False News
False News
When Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 went missing on Saturday, 8 March 2014 the airline was unable to provide information about its' location, the cause of the incident, or the reason for no communication and no distress call.
When the Malaysian, Vietnamese and Singapore governments initiated a search of the South China Sea in the vicinity of MH370's last known location, but failed to find any evidence of a crashed aircraft, the scale of an information void increased.
When the Malaysian Air traffic controllers explained that the aircraft disappeared from secondary radar, meaning that the 'blip' on their screens disappeared, and the media interpreted that as the entire aircraft disappeared, the expanding information void started to be filled by speculation and 'conspiracy theories'.
As it became known that the aircraft continued to fly for about six hours after contact was lost, and could have flown on either a northern or southern route termed corridors, there was speculation that it landed in Afghanistan, or that it landed at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
After residents of an atoll in the Maldives reported seeing a low-flying jet aircraft with (possibly) Malaysian colours various reporters, authors, blog writers and others propagated the idea that these people saw MH370, so the aircraft either crashed or was ditched somewhere near the Maldives, or was flown to the military base at Diego Garcia where it was either shot down, or landed and was hidden.
In addition to all of this information, rumours spread via social media, and some news media even created articles that were just fabricated.
Some of those false news stories are indexed below using several Categories. The categories of false news are defined here and summarised in the Table below.
False News Categories
Definitions
| Type of False News or Category |
Source | Intentional | Deliberately Harmful |
Comments |
| Rumour | Unknown | No | No | Typically propagated via social media |
| Misinformation | Known | No | No | Although the source may be official or credible, the content contains, or is based on, incorrect information. |
| Disinformation | Known | Yes | Yes | Despite being false, inaccurate or potentially harmful, the source (typically News Media) publishes the content anyway. |
| Fake News | Known | Yes | Yes | Fake news is typically fabricated but presented as if it is credible. |
| Conspiracy Theory |
Known | Yes | No | Whilst conspiracy theories often spread on social media, Media-published versions are often identified as a conspiracy theory but with headlines that act as click-bait. |
False News Articles (Indexed by Category)
False News content related to Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is indexed from several Categories for the Type of False News.
Rumours
Misinformation
Disinformation
Fake News
Conspiracy Theories
Some false news articles have been assigned to one of three stages of flight MH370:-
Pre-Flight
Mid-Flight
End-Of-Flight
News Correction
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) published media statements to Correcting the Record as a response to false news, misinformation and journalist bias. These statements and similar content have been indexed by the Category Correcting the Record, a sub-category of MH370 News Corrections.
Two-Minute Phone Call
This story alleged that shortly before take-off the Pilot-in-Command, Captain Shah, received a call on his mobile phone. The caller was allegedly a woman who purchased a pay-as-you-go SIM card from a shop in Kuala Lumpur and used a false identity. The Royal Malaysia Police dismissed the article as mere speculation. The article is analysed in detail here and while it is obviously fabricated and false it is was republished many times and adds to the propaganda about the Captain.