QAnon conspiracy theory on the social networks in North Macedonia
On December 2nd, 2020, the following disinformation was shared on the social network Facebook:
“Gina Haspel, the CIA director, was wounded in a military operation to seize the dominant server for voting fraud, on her way to Guantanamo, she confessed to absolutely everything and gave information about everyone involved.”
The disinformation was shared on the Facebook profile of Tyson Mike, who is already known for sharing conspiracy theories and other disinformation.
CIA Director Gina Haspel was not wounded, nor was there any military action to take over the server. The Bosnia and Hercegovina fact-finding service raskrinkavanje.ba has already exposed this disinformation in its analysis published on December 1st, given that the same disinformation was shared in the region.
According to their analysis, the disinformation about Gina Haspel’s arrest is an upgraded version of an already exposed allegation that the US military allegedly took over the servers of Scytl and / or Dominion in the German city of Frankfurt, published by the Associated Press (November 15, 2020). This allegation is part of a widespread and unfounded theory that Dominion’s voting machines deleted or altered Donald Trump votes in the November election.
Both the Army and Scytl told the AP that the claim was not true. Asked by the Associated Press if the Army was involved in an operation to return the servers to Germany, an army spokesman said: “These allegations are false.” At the same time, Scytl did not have offices or servers in Frankfurt, Germany, and the CIA is based in the United States (in the state of Virginia).
In addition, the allegations of Gina Haspel’s injury, her transfer to Guantanamo and later to another location, do not make sense, as none of the above happened in Frankfurt, Germany.
The CIA’s official website, in the section on press releases, does not contain any information about the alleged arrest of the director of this intelligence agency, nor were there any announcements on the official Twitter account of this agency, according to the analysis of Raskrinkavanje.ba.
Disinformation spreads quickly and easily on social networks and this is a global problem. Taking posts / photos of certain foreigners is an attempt to manipulate the public to present disinformation as an alleged truth. And that manipulation is obviously successful, given the large number of interactions. F2N2 has already written about the activities of the owner of the Facebook profile who shared this disinformation. Therefore, be careful what you believe and what you share.
