Fake news is of all ages, one can speculate and go with the flow of accusations, but in the digital age one can easily cover his/her tracks and place the blame elsewhere. Its’a growing service industry and is always used in moments of war: military or political. The western world is in turmoil, the real world has morphed into a “make believe” world.
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Debunked: Was French candidate Macron’s campaign financed by Saudi Arabia? | France24 |
“Emmanuel Macron, Saudi Arabia’s choice of candidate in the French presidential election” declaimed an article [link in French] that was shared on Twitter on Wednesday March 2 by Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, an MP and niece of far-right candidate Marine Le Pen. Except that she fell hook, line and sinker for a perfect example of fake news. The web page is actually a perfect copy of the Belgian daily newspaper Le Soir — with a different URL.
The editorial team at French newspaper Libération were the first to call attention to the story. They are one of the many partners of FRANCE 24’s Observers team on the CrossCheck project, a joint initiative by a number of international news outlets in the fight against the proliferation of fake news.
Marion Maréchal-Le Pen wrote on Twitter, “30% of Macron’s campaign funded by Saudi Arabia? We demand transparency!” According to the article [link in French] published on the site lesoir.info, made to look like a wire story from French news agency Agence France-Presse, this information came from a tip given by a member of Belgium’s socialist party.
The politician’s tweet was shared over 200 times in the space of a few minutes, before being picked up by Twitter accounts supporting Marine Le Pen and the right-wing candidate François Fillon, as well as French alt-right and nationalist website Fdesouche.
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The website lesoir.info is a clone of the Belgian newspaper’s website, which has the URL lesoir.be. The clone uses exactly the same font, design, and page layout as the real newspaper, making it impossible to spot that it’s not the real thing at first glance. However, if you click on any of the links on the page, you will be redirected automatically to the newspaper’s real site.The domain for the clone site lesoir.info is owned by someone called “Donald Thomas “, who “lives” in Delaware in the United States.
Registrant Name Donald Thomas
Registrant Organization:
Registrant Street Apple st
Registrant City Wilmington
Registrant State/Province Delaware
Registrant Postal Code 19834
Registrant Country US
Registrant Phone +1.3024988320
Registrant Email donaldthomas8777@gmail.com
Do I believe the headline of diary? No!
Do I believe Donald Thomas is a real person? No?
Ever heard of doubting Thomas?
Love those fake news stories …
Continued below the fold …
Reply to @esquimaux:
WikiLeaks: CIA ordered spying on French 2012 election | ABC News / AP London |
A seven-page document made public by WikiLeaks purports to show that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency ordered its spies to gather information on the 2012 French presidential election. The document suggest that American spies wanted an insider’s take on the race, including details of party funding, internal rivalries and future attitudes toward the United States.
Although WikiLeaks’ publication of a purportedly secret CIA document was striking, the orders seemed to represent standard intelligence-gathering.
Tactless courtship—NSA’s espionage in France | The Hill – June 2015 |
On June 23rd, WikiLeaks unveiled a number of documents from the NSA’s “Espionnage Elysée” program, that demonstrated the NSA’s targeted espionage against high level French government officials, including ministers and three presidents of the French Republic. This espionage against U.S. allies is tactless and is likely to fray relations with U.S. allies and must be reformed.
This event has proven to be all too similar to revelations on the NSA’s spying on German Chancellor Angela Merkel for all the wrong reasons. In both cases, the NSA targeted the few individuals likely to condemn surveillance should they be targeted: heads of state and the highest levels of government.
The slogan on posters in Paris streets translates as “Yes We Can!” (Photo: The Independent)
Voters in France are vying for Barack Obama to become their next President, in a wild bid to bring about a “sixth Republic” in the French presidential elections this year.
A website and poster campaign launched on Monday, titled “Obama17”, calls on French people to make the “radical choice” of signing a petition asking that the former US President to run for the position of 25th head of state in the 2017 leadership race.
UPDATE-1 :: So today the fools in the kabuki theater here at the pond are still throwing 2’s around!! What a sad bunch of idiots. [March 3]
[In flagrant contradiction to Martin Longman‘s request to stop harassment of downratings, a specific group continues the bullying.
I will once again limit comments and look for timely posting of diaries. McCarthyism revived. 🙁 ]
