A roundup of some of the most popular but completely wrong stories and visuals of the week. None of this information is legitimate, even though it has been widely shared on social media. The Associated Press verified them. Here are the facts:
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Elon Musk and others spread meme reviving baseless ‘pizzagate’ conspiracy theory
CLAIM: An expert who debunked the ‘pizzagate’ conspiracy theory has been jailed for possessing child sex abuse images.
THE FACTS: A former ABC reporter mentioned in a meme circulating online was recently sentenced to federal prison for such crimes, but he never investigated “pizzagate.” The long sleeper conspiracy theory — which claimed that members of the Democratic Party were harboring child sex slaves at a Washington, D.C., pizzeria — has been relaunched online in recent days, spurred by prominent social media users including Elon Musk. The unfounded rumor was popular among Republican Donald Trump’s supporters during his victorious 2016 presidential campaign and even led a North Carolina man to travel to Washington and fire a gun. a local pizzeria Or He thought children were reduced to slavery. Musk and others shared a meme referencing the TV series “The Office,” claiming the conspiracy theory is “real,” involved “child trafficking” and that an expert who debunked the theory ” just went to jail for child pornography.” In a follow-up post on his social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, the tech billionaire linked to a story about the September decision of former ABC reporter James Gordon Meek for possessing and transporting child sexual abuse images, implying that the Virginia resident is the expert referenced in the meme. Musk’s posts have since been deleted. But the false connection comes from an image of a fabricated New York Post headline that has spread online in recent months. “Award-winning ABC journalist who ‘debunked’ Pizzagate, pleads guilty in gruesome child pornography case,” reads the headline over an image of Meek. The newspaper made no comment, but a search of its website archives did not show any such story and the title image does not match the style of the media. ABC News spokespeople did not respond to messages seeking comment, but a review Online network records show that Meek never published an investigation into “pizzagate” while he was employed there. A story from 2017, it co-written on Russian propaganda during the war in Syria only briefly mentions the conspiracy theory. Instead, many media at the time, including CNN And The New York Times, denied the rumor. Meek, who covered national security issues until his resignation last year, was sentenced to six years in federal prison after pleading guilty to possessing child sexual abuse images.
— Associated Press writer Philip Marcelo in New York contributed to this report.
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Trump falsely cites ‘duplicate’ ballots in disputed Georgia county as evidence of voter fraud
CLAIM: A recent court filing revealed that 3,600 “duplicate” ballots were cast for Biden and counted illegally in Fulton County, Georgia, during the 2020 election.
THE FACTS: A state review of the county’s audit of the 2020 presidential race found errors and inconsistencies in vote counting, including double counting of ballots, but those errors did not were not considered criminal and were not sufficient to change the results of the election. . Nonetheless, former President Donald Trump continues to cast doubt on the court filing in Georgia’s Fulton County as he seeks to return to the White House amid myriad legal cases, including election interference charges in the Peach State. “Fulton County, Georgia, acknowledges in a major consent decree that 3,600 individual ballots were DUPLICATED,” the Republican wrote in a post on his social media platform Truth Social. “IT’S A LOT OF CRIME. When will the rest of the facts be revealed? We are all waiting. This is just the beginning. INCREDIBLE!” In a video widely shared on other platforms, Trump made similar comments and called it “massive voter corruption.” Trump’s messages refer to a June Consent Order which found that Fulton County election officials “misidentified and duplicated” voting results during the state-mandated audit for the 2020 election, which was a hand recount results of the presidential race. “In fact, there were no crimes,” Jessica Corbitt, a spokeswoman for the Fulton County Board of Elections, responded in an email this week. “The consent order addresses procedural matters, but there have been no accusations or admissions of criminal activity.” The order identified 36 inconsistencies in batch tally sheets for the audit, but found they were due to “human error” and not “intentional misconduct.” It also found that they did not impact the final election results because they represented a “fractional number” of the votes cast. The purpose of the risk mitigation audit was to confirm whether the results of the original tabulation were accurate, which the audit confirmed,” the order reads. The county agreed to take corrective action to prevent problems from recurring, according to the order. These policies and procedures were put in place in time for the 2022 elections. The court filing further states that it represents a “civil settlement” without “criminal ramifications” and does not constitute an admission of guilt or liability of the from Fulton County officials. Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia, pointed out that the Georgia election results were counted three times in 2020: the initial election day count, the audit of the hand count and a final recount by voting machine requested by the Trump campaign. Three times, Biden prevailed. “It’s misleading to claim this is fraud,” Bullock said by phone. “Were there any mistakes?” Yes. But they weren’t malicious. Corbitt, the Fulton County spokesman, declined to respond directly to Trump’s claims, but pointed out that the county’s elections have been subject to extensive scrutiny outside of the audit investigation and that no fraud had been identified. Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung claimed audit errors suggest more than 4,000 “false votes for Joe Biden” were counted. “These errors coming from one county, in one voting category (mail-in votes), certainly could have impacted the results, given that no other county or voting category was verified,” he said. he wrote in an email. Cheung did not respond to requests for clarification on the figures he cited. Trump and 18 other people face charges in Georgia, including participating in a massive scheme to illegally try to keep Trump in power after his defeat in 2020. Four people have pleaded guilty after reaching deals with Georgia prosecutors. The other 15 have pleaded not guilty and no trial date has been set.
— Philippe Marcelo. ___
Video of West Bank fighting does not show Doctors Without Borders doctor giving man gun
CLAIM: Video shows a Doctors Without Borders doctor in the West Bank city of Jenin take an assault rifle from a man lying on the ground and hand it to a nearby man who begins shooting.
THE FACTS: The man identified as a doctor in the video does not belong to Doctors Without Borders, which works only in area hospitals, a spokesperson for the organization told The Associated Press. He wears an orange vest with the letters “PMRS” under a yellow circle which corresponds to those worn by members of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society. In the video, the man runs toward a person lying face down on a city street as people scream and gunshots are heard around them. He takes a gun from the person, runs a few meters and hands it to another man who starts shooting while the man in the orange vest takes cover. “In this video taken today in Jenin, a Doctors Without Borders doctor went to the home of a terrorist who was shot by the IDF, picked him up and took his weapon and then took it to another terrorist” , we can read on Instagram. But Médecins Sans Frontières, known in French as Médecins Sans Frontières, confirmed that this was not the case. “The person depicted in the video is clearly not wearing an MSF logo or any other MSF-related identification,” Brienne Prusak, a spokeswoman for the organization, told the AP in an email. “MSF staff do not wear orange vests as seen in the video. Our staff around the world are required to wear MSF identification (T-shirt, equipment) because it is one of the main protections we have: our medical identity and our credibility. Indeed, the man’s vest matches those worn by members of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, which works in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. A photo on the group’s Facebook page shows a worker wearing the same type of vest, clearly marked with the PMRS logo. On the other hand, a photo on Médecins Sans Frontières shows on website members of his staff wore white vests with the organization’s red and white logo on the back. It’s unclear whether the man in the video actually works for PMRS or is simply wearing one of the group’s vests. PMRS did not respond to a request for comment. According to Prusak, Doctors Without Borders does not work in the areas of Jenin where the online video was filmed. The fighting took place on a street in front of a Western Union office and a bakery with a white awning. The same stores can be seen in a video tour of Jenin posted to YouTube in 2020. They appear on the left side of the video around 5:08. “In Jenin, MSF supports the emergency room of the Ministry of Health hospital and supports pre-hospital emergencies,” Prusak wrote. “Our MSF team in Jenin does not provide outpatient services. We don’t treat people outside, in the street. She added that the distorted video “incites violence and poses a serious threat not only to MSF staff but also to all humanitarian workers in the region.” Violence in the West Bank, particularly in Jenin, jumped amid the fighting of the last war between Israel and Hamas.
