Ultimately, far greater skepticism is required when reporting on the claims of Warren Kinsella. He is, in my opinion, an unreliable narrator, and this article demonstrates the validity of that view.
Dear Jan Murphy,
I'm writing because I noticed factual errors in a recent article, "After Belleville attack, Kinsella speaks at Queen’s about Hamas disinformation."
The article states, "Within minutes of the attack, while Hamas was still in Israel, thousands of bots on social media were ramped up, disinformation and propaganda landing with hundreds of millions on platforms worldwide — not so much convenient selection of facts or even conflations and distortions, but fabrications, whole-cloth fictional narratives."
However, this is wrong on a couple of levels.
First, the claim isn't attributed. The allegation originates from an Israeli cybersecurity firm, Cyabra. This ought to be mentioned, as it should raise flags for the reader about potential bias.
Second, as reported by the BBC, Cyabra considered any account "fake" that used a pseudonym. Here's what BBC wrote: "'Fake' in this context can mean they are automatically operated - but others could also be run by real people posing under false identities." As such, it cannot be said that "thousands of bots" carried out this campaign, because that cannot be fairly concluded from the Cyabra claims. It's also an unreasonable standard, as a massive quantity of profiles online use fake names, and that doesn't make their claims all somehow insincere. Given the punitive culture around criticizing Israel that has emerged in many countries, it is unsurprising that many people would fear using their name for fear of retribution, not only criminally, but for their employment. Even in Canada, there are many such examples of people losing their jobs for criticizing Israel's actions online.
There is an additional factual error. The author references a "Harris poll in the almost immediate wake of the Oct. 7 attacks that found 70 per cent of the Gen Z demographic support Hamas." However, this is again inaccurate in two ways as well.
First, this is not what the Harris poll found. The poll found that among 18-to-24-year-olds, 52% supported Israel and 48% supported Hamas.
Second, it ought to be noted that the Harris Polls are notoriously controversial and, in my view, unreliable. The Harvard Crimson published an editorial calling out its methodological flaws and calling for Harvard to stop lending its name to an organization with a "right-wing political agenda."
Ultimately, far greater skepticism is required when reporting on the claims of Warren Kinsella. He is, in my opinion, an unreliable narrator, and this article demonstrates the validity of that view.
I am requesting that an editor's note be added to the article and that corrections be issued.
Regards,
Jason Toney
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