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Fake News War Divides, Confuses in Hong Kong

Agence France-Presse

   Chinese tanks at the border? False. Photo of a protester biting off a
   policeman's finger? Misleading. In polarized Hong Kong, a fake news
   fight for public opinion has become as crucial a battleground as the
   city streets.
   During weeks of pro-democracy protests that have involved millions of
   people and frequently turned violent, online rumors and conspiracy
   theories have sowed confusion and deepened distrust.
   From 2011 footage of South Korean soldiers misrepresented as an
   impending Chinese "invasion" to doctored photographs exaggerating the
   size of rallies, Hong Kong citizens have been bombarded with
   conflicting claims from both sides of the political divide.
   The numbers signaling the impact of the disinformation can be shocking.
   Footage of a convoy of Chinese tanks that posts claimed were being sent
   "to suppress Hong Kongers and cause bloodshed" quickly racked up more
   than 800,000 views on one Twitter account alone.
   Hong Kong authorities have been forced to repeatedly deny claims
   circulating on social media -- most recently, that People's Liberation
   Army (PLA) soldiers had been brought in from the mainland to defend
   government buildings.
   "There is absolutely no such thing and all these claims are totally
   false," Hong Kong's government said this week, responding to the
   allegations.
   Police have also been the target of much fake news, including a video
   debunked by AFP that purportedly showed officers shooting a woman in
   the face.
   "The spreading of numerous rumors about police operations will drive a
   wedge between the Hong Kong Police and community," the force told AFP
   in a statement.
   'Deep-rooted' divide
   Videos and images of protests or violent incidents, often selectively
   edited or doctored to support a particular viewpoint have circulated
   quickly on social media platforms, but also private chat groups such as
   on Weibo or WhatsApp.
   In these closed environments, entrenched ideas are rarely challenged by
   facts, according to journalism professor and fake news expert Masato
   Kajimoto.
   "The rather simple, one-sided views expressed in such content makes it
   harder to reconcile the difference," between Hong Kong's warring camps,
   Kajimato told AFP.
   While a lot of disinformation originates and spreads on social media or
   chat groups, the mainstream press is also guilty of fanning the flames,
   according to Kajimoto.
   "The excuse that journalists are simply reporting about what people are
   sharing and discussing is a cop-out," he said, pointing to a widely
   reported recent conspiracy theory that claimed a policeman's watch
   proved a press briefing was staged.
   "In this age of misinformation and disinformation, the news media
   should not report anything they haven't independently verified."
   Journalists themselves have complained of pressure to make events fit a
   certain narrative.
   This month, the staff union for Hong Kong's public broadcaster claimed
   reporters were instructed to spread misinformation about a protester
   using pliers to sever a police officer's fingers.
   The channel has said it is investigating.
   China's state-run media is a driving force behind discrediting
   pro-democracy events, according to lawyer Rachel Lao, who is a member
   of a pro-democracy legal group.
   "The Chinese Communist Party is skilled at creating confusion among the
   public in China and shaming any such movements," Lao told AFP.
   But she said the bombardment of state-sponsored disinformation may have
   the opposite effect from what Beijing intends.
   "Because the news is so obviously fake to Hongkongers, they are now
   very skeptical of any news they receive," she said.
   'Too much information'
   Jeffrey Ngo, a pro-democracy activist, said the sheer volume of
   conflicting and false news circulating online left people confused.
   "In a world with too much information, what is real and not real is
   very tricky (to determine)," Ngo said, adding this may work better for
   authorities and the city's pro-Beijing camp.
   "It ultimately plays well for those in power, when ordinary people
   decide not to seek truth because they think it's so hard to figure out
   what is true and what isn't," he added.
   Dedicated fact-checking services, run by independent or mainstream
   media groups, have emerged in recent years across the globe.
   AFP's own Asia Fact-Check service has debunked more than a dozen false
   or misleading claims about the Hong Kong protests, published in
   English.
   Some local independent media organizations have also published
   Chinese-language fact-check reports about the protests.
   However Hong Kong has yet to see the kind of strong fact-checking
   culture emerge as seen in India and Indonesia over recent years.
   Suspicion and doubt, in the meantime, is filling the vacuum.
   "There isn't neutral, reliable media that can build a bridge between
   the two sides and win the trust of both," Phillis Zhu, a mainland
   Chinese student living in Hong Kong, told AFP.
   "Actually, media is causing the conflicts."