Fake News had a party on Sunday, as police and protesters clashed for more than three hours in Psarades and Posideri, Northern Greece, while Greece and FYROM officials were signing the Macedonia Agreement.
The most stirking Fake News was the one based on unfounded rumors that a “woman first fell in coma and then died” during the clashes in Posideri.
Somebody posted the “fake news” on Facebook saying that during the clashes, people was shouting through megaphones that a woman was killed. The fake news producer added a picture of a woman lying on the ground.
Without further research several local media and news websites adopted the fake news and the picture and made posts nothing that the protester “lost her life after being chased by police.”
The Fake News spread and spread and new rumors like “a child,” or “two women” were killed by police during the clashes.
Local authorities like the Regional Governor of West Macedonia, Theodoros Karypidis, dismissed the claim as “fake news. Also local police said there were no dead protesters.
The website EllinikaHoaxes (Greek Hoaxes) that investigates rumors, fake news and hoaxes posted in Greek, revealed that the picture of the woman was copy-pasted from a foreign website and it was furthermore photo-shopped. Copycats had also removed bystanders and large part of the picture that was showing a park somewhere on planet Earth but certainly not Posideri.
The fake news was picked up by some far-right ex politician who fiercely attacked the government.
The second fake news with regards to the clashes claimed that police used rubber bullets. Footage showed a man with a deformed finger….
Greek police is not equipped with rubber bullets, though.
Now more and more Greeks demand on social media that the prosecutor intervenes and investigates by whom and to what propaganda purpose this misinformation was produced and circulated.
On Sunday, the clashes on the mountain reminded scenes from a “guerilla war” and lasted for more than 3 hours.
According to police, 7 protesters and 10 police officers were injured.
Four protesters and eight policemen were taken to hospital where they treated for minor injuries and released, the hospital director said, according to local media.
This Macedonia name BS has sure been a great diversion from from Greece’s real problems. And has all this possibly resolved any of former FYROM’s (former former) claims on Greek territory?