Fake photos of Amazon fire go viral. How much can we trust the media?
Have you seen tweets of the Amazon Rainforest?
Both Leonardo DiCaprio, French President Emmanuel Macron and many public figures have all asked the public to pay attention to this issue, with the #PrayForAmazonia Hashtag. There is a wildfire raging through the Amazon, but the photos that were sent in a trending twitter storm, were recently found to be photos from two separate events. Neither of which, were of this year’s Amazon Wildfire.
Panic spread just as quickly though, spilling into economics and politics. Despite the questionable authenticity of the photos.
Whether intentional or unintentional, in an post-truth era where disinformation is abundant, careless use of unverified photos and information to encite reaction may come to define how the world comes to view media as a whole.
Environmental reservation will always be issues of concern to us, but facts should be facts. We must not disseminate unverified information and the information should be traceable easily despite what potential awareness it might bring to our environmental causes.
The photo isn’t of the Amazon, but the fire is very much real.
Disasters such as this should not be used to manipulate or push a political agenda. And in fact, the exposure of unverified information affects the credibility of the source and public perception of the issue.
The ability to verify and trace where your information comes from is the ethos that we strive towards. If its not verified, truth vs alternative facts will just become another matter open to interpretation.
