🔴Fake News Networks Are Back in Action!

🔹Earlier this year, we uncovered networks dedicated to spreading fake news. These groups reach out to Facebook pages, sending them photos of random people or friends, falsely claiming they’ve been kidnapped. Later, they themselves deny the story, pretending to “debunk” the rumor.

🔹Such fabricated stories are then amplified by certain disreputable Syrian and Western media figures, known to receive Qatari funding, with the goal of distracting attention from real sectarian kidnappings and killings happening on the ground. By doing so, they become complicit in the bloodshed and real crimes that take place every day.

🔹One example involves a young girl named Rimas Aliyo and a man named Azzam al-Abdo. In both cases, neither we nor human rights monitors reported anything, as we confirmed the stories were fake. The girl’s aunt, who lives in Germany, appeared in a video denying the kidnapping and claiming all such reports are false. A quick look at her Facebook page, however, shows she regularly posts “debunks” of incidents in Syria, raising serious questions about her real role in spreading misinformation.

🔹Most of the pages falling for these fake reports are small accounts with fewer than a thousand followers. In the case of Rimas Aliyo, the fake story appeared only once, on a personal page of another young woman.

🔹We urge everyone to verify news through credible sources, such as human rights monitors and trusted journalists known for documenting violations. We personally verify every story before publishing it.

🔹Attached are screenshots of conversations with members of these fake news networks who tried to get in touch with us to spread false reports, including in the last image, the personal account of a young man working with them from Turkey.