© ReutersViolent opposition protests last month.
The Venezuelan opposition has been skillfully using Twitter and Facebook to disseminate horrifying photos and testimonies of alleged government violence and abuse against protesters over the last few weeks. The problem with these allegations and images which have gone viral globally, and even used by media outlets, is that they are fabrications; many of the most viral photos allegedly from Venezuela have actually depicted images from places such as Syria, Chile, Brazil - and even a US-based porn site.
"Initial, inaccurate information will be retweeted more than any subsequent correction," wrote Craig Silverman, journalist and founder of the blog Regret the Error, for the Poynter Institute in
a post in 2010. Silverman's insight reveals the dangers, often ignored, about the use of Twitter and social media as a news source, as well
as a tool for liberation and uprisings.
Comment: Again we see that Western governments and institutions were managing facts on the ground and the public's perception of those facts, before during and after the coup d'etat in Ukraine, throughout the course of which they were in close contact with the Ukrainian coup plotters - both the formal opposition and the hired thugs on the streets.
It's absolutely disgusting how these Eurocrats and Bureaucrats in Washington and Brussels talk democracy while actively subverting it.
Have they no shame?
Apparently not.