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On Monday, April 15th, French medieval catholic cathedral Notre-Dame de Paris caught fire. Flames engulfed the Parisian landmark, causing its spire to collapse. The blaze which devastated large parts of the 850-year-old church was likely an accident, French investigators revealed. However, reports on the fire took an anti-Muslim turn that was filled with fake news and misinformation.
Social media was a platform for several fake tweets and posts on how the Notre-Dame fire is linked to Muslims and terrorism. A social media campaign took over the internet, spreading fake content that allege the blaze was an «act of terrorism». According to a story by American news platform Buzzfeed News, it all started because of a «misleading tweet».
A Tennessee politician and commentator called Christopher Hale said on Twitter that a friend of his was told by the staff of the cathedral that «the fire was intentional». Ten minutes after posting his tweet, Hale deleted it, realizing that it was «incorrect», Buzzfeed News reports.
Baseless links and fake Twitter accounts
Hale’s tweet, however, went viral on social media and was shared and quoted by netizens. The tweet of the Time columnist attracted the attention of English conspiracy theorist Paul Joseph Watson, who wrote an article, linking the Notre-Dame fire to «anti-Christian attacks in France» and the supposed «rise of attacks against Jewish symbols».
Hale later said that he «regretted» having tweeted that, saying : «I think what’s remarkable about it is how quickly an innate desire to blame the clear accident in Paris on the Muslim community took a life of its own from a tweet that was up for 10 minutes».
Misleading content on the fire did not stop there, but was shared by fake Twitter accounts, pretending to be CNN and FoxNews. «Several fake accounts using the logos of news organizations including CNN, BuzzFeed and FoxNews falsely tweeted that the Notre-Dame fire was an act of terrorism», Observers France24 wrote on Tuesday.
A fake tweet of FoxNews had even quoted a fake tweet of Muslim congresswoman Ilhan Omar. The fake account claimed that Omar said «they reap what they sow», referring to the Notre-Dame blaze. The fake accounts were removed from Twitter.
During the same week, an edited video went viral on social media, showing the burning church and the voice of someone who is shouting «Allahu Akbar». According to BuzzFeed News, the people shouting in the video in question were yelling «'allez, en avant'", which in French means 'go on, move along'».
Meanwhile, other social media users alleged that Facebook accounts with Arabic names have been reacting to videos of Notre-Dame’s fire with smiley emojis.
