Russia's anti-fake news site mocked online
Source: BBC
Russia's anti-fake news site mocked online
By Adam Robinson
BBC Monitoring
23 February 2017
Russia's foreign ministry has launched a website to debunk fake news, but some social media users critical of the government are unimpressed by its lack of evidence.
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Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the site would collect "fake news of leading western media", and provide primary sources and facts countering them.
However, it currently contains nothing but screenshots of news items with a big red "fake news" stamp, a link to the original story, and, in each case, the words "This article puts forward information that does not correspond to reality."
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The foreign ministry site doesn't explain what is allegedly wrong in each of the stories, and many social media users have been struck by the basic approach. Most dedicated fact-checking sites, such as Snopes and Politifact, dissect suspect stories in detail before reaching a verdict.
"We at (the foreign ministry) have invented the fastest way to debunk 'fake' news, we just say it's fake without proving it," says the Soviet Sergey Twitter account, which parodies Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
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Read more:
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-39065825
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