The portal Infomax.mk on 18.03 published a news headline: WE WILL REMAIN WITHOUT ANY BREAD: We have stocks of wheat for 26 days, trucks are loading and carrying it to Kosovo. The journalist refers to his sources, claiming that a truck with Kosovo license plates has a load of wheat that he exports out of the country. In addition, the text states that the country will lack flour in 26 days, without exposing any argument for such a claim.
The F2N2 team contacted the Ministry of Economy, which sharply denied the news, and sent an appeal to the media to be more cautious, especially in this situation that the country is facing.
“Some media reported today that trucks with Macedonian wheat are exported to Kosovo and that we have stocks for only 26 days. I want to recommend all such media outlets that spread false news that they should be ashamed, especially in this crisis in the country, caused by the Coronavirus. I appeal to all citizens that we have sufficient reserves of wheat and flour, and we have additionally adopted a decision to ban export to other countries. There are controls and inspections out and our borders are secured. I’m reminding you that the publication of fake news according to the Government’s decision is punishable by law. I appeal to the media not to publish fake news that causes panic among the citizens in this crisis”, reads the reaction of the Ministry of Economy.
This text is a misinformation that is also shared by the portals Kurir.mk and Markukule.mk. This misinformation, besides causing panic in the society, aims to cause interethnic intolerance.
Below we will show you how and where the misinformation is shared on the social network Facebook.
The claims made in this post on Think.mk are not supported by scientific facts.
Fact checkers Snopes.com on 14.03.2020 has already caught this misinformation. And colleagues at CriThink on March 16, 2020, were checking the scientific facts that intercept this manipulation.
The Ministry of Health is repeatedly emphasizing that citizens should be informed from official sources. In this regard, they urge the citizens to seek all the information on their website that is available and is constantly updated with all the details related to COVID-19 (coronavirus).
The misinformation posted on these 3 portals is shared on 33 Facebook pages. According to their number of followers, it has reached a maximum of 2,135,231 potential followers. The range, or parameters, of news activity ranges from 42,704 to 138,790 followers.
(Please refer to the note at the end of the text about the Facebook algorithm for the calculation of the range)
Note: The Facebook algorithm or the researches related to the range (Organic reach), shows a percentage of 2% (for groups larger than 500,000 followers) up to 6.5% (for groups with less than 500,000 followers). For the purposes of this analysis, the range from 2% to 6.5% was taken. Considering the popularity of Facebook in the Republic of North Macedonia as well as the number of profiles registered on this social network, it can be confirmed that the above percentage is much closer to 6.5% than to the minimum of 2%.
The CrowdTangle tool was used to determine the range.
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