2022 is going away and it’s time for retrospectives. We’re not going to lie to you, it was a year rich in emotions, but also and above all in news. It began on a Thursday morning in February with the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Hundreds and hundreds of images of wounded civilians, dismembered bodies, but also calls for solidarity.
In France, we also had our share of twists and turns, particularly between the presidential campaign in the spring, the forest fires in the summer and the energy crisis in the winter. Among these seasons of events, none has been able to escape the gusts sent by social networks, otherwise known as fake news. Against all odds, our Fake off service has tried to find the most accurate information. With modesty, we have therefore decided to reward our most outstanding surveys during the first (and surely last) Golden Fake Off ceremony.
From our correspondent on the Twittosphere,
ladies and gentlemen (we say it in English because it has more panache),
Welcome to the Gold Fake off ceremony. What better place than the Twittersphere to meet at the end of the year. If there is one that made us vibrate this year, it is her. False images, videos taken out of context, deliberately mistranslated sounds… What a year! We even almost ended the year with the post-Musk explosion of Twitter, but no, the social network remains intact for the moment. Phew. It could have cost us our job…
Without further ado, we are going to reward our most outstanding debunkages of the year. They were surprising, funny, vigilant, vexing sometimes. Some were moving and even very gripping for our journalists. Enough suspense, here are our nominees according to ten categories defined by the Academy of Fake off (it’s just us, but we were told that we had the right to be a little pompous).
- The most emblematic investigation
At the end of February, the Ukrainian town of Boutcha (near kyiv) was the scene of sordid clashes. A few weeks later, Ukrainian soldiers retook the city and discovered dozens of corpses, believed to be civilians. Videos of the massacre are beginning to circulate, especially on the Telegram platform.
This same beginning of April, a Ukrainian media publishes a video of the corpses. The bodies in question would move, accuse many Internet users who suggest that these civilians are only actors. During our investigation, we scrutinized the twenty seconds of video. Result: the action of the bodies was essentially due to the movement of a drop of water and to the vision distorted by the windshield of the moving car.
- The survey that raises the most fear
Sometimes the fake news echo certain legitimate fears. Vaccination is one of them. Often accused of being the cause of side effects, the vaccine was suspected in July of changing the rh of our blood group. According to Internet users, this modification would change with the second dose of the vaccine against Covid-19. Information very quickly denied by the French Blood Establishment, with 20 minutes.
- The most amazing survey
A category that is not easy to separate as the information we process is always full of imagination. But as we had to make people jealous, we chose to reward the investigation into the shortage of treatment for diabetes.
In October, many Internet users warned of the difficulties encountered when purchasing their diabetes treatment. Ozempic, a necessary drug for diabetics, was out of stock due to the promotion by some influencers of a product beneficial for weight loss. The product was even promoted by Elon Musk.
When writing, we first thought it was a joke. But no, the producing laboratory assured 20 minutes that Ozempic had indeed experienced a 40% increase in demand.
- The event that almost knocked us out
It happened in November, when the long autumn days returned: the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. We saw it coming. For example, at the end of September, we had already had to check the statements of a consultant who was too present in the media and who claimed that there had been as many deaths on the La Défense sites as in Qatar.
However, the arrival of the Football World Cup will have surprised us all the same by the number of fake news that she takes with her. We will have seen everything: the assertion that the supporters could not stay in Qatar after their elimination, or the idea that the supporters were under increased surveillance. Still others claimed that the stadiums in Qatar were going to collapse.
- The event whose images were the most manipulated
At the beginning of October, during the protests in Iran after the death of Mahsa Amini, many images circulated to show the courage of women and the anger of the Iranian people. However, some massively relayed videos have sometimes been diverted. This is particularly the case with this moving video of a father dancing on his daughter’s grave. According to the video, the woman would have died during the disputes and this just before her marriage. Except that the video was from a series broadcast a few years ago in Azerbaijan.
The image war was all the more striking when the images of Hadis Najafi, a young demonstrator killed during the protests, were broadcast. Having become the symbol of the revolt, the young woman was given images that ultimately did not represent her.
- The coined term of the year
In September, after the presidential campaign, Eric Zemmour pulled a new term out of his hat: that of “Francocide”. Although he explains that he contests the term “feminicide”, he is inspired by it and tries to recover it to transform “into political fact” various facts that the French would suffer. However, according to the three experts we interviewed for our article, the word has no historical, legal or political value.
- The fake off that makes a splash
It is also difficult to tackle 2022 without talking about climate change. In particular, there were the fires in Gironde in the summer which motivated some Internet users to conspire around ecological projects which would be the source of the problem. But not only.
In May, we were particularly interested in carbon bombs. But what is it? They designate the largest fossil fuel extraction projects, whose potential emissions would exceed 1 gigatonne of CO2 over their operating life. According to a survey by the NGO Reclaim Finance, 24 projects involve TotalEnergies. Four of them are incompatible with the recommendations of the International Energy Agency.
Being often accused of “wokisme”, as much to invent a price for him. So what better investigation than that into Amazon’s betrayal of Tolkien’s work, The Rings of Power ? As soon as the first episodes aired, the presence of black actors in the cast exacerbated Tolkien’s fans. However, in the universe of the writer, there already existed “a very great diversity of colors of skin, hair and eyes”, explained to us then Vincent Ferré, professor of general and comparative Literature at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University. (Paris 3).
- The finest shortcut
How can we talk about the year 2022 without mentioning the refiners’ strike as the All Saints’ holidays approach? On social networks, Internet users have questioned the legitimacy of TotalEnergies employees to strike when they are already well paid. Using a press release published by the company, they pointed to the gifts made to the employee, following the negotiations. Except that many confusions have been noticed, especially in the difference between median and average salary.
For this category, difficult to decide between them. The fake news are as tough as the variants of Covid-19. Fortunately, the Academy whispers in our ears that we have the right to ties. What a relief !
How to miss this off-putting intox which estimates the heritage of Jean-Luc Mélenchon at more than two million euros. However, we have scrutinized the declaration of public assets of the ex-candidate for the presidential election and nothing mentions such a sum.
- The honorary fake off, for his entire career
Of course, we should not forget the Covid-19 figures which for three years have been constantly called into question. Recently, Internet users have suggested that the figures for hospitalizations and deaths linked to Covid-19 are completely false. The Commission for access to administrative documents (Cada) would have, according to them, estimated that there were no figures. The notice has been published, but it has been somewhat misappropriated.
Thank you for following this wonderful ceremony and we’ll tell you see you next year!