A post is viral on social media claiming that French President Emmanuel Macron made comments that Europe needs to gear up to take nearly 60 million refugees over the next 20 years from Africa and the Middle East.
The claim originated from a screenshot that appeared as a BBC News tweet. The post was first shared by a user named Cornelis Kees Cramer on April 18.
FB User Made Claims With a Screenshot
Cramer shared the screenshot, which resembled that BBC tweet made on April 12 stating that "France's President Macron tells re-election audience, 'Europe needs to be prepared to take up to 60 million refugees, over the next 20 years, from Africa and the Middle East,' as he warns that sanctions on Russia are leading to economic collapse in Africa, which imports vast amounts of Russian wheat."
The claim was widely shared on social media and was easy to believe as a media organization had shared it.
BBC Responded Over The Incident
But when contacted, the British company denied that it made any such post and claimed that although the post resembles the BBC news, it's not their tweet and article.
"This isn't a BBC article and we encourage audiences to visit the BBC News website if they're unsure if a story is real," BBC told Lead Stories.
After noticing the post, it appeared that either the first user of other users would have taken a screenshot of the original tweet made by the BBC and pasted their fabricated content in half of the part of the screenshot to spread rumors.
It becomes very easy to spread rumors or false stories through any picture or screenshot, which resembles that the claim was made by a verified user of any media organization. Users believe on those stories or information, which are shared by the verified user or any reputed organization.
