It is false that the sheet of S.Paulo has published a tweet with the title “Can the absolution of the young white supremacist in the USA encourage Brazilian Pocketists to shoot indiscriminately against peaceful demonstrators in Brazil?”. A montage that circulates on Facebook simulates content using the logo and username of the São Paulo vehicle on Twitter.
Below the montage’s title, verified by Project Prove, is a photo of Kyle Rittenhouse, a young white man who was innocent after killing two protesters at a protest against racism in Wisconsin, USA, alongside an image of President Jair Bolsonaro (non-party). ). Below is the website address of the sheet and what would be an explanation of the supposed report: “Sociologist claims that members of the MST and MTST are at risk of life because of…”, even so, with reluctance. There is no link to any other content.
In a quick query on the newspaper’s website and on Twitter, via TweetDeck, it is possible to verify that nothing in this regard has been published. Contacted by Comprova, the sheet stated that he had not published any text with this content or tweeted the content in question.
The report tried to contact three Facebook pages that shared the content, but got no response until this text was published. The post was found to be false because it uses fabricated information.
How do we check?
The first step was to do a search for the title that appears in the fake content on the website. sheet. Then, to confirm that there was no text with that information posted on Twitter, the same search was performed on TweetDeck.
The article got in touch with three pages that published the montage —@analisespoliticasda Esquerdabrasileira, @osshibumi and @paulobatistasp—, but none of them responded.
To contextualize the case of the young man who was acquitted, research was carried out on press websites.
Verification
the fake tweet
Simulating a post from sheet on Twitter, the content verified here invents a text title that the newspaper did not publish. In addition, the image shows the link to the vehicle’s website, but, unlike what happens in the newspaper’s social networks, it is not possible to click on the address that appears in the montage.
A sheet nor did he refer to Rittenhouse as a supremacist. There are 17 articles about him on the newspaper’s website, always describing him as “young white” and “teenager”.
Or case
Kyle Rittenhouse was 17 years old when he was arrested, after killing Joseph Rosembaum and Anthony Huber during an anti-racist rally taking place in the city of Kenosha, USA, in August 2020. A third person was shot, but was taken to the hospital, managed to survive.
In November last year, he was released from detention after posting $2 million bail. The defense claimed that Rittenhouse acted in self-defense. Rittenhouse responded for being a minor in possession of a firearm, something that is prohibited in Wisconsin, and also for murder.
More than a year after the episode, in November 2021 the jury acquitted the accused. The youth’s lawyers said he was “repeatedly attacked and shot in fear of losing his own life.” Now 18, Rittenhouse cried after the verdict and collapsed to the floor before being helped back to his chair.
The case ended in court after more than three days of deliberations and hearings that offered different perspectives on Rittenhouse’s actions on the night of the crime.
protests
Kyle’s acquittal sparked a wave of protests in the United States. After the verdict, dozens of protesters occupied the outside steps of the court where the session that acquitted the teenager was taking place. During the night, they took to the streets to protest.
Political figures such as former US President Donald Trump praised the jury’s verdict, saying the trial “was no more than a radical left witch hunt.”
On the other hand, President Joe Biden said the decision left him “angry and worried” but urged calm from the portion of the American population that took to the streets to protest.
Why do we investigate?
In its fourth phase, Comprova checks suspicious content that has gone viral about the pandemic, public policies of the federal government and elections. The content checked here had at least 3,000 interactions as of November 25th. Two shares had become unavailable for viewing, which is, according to Facebook, because “the owner only shared with a small group of people, changed who can see it, or it was deleted.”
By inventing that the sheet, one of the main newspapers in the country, would have published such content, the post encourages attacks on the newspaper —and, consequently, on the press— by falsely suggesting that the vehicle is campaigning against the president’s supporters. Several comments show that the pages’ followers understand that the sheet it would be crossing ethical limits with the supposed content. “You have to be arrested (for) writing a lying story”, “Is this journalism? It’s disgusting to read such a thing” and “It’s each one! RIP, Brazilian journalism”.
The same content was verified by the Aos Fatos agency. And Comprova has already checked other pieces of disinformation that, following Bolsonaro’s line, attack the press, such as the post that invents that invents that Lula is a shareholder in sheet.
False, for Comprova, is content that has been invented or has been edited to change its original meaning and deliberately disclosed to spread a lie.
Comprova performed this verification based on information available on the 25th November 2021.
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