fake. Here,...

In Serbia, manipulation and misinformation on the part of pro-regime TV stations is part of everyday life. A major problem is the lack of information and the Government's intention to manipulate public opinion through its TV stations and discredit political opponents. Vuk Velebit is an author and researcher who explores Russian propaganda in Serbia's daily press. He has been examining...