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Tag - fake-news

 
 

FAKE NEWS

The X account of Gen. Hiroaki Uchikura, 
chief of staff of the Defense Ministry's Joint Staff
51³Ô¹ÏÍø
Jul 19, 2026
Japanese officials open X accounts to counter China¡¯s cognitive warfare
In light of Russia¡¯s invasion of Ukraine, the SDF recognizes the importance of addressing cognitive warfare, which is conducted through disinformation.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump attend a meeting on the sidelines of their visit to the Zhongnanhai Garden in Beijing on May 15.
WORLD
Jul 16, 2026
White House weighs releasing controversial intel on China and U.S. elections, sources say
U.S. President Donald Trump may disclose the intelligence, which was collected and analyzed during his first term, in a speech that he is set to deliver on Thursday night.
The Upper House on Monday passed a bill to establish a new disaster management agency and legislation aimed at curbing the online spread of election-related misinformation and defamation.
51³Ô¹ÏÍø / Politics
Jul 13, 2026
Upper House passes bill to set up disaster management agency
Bills aimed at curbing the spread of election-related misinformation and defamation on social media and the internet were also passed on Monday.
Sudanese women gather for a hot meal in al-Rahmaniyah camp for displaced people, near the city of El-Obeid in the southern Kordofan region of Sudan on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 8, 2026
Misinformation inciting harm to refugees, UNHCR says
Artificial intelligence is exacerbating the spread of such misinformation and hate speech, according to the U.N. refugee agency.
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, during a welcoming ceremony before talks at the Kremlin in Moscow in May 2025.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 25, 2026
Scarier than fiction: ¡®The Wizard of the Kremlin¡¯ comes to life
The objective is not to promote authoritarianism directly, but to corrode the trust that sustains democratic societies and international cooperation grounded in rule of law.
A supporter holds a flag calling for unlimited constitutional powers for Russian President Vladimir Putin, as he stands near the State Historical Museum and the Kremlin wall in central Moscow on June 23.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 24, 2026
Russia¡¯s Wiki warfare tries to distort reality, documents show
Russia¡¯s ¡°Project 2026¡± wasn¡¯t just to spread misinformation on social media ¡ª its main goal to create an alternative information ecosystem.
The greatest threat to the American republic is not any particular conspiracy but a paranoid political mindset that increasingly views opponents as agents of vast and sinister plots.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 17, 2026
U.S. politics is reaching peak paranoia
The paranoid style begins with a simple proposition: The world is divided between good and evil.
A revised election law under consideration would stipulate that "social media users must not harm the fairness of elections" through false statements or factual distortion.
51³Ô¹ÏÍø / Politics
Jun 14, 2026
Japan eyes responsibility of social media users during elections
The government expects to get the legislation enacted during the current parliamentary session ending in July.
A giant screen shows Chinese leader Xi Jinping meeting U.S. President Donald Trump in Beijing on May 14. China distorts narratives portraying Japan as a military threat while similar dynamics in the U.S. erode truth and accountability.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 3, 2026
Defending democracy from the global war on reality
From Beijing to Washington, the very concept of objective truth feels unattainable
Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Ichiro Aisawa (right) addresses a meeting of a cross-party council on election campaigning held in a parliamentary building on Thursday.
51³Ô¹ÏÍø / Politics
May 15, 2026
Japan to order social media operators to combat misinformation in elections
Actions expected to be taken by social media operators include halting reward payments to users and improving their capacity to respond to content deletion requests.
There are no approved vaccines or known cures for the hantavirus, which is usually spread from infected rodents and can cause respiratory and cardiac distress as well as hemorrhagic fever.
WORLD / Science & Health
May 9, 2026
Hantavirus scare revives COVID-era conspiracy theories
The misinformation resurged even as the World Health Organization insisted there was minimal risk to the general public from passengers of the MV Hondius.
Authorities are concerned that the spread of baseless information in the case of Yuki Adachi, whose father was arrested after the boy's body was found this month, could impede police investigations.
51³Ô¹ÏÍø / Crime & Legal
Apr 25, 2026
Kyoto police warn of misinformation in case of arrested father and dead boy
Authorities are concerned that such baseless information circulating on social media could impede their investigation.
Immediately after a magnitude 7.7 quake off the Sanriku coast of northeastern Japan on Monday, many posts on X claimed the temblor was artificial.
51³Ô¹ÏÍø
Apr 23, 2026
Misinformation spreads on social media after northeastern earthquake
Many posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, claimed that the temblor was artificial.
A giant screen broadcasts news showing Chinese President Xi Jinping shaking hands with Cheng Li-wun, chairperson of Kuomintang, Taiwan's largest opposition party, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on April 10.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Apr 17, 2026
China¡¯s information war turns Taiwan¡¯s own voices against it
Taiwan¡¯s defense ministry said it is countering a massive increase in Chinese ¡°cognitive warfare.¡±
A young boy wearing an astronaut costume cheers next to a woman waving a flag as they watch a live broadcast of the return of the Artemis II crew members to Earth at the San Diego Air and Space Museum during a watch party for the crew's splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, in San Diego on Friday.
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 11, 2026
Artemis II lunar mission draws flood of conspiracy theories
Hashtags such as ¡°fake space¡± and ¡°fake NASA¡± have gained traction online since NASA¡¯s lunar fly-by sent astronauts farther from Earth than any human before.
Texas State Rep. James Talarico, who won the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate in the Texas primary election, greets supporters after speaking at his victory party in Austin, Texas, on March 4.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 30, 2026
AI deepfakes blur reality in 2026 U.S. midterm campaigns
Politics experts worry such videos could leave voters confused, or even deceived.
Around 44.0% of survey respondents said they used newspapers and magazines as well as television and radio programs to confirm the authenticity of information.
51³Ô¹ÏÍø
Mar 7, 2026
Nearly 70% of Japanese suspect disinformation is spreading online
The result suggests that concern about the manipulation of information by foreign countries is growing in the country.
A spokesperson for Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said her office is aware of suspicious foreign social media accounts that have posted content related to Japan's elections.
WORLD
Feb 26, 2026
Chinese influence operations target Japan poll and Trump: U.S. foundation
The 35 accounts pushed corruption allegations and portrayed Takaichi as illegitimate and militaristic.
A university survey has found that about 80% of voters who encountered false information spread during the campaign for the Feb. 8 general election perceived it as true.
51³Ô¹ÏÍø
Feb 18, 2026
Survey finds false info perceived as true by many voters in Feb. 8 election
The online survey was conducted by Toyo University professor Morihiro Ogasawara from the night of Feb. 8 to Feb. 10.
Some AI-generated content is easy to spot as fake and is marked as such, but others are convincing enough that anyone scrolling through social media could easily be misled.
51³Ô¹ÏÍø / Politics / FOCUS
Feb 7, 2026
In Japan, generative AI takes fake election news to new levels
Leaders of a new Japanese political party unveil a logo that features China, a candidate campaigns in freezing weather wearing tank tops and grannies vent in public ¡ª or do they?

Longform

For many people, utility poles and power lines have become such a familiar part of Japan¡¯s landscape that they often go unnoticed.
Why Japan¡¯s utility poles won¡¯t be disappearing anytime soon

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