Russian 'fake news' machine going mad, says French envoy to U.S.

Authored by reuters.com and submitted by stone_dog

PARIS (Reuters) - France’s envoy to the United States on Tuesday accused Moscow of spreading fake news after Russia’s Defence Ministry said a French frigate in the Mediterranean had launched missiles on Syria.

FILE PHOTO: French Ambassador to the U.N. Gerard Araud addresses the Security Council during a meeting about the situation in the Middle East, including Palestine, at United Nations headquarters in New York, July 22, 2014. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

The ministry initially said a Russian military plane had been shot down by Israeli warplanes and that Russian air control radar systems had detected rocket launches from the French frigate Auvergne.

The ministry later said the aircraft had been shot down by Syrian anti-aircraft systems in what President Vladimir Putin said was the result of tragic and chance circumstances.

“Russian fake news machine getting mad: accusing the French to have shot down a Russian plane (in fact victim of a Syrian « friend(ly) » fire),” France’s ambassador to Washington, Gerard Araud tweeted, in English.

French army spokesman Patrik Steiger denied that France had been involved in the incident or fired any missiles but several hours later Russian media continued to ask the question.

Quoting a military expert, Tass news agency said Paris was partly at fault after launching cruise missiles from the Auvergne.

France’s presidency, Foreign Ministry and Defence Ministry had yet to respond officially to the Russian assertions.

hazbutler on September 18th, 2018 at 19:24 UTC »

Has anyone made an "Idiots guide to spotting fake news"? It should be mandatory viewing/reading.

Boozeberry2017 on September 18th, 2018 at 17:50 UTC »

yeah it was weird a few months back most of live leaks trolls just went on break. now they are back in full force. Its great seeing "mericans" attack Canada PM with meme's. like yeah no merican cares about Canada that much to meme their PM

HillbillyPartySloth on September 18th, 2018 at 16:02 UTC »

This is spot on. When you see reddit usernames like "AdjectiveNoun(PreeningAntelope, DedicatedHillbilly) with negative karma and a short life, that's what these are. A lot of them are 4m old lately, I assume they started them in preparation for the midterms.

It's not hard. If someone says something provacative or hard to believe, just check their history. Easy to distinguish fakes from actual users.

Edit: I have never had a post explode like this. I am simply asking all users to think critically and use the damn melon on your shoulders to decide what is real and fake for yourself.

For those of you commenting that my un is in fact the type I point out, YES. EXACTLY LIKE THAT. Use your brain! Decide for yourself if someone is worth listening to.

u/JollyGreenLittleGuy made a tool:

!FrequentedSubreddits

That is awesome for seeing at a glance someone's recent history and posting it. Thanks bud!

Update: the bot above seems to need more testing. I am gonna PM the author, see if he can work it out. In the meantime, the UN it posts under is

u/CommonSubredditBot

If you want to check of it worked.