{"id":3123,"date":"2019-04-06T19:34:21","date_gmt":"2019-04-06T19:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.syyhoaxanalyzer.com\/?p=3123"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T17:00:00","slug":"Were-70-Christians-Massacred-by-Muslims-in-March-2019?","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.syyhoaxanalyzer.com\/?p=3123","title":{"rendered":"Were 70 Christians Massacred by Muslims in March 2019?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nDisinformation<\/a>
\nFact Checks<\/a>\n<\/div>\n
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Were 70 Christians Massacred by Muslims in March 2019?<\/h1>\n

A text-based Facebook post claimed that 70 Christian Nigerians were killed after the Christchurch massacre, and that the mainstream media ignored it.<\/h4>\n
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\"Kim<\/a><\/p>\n
Kim LaCapria<\/a><\/span>March 29, 2019<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\n\"yesterday_muslims_killed_70_christians_nigeria\"
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Claim<\/h3>\n
On March 18 2019, “Muslims marched into a college in Nigeria, separated out the Christian students and killed them. 70 dead.”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Reporting<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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On March 19 2019, a Facebook user shared<\/a> the status update below (archived here<\/a>), claiming that 70 Nigerian Christians had been massacred by Muslims one day previously:<\/p>\n

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Yesterday, muslims marched into a college in Nigeria, separated out the Christian students and killed them. 70 dead.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Ten days later, the status had been shared tens of thousands of times. However, its comments did not include any citation or link to a news article providing details about the purported massacre.<\/p>\n

The popular and far-reaching post was an example of text-based status updates<\/a>, which have already proved to be \u00a0a common and pernicious tool for spreading disinformation and misinformation. In previous weeks, similar status updates contained claims \u00e2\u20ac\u201d for example \u00e2\u20ac\u201d that new IDs in Chicago<\/a> enabled undocumented immigrants to vote, that United States President Barack Obama had settled 70,000 Somali refugees<\/a> in what would become Rep. Ilhan Omar’s district in order to get her voted into office, and that a voting access bill<\/a> allowed undocumented people to vote.<\/p>\n

In early March 2019, journalism school Poynter published an article<\/a> \u00a0about the proliferation of falsehoods or shaky mixed truths in the popular Facebook status update format:<\/p>\n

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But since [the format was introduced], like other formats on Facebook, the text post feature has been weaponized into an effective way to spread misinformation on the platform.<\/p>\n

Over the past few weeks, some of the most viral hoaxes on Facebook have spread in the form of text posts. They make salacious political claims without linking to any website or attaching a photo or video. They often come from regular Facebook users instead of Pages or Groups.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

A classic element of misinformation in the example above was its use of “yesterday” as a marker of chronological relevance; rumors that purportedly occurred “yesterday” often spread in perpetuity thanks to their perceived relevance. A search of Twitter revealed that the same claim continued circulating about “yesterday” more than a week after the initial post was published on Facebook:<\/p>\n

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Yesterday, muslims marched into a college in Nigeria, separated out the Christian students and killed them. 70 dead. @MSNBC<\/a> @maddow<\/a> @cnn<\/a> @Acosta<\/a><\/p>\n

— Choad Starfighter (@ChoadStarfight1) March 28, 2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n