A social account with more than 100,000 "followers" recently posted with the Associated Press as the "source" that the Chinese ship refused to rescue foreign ships in the Red Sea, attacked and smeared China, and instigated relevant countries to confront China, but this rumor was immediately refuted by multiple authoritative sources. In fact, the Associated Press didn't have that report at all.
x"A rumor post posted by the account Megatron.
An account with more than 100,000 "followers" called "Megatron" said on the social platform "X" (formerly Twitter): "AP breaking news!The Chinese ship refused to assist the Israeli cargo ship in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and ignored their cries for help. "The post was also accompanied by a **ship**.
The post was quickly debunked. An authoritative source in the Chinese Navy told Xinhua that this was "false information and malicious hype."
It is worth mentioning that the social **"x" user added a note under the post, saying, "This news has not been reported by the Associated Press and seems to be fictional." In addition, the picture accompanying the post was taken in Cambodia in 2016. ”
At the same time, Xinhua posted on social platforms, including Facebook and "X", saying that the rumor had been confirmed to be fake news, which was praised by netizens.
A rumor-refuting post posted by Xinhua News Agency's official "X" account.
Megatron's fake news caused a huge controversy on social media after its release, with more than 3 million views. Some accounts that have long held a negative attitude towards China have also taken the opportunity to attack China.
Megatron is an anonymous account that claims to focus on breaking news about geopolitics and armed conflicts. For some time now, the account has frequently reported information about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and gained huge traffic and attention. The account has no original information, and it is difficult to distinguish the authenticity of the information.