Real vs. Fake News
Mingalabar! Welcome to Than Lwin Times’s Real vs. Fake News program.
The fake news circulating on social media about the people’s revolution movement since the military coup will be checked and identified through the Real vs. Fake News program.
Today, the rumor “AA is taking away the rice illegally seized from farmers in north of Maungdaw to their camp,” will be checked.
This story has surfaced on social media through the Telegram account of military lobbyist Ko Thet since December 16.
The story reading, “AA confiscated rice from farmers in the north of Maungdaw, using the villagers as porters, and forced them to send the rice to their AA camp in Ngamyinbaw (Khami) village, Buthidaung Township,” was circulated online with images.
Than Lwin Times checked the photos and posts disseminated by fake accounts of junta supporters and found that it was just propaganda.
In actuality, soldiers from the Arakan Army (AA) assisted in harvesting the locals’ rice fields. These images show AA soldiers and members of the United League of Arakan helping for timely harvest of ripe rice from fields in some of Rakhine State’s townships.
Since the owners of these rice fields are fleeing the conflict, it is not easy to come and harvest by themselves, so AA and ULA members have started harvesting rice from November 26, 2022, in cooperation with the local people, said Khaing Thukha, the spokesperson for AA.
The military supporters took screenshots of the video file posted on Khaing Thu Kha’s Telegram channel and have spread the story as if AA was illegally confiscating rice from farmers.
Therefore, the story circulated by army supporters on social media saying “AA is taking away the rice illegally seized from farmers in the north of Maungdaw to their camp” is just fake news.
Than Lwin Times