The emblematic investigation, the most manipulated image, the indestructible fake news… these are the golden fakes of “20 Minutes”.
It’s 2022 and it’s time for retrospectives. We won’t lie to you, it’s been a year full of emotions, but also, and above all, news. Thursday morning in February began with the beginning of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. The sight of hundreds and hundreds of wounded citizens, dismembered corpses simultaneously calls for solidarity.
In France, especially between the presidential election campaign in the spring, the forest fires in the summer and the energy crisis in the winter, we have also had our turn. Among these seasons of events, none has been able to escape the winds sent by social networks. fake news. Against all odds, our Fake off service has tried to find the most accurate information. Humbly, we’ve decided to reward our most outstanding requests during the first (and certainly last) Golden Fake Off ceremony.
From our Twittosphere correspondent,
ladies and gentleman (we say it in English because it hurts more),
Welcome to the Gold Fake Dismantling Ceremony. What better place to hang out at the end of the year than the Twittersphere. If anyone is giving us chills this year, it’s him. Fake pictures, videos taken out of context, deliberately mistranslated voices… What a year! We even almost ended the year with Twitter’s post-Musk implosion, but no, the social network remains intact for now. wow It could have cost us our job…
Without further ado, we’re going to reward our most outstanding debunks of the year. They were surprising, funny, alert, sometimes nervous. Some of them were moving and even very attractive for our journalists. Enough suspense, here are our nominees for the ten categories identified by the Fake Off Academy (it’s just us, but we’re told we’re entitled to be a little pompous).
- The most iconic study
At the end of February, the Ukrainian city of Butcha (near Kyiv) became the scene of violent clashes. A few weeks later, Ukrainian soldiers retook the town and discovered dozens of bodies believed to be civilians. Especially on the Telegram platform, videos depicting the massacre begin to spread.
At the beginning of April, the Ukrainian media published a video of the corpses. The authorities in question will act, blaming many netizens who suggest that these civilians are only actors. During our investigation, we scrutinized the twenty-second video. The result: the movement of the bodies was essentially due to the movement of a drop of water and the vision impaired by the windshield of a moving car.
- The most dreaded query
Sometimes fake news reflects certain legitimate fears. Vaccination is one of them. The vaccine, often blamed for side effects, was suspected in July of altering the rh of our blood type. According to netizens, this change will change with the second dose of the vaccine against Covid-19. The information was quickly denied by the French Blood Organization 20 minutes.
- The most amazing survey
A category that is not easy to separate because the information we work with is always full of imagination. But because we have to make people jealous, we decided to reward research into the lack of a cure for diabetes.
In October, many Internet users warned of the difficulties they faced when purchasing diabetes care. Ozempic, a necessary drug for diabetics, was out of stock due to the promotion of a product beneficial for weight loss by some influencers. The product was even promoted by Elon Musk.
At first we thought it was a joke when we wrote it. But no, the producing laboratory assured 20 minutes Ozempic actually 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 to check the testimony of a consultant who already had too much media presence and claimed that there were as many deaths in the La Défense sites as in Qatar.
But the arrival of the Football World Cup will surprise us all fake news that he takes with him. We’ve seen it all: the claim that supporters can’t stay in Qatar after being eliminated, or the idea that supporters are under increased surveillance. Others claimed that the stadiums in Qatar would collapse.
- The most manipulated event
During the protests in Iran after the death of Mahsa Amin in early October, many images of the courage of women and the anger of the Iranian people have been shared. However, some mass-streamed videos are sometimes redirected. This is especially true of this moving video of a father dancing on his daughter’s grave. According to the video, the woman would die during the arguments and before marriage. In addition, the video was from a series broadcast in Azerbaijan a few years ago.
The image war gained even more attention when footage of Hadis Najafi, a young demonstrator killed during the protests, was released. A young woman who became a symbol of rebellion was ultimately given images that did not represent her.
- Worked period of the year
In September, after the presidential campaign, Eric Zemmur pulled a new term out of his hat: “Francocide.” Although he explains that he disputes the term “femicide”, he is inspired by it and tries to recover it in order to turn the various facts that the French will suffer into a “political fact”. However, according to three experts we interviewed for our article, the word has no historical, legal or political value.
- A leapfrog fake
It’s hard to face 2022 without talking about climate change. In particular, there were fires in Girona in the summer, which prompted some Internet users to conspire around environmental projects that would be the source of the problem. But not only.
In May, we were particularly interested in carbon bombs. But what is it? They identify the largest fossil fuel production projects with potential lifetime emissions of more than 1 gigaton of CO2. 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.
He is often accused of “wokisme”, he invents a price for it. So what better way than to explore Amazon’s betrayal of Tolkien’s work? Rings of Power ? As soon as the first episodes aired, the presence of black actors in the cast further inflamed Tolkien’s fans. Vincent Ferre, professor of general and comparative literature at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University, explained to us that in the universe of the writer there was already “a great variety of skin, hair and eye colors” (Paris 3) .
- The most beautiful shortcut
With All Saints’ Day approaching, how can we talk about 2022 without mentioning the processors’ holiday? On social networks, netizens questioned the legality of TotalEnergies employees going on strike when they are already well paid. Using the press release published by the company, they pointed to the gifts given to the employee after the negotiations. In addition, many confusions were observed, especially in the difference between average and median wages.
It is difficult to decide between them for this category. The fake news there is As severe as the variants of Covid-19 are. Good thing the Academy is whispering in our ear that we have the right to wear a tie. What a relief!
How can you miss this delightful indulgence that has valued Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s legacy at more than two million euros. But we have carefully examined the state property declaration of the candidate for the presidential elections, and such an amount is not mentioned.
- Honorable fraud, for his entire career
Of course, we should not forget the Covid-19 figures, which have been in question for three years. Recently, Internet users have suggested that the numbers of hospitalizations and deaths related to Covid-19 are completely false. The Commission on Access to Administrative Records (CADA) would estimate that there are no figures for them. The notice was published, but somewhat appropriated.
Thank you for watching this wonderful ceremony and we will see you next year!
