Sudanese Users Mistrust Al Jazeera After Publishing a Misleading Tweet
The Claim
Al Jazeera Mubasher's tweet claimed the Bahri Districts Committee’s support for the ongoing military coup in Sudan.
News posted on
Emerging story
On October 25, 2021, the Sudanese people awakened to a military coup led by the Head of the Sovereignty council, General Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Al-Burhan. Al-Burhan, the Commander-In-Chief of Sudanese Armed Forces, announced the dissolution of the transitional government and arrested High-ranking government officials, including Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok. The country has entered a phase of instability, as millions of Sudanese citizens occupied the streets protesting against the military coup. Reporting those events, Al Jazeera Mubasher posted on its Twitter page a statement allegedly issued by the Bahri Districts Committees (BDC). The tweet demonstrated the Bahri committee’s support for the procedures undertaken by General Al-Burhan.
Photo shows a screenshot of AJ Mubasher Now's tweet claiming the support of BDC for the Military coup.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar’s investigation revealed that the statement published by AJ Mubasher Now is false. The tweet included misrepresentation of the Bahri Committee’s statement by erasing one crucial phrase. The word ‘’rejects’’ was deleted from the statement and therefore changed the whole objective from demonstrating a rejection to showing support for the military coup. AJ Mubasher Now reposted the tweet after correcting the mistake. A correction that came after the tweet triggered a wave of criticism of AJ by Sudanese users. The BDC stressed its rejection of the military coup on Twitter while stating that AJ Mubasher is spreading fake news.
Photos show tweets of BDS debunking the news published by AJ,
Also, On its official Facebook page, the BDC posted a screenshot of AJ Mubasher's false tweet accompanied with a statement that AJ Office apologized and ascribed the problem to a ‘’Typing Error’’. Although, no official comment regarding the issue was made on AJ Mubasher's platform.
The photo shows a screenshot of a post on the BDS Facebook page revealing that the AJ office corrected the tweet and apologized.
Photo shows a screenshot of the tweet after being corrected.
Nevertheless, despite correcting the false tweet, a sense of distrust towards AJ prevailed among Sudanese users.
Photo shows a screenshot of users commenting on AJ Mubasher's false tweet and calling for the one who published it to be held accountable.
