Beirut (AFP)
Shortly after the deadly explosion that hit Beirut, a lot of false information flooded social networks, fueling in particular the conspiracy theories around this accident.
A double explosion - the second was the devastating one - on August 4 in the port area of Beirut, where a huge amount of ammonium nitrate was stored, devastated the port and buildings for miles around, causing of the Lebanese capital a disaster city, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The pictures show apocalyptic scenes. On social networks, some have been diverted for the purposes of disinformation, which thrives in particular thanks to the number of questions that persist more than a week after the tragedy.
- A missile attack? -
A video of the drama in which a missile is clearly visible in the sky is presented as evidence of an Israeli attack. According to our checks, this rocket was inserted by a mount. Many identical videos had previously been broadcast without any missiles.
A second extract showing the fall of a missile at another site in the port is presented as "filmed by a thermal camera". It's wrong. A filter was applied to the video and a missile was inserted a posteriori during the editing to make believe, again, an air attack.
Through these publications, Israel is often pointed out as being at the origin of the disaster. To support this idea, other publications show a short video of drones dropping an unidentified object, claiming that the scene took place at the port of Beirut moments before the double explosion.
This video was not tampered with but it is older, unrelated to the explosion, and was already circulating on the internet.
The excerpt actually shows, according to several Lebanese media, the incursion of Israeli drones into southern Lebanon a few days earlier.
At the same time, a photo of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holding a map of the Lebanese capital and claiming that it indicated the location of the port of Beirut has been propagated on the web.
The photo, true, dates from September 2018 and shows Mr. Netanyahu during the United Nations General Assembly, where he denounced "secret sites" of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement. The area he pointed out is near Beirut airport, about ten kilometers from the site of the powerful explosion.
- Hijacked or faked images -
The huge explosion razed the port and caused extensive destruction in several neighborhoods, leaving at least 171 dead and more than 6,000 injured, according to the Ministry of Health. It also dug a 43-meter-deep crater, according to a Lebanese security source, citing assessments made by French pyrotechnics experts.
But, among the photos really showing the damage, some have been hijacked or erased.
An image of several dozen burnt-out "imported cars" was actually taken in China after a chemical warehouse explosion in 2015.
The photo of a crater widely disseminated as being that of Beirut in fact shows the damage of this industrial explosion in the province of Hebei, in eastern China.
In addition, among the images illustrating demonstrations of support for Lebanon, some are the result of a montage such as those of the Egyptian pyramids and the clock in Tunis illuminated in the colors of the Lebanese flag.
After the tragedy, the Lebanese demonstrated to denounce a crisis caused, according to them, by a corrupt political class.
Prime Minister Hassan Diab presented the resignation of his government on July 10 to appease the streets. But the population remains mobilized, demanding the appearance in justice of those responsible for the tragedy and demanding accountability for the negligence of the State.
ks-jat-joy-sc / bag / elm / gk
© 2020 AFP