US secret service agents grinning after Trump assassination attempt? No, image altered
21 July 2024 – An iconic photo of secret service agents pulling Donald Trump to safety has been doctored. In the original, the agents weren’t smiling.
‘Pandemic’ post from ‘parody’ Cape independence X account, not South Africa’s Western Cape DA premier Alan Winde
18 July 2024 – Social media users have reacted angrily to an X post that suggests Alan Winde, the Democratic Alliance premier of the Western Cape, is a “new world order globalist”. But the post is just a clumsy parody.
No, US president Biden hasn’t given citizenship to 1 million illegal immigrants – new process only to ‘keep families together’
15 July 2024 – Some 500,000 noncitizen spouses and 50,000 noncitizen children are likely to benefit from the scheme, not 1 million. And they may only apply for permanent residence, not citizenship.
IEC commissioner arrested for decade-old graft – not for blowing whistle on ‘vote rigging’ in South Africa’s elections
5 July 2024 – Nomsa Masuku, one of South Africa’s four electoral commissioners, was arrested for fraud allegedly committed while she headed a charity a decade ago. The arrest, just weeks after the elections, had nothing to do with false claims of vote fraud.
Wikipedia edit war no proof that South Africa’s new home affairs minister Schreiber is a ‘Zimbabwean foreigner’
3 July 2024 – A Wikipedia edit changed Leon Schreiber’s nationality just 12 minutes after president Cyril Ramaphosa’s unity cabinet appointments were due to be announced. For the previous four years, the page had correctly put the new Home Affairs minister’s birthplace in South Africa.
Zero evidence video shows boxes of ‘hidden’, ‘uncounted’ votes cast in South Africa’s 2024 elections
18 June 2024 – False claims of election rigging are on the uptick across the world, from Nigeria and Brazil to Slovakia and, notoriously, the United States. These claims undermine democracy and people’s faith in their governments.
‘I’m not playing a man?’ No, US tennis champ Venus Williams didn’t refuse match against trans woman
14 May 2014 – The viral graphic gets a lot wrong. The photo on the left shows Serena Williams, not Venus. The photo on the right shows French tennis champ Amelie Mauresmo, who is not trans. And there’s been no credible report of the match.
No, migrants registering for Mozambique’s 2024 elections – not ‘imported’ to vote for South Africa’s ANC
26 April 2024 – Anti-migrant sentiment is a hot campaign issue, but the video only shows Mozambique’s electoral commission registering citizens living in South Africa to vote in their own upcoming elections.
Open public toilet installed by South Africa’s ruling African National Congress? No, photo snapped in opposition-controlled Cape Town in 2010
9 April 2024 – When Cape Town’s Democratic Alliance government erected uncovered public toilets in 2009 it sparked outrage and a lawsuit. In 2024 a photo of one is being used for disinformation in the run-up to elections.
Senegal’s new president Faye telling France to leave his country alone? No, old video of allied politician Sonko with English audio added
2 April 2024 – Bassirou Diomaye Faye has pledged to fight France’s “economic stranglehold” on Senegal. But the viral video of a man slamming the former colonial power been dubbed into English – and it shows Ousmane Sonko, not Faye.
Trump backs South Africa’s uMkhonto weSizwe Party? No, video dubbed
28 March 2024 – Former US president Donald Trump has not urged all South Africans to vote for the new political party in upcoming elections. The altered video was created with Parrot AI, a “celebrity voice generator”.
Little evidence that eight major South African opposition parties ‘stand with Israel’
18 March 2024 – It’s an election year in South Africa, and most political parties campaign mainly on local issues. Just two could be said to “stand with Israel”.
If you don’t vote in South Africa’s elections, your vote goes to the ruling party? No, only valid votes counted
5 March 2024 – A old online rumour that if a registered voter doesn’t turn up at the polls their vote “automatically” goes to the ruling ANC has resurfaced in another election year. But while a good voter turnout makes a better democracy, no democracy works that way.
Video of 2023 rally for Senegalese opposition leader Sonko – not 2024 protests against president Sall’s elections decree
16 February 2024 – The viral video was shot when Ousmane Sonko was facing trial, not after Macky Sall postponed Senegalese elections “indefinitely”.
Video of May Day march in Dominican Republic, not uMkhonto weSizwe Party supporters in South Africa
14 February 2024 – It’s being used to claim that the new party is South Africa’s “biggest”, but the clip actually shows Fuerza del Pueblo supporters in the Dominican Republic.
Video from DR Congo shows woman attacked for opposition vote, not for announcing ‘rigged’ election results
5 February 2024 – The woman stripped and beaten is not the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s elections commissioner. All she did was cast an unpopular vote.
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