The main public fund of the Swedish pension withdraw its investments in fossil fuels : this is the fake information released on Monday June 29 by the activist group Extinction Rebellion (XR), an action claimed the following day. XR was first released a press release to several Swedish media, with a link to a fake Web site that replicates perfectly the official website of public funds to Swedish. Two releases, in Swedish and in English, presented with the graphic charter of the site and well-written, describing the false information, the end investments in fossil fuels.
One of the activists contacted by Agence France-Presse for confirmation and details on the decision is even made to pass for the true spokesman of the funds AP7 Johan Florén, giving details accurate or credible to journalists. The funds usurped, who will file a complaint with the police, has condemned the action of " misinformation ", prepared by a cell at the Swedish environmental movement.
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" When misinformation becomes an ordinary method, with fake sites, fake news releases, and even people pretending to be someone else, it's not journalism that will suffer ", commented to the Agence France-Presse the real Johan Florén. "People are going to suffer. The citizens are going to drop it and stop trying to make informed decisions and democratic, when no one will know what is fake or not ", he said.
The apology of Extinction Rebellion
The Agence France-Presse has cancelled a news report based on the fake release when AP7 was denied the information. It " condemns without reservation this attempt is dishonest to manipulate the media with false information. This kind of action the free press is counter-productive and can only contribute to an erosion damaging the confidence, " responded his chief information officer Phil Chetwynd. The false news was to similar decisions taken by other funds, in Scandinavia and in the world. In march, AP1, fund brother of AP7, had announced its withdrawal from fossil fuels.
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Extinguishing the Rebellion has justified his action by the fact that he had "disseminated the press release that AP7 would have had to send "wishing well" to put under the spotlight these investments laughable and push AP7 to sell ". "We understand that we have caused confusion and we are sorry if some of you felt deceived. We have a great respect for journalism, and we never wanted to affect the trust in the media, " wrote the movement on the site used for the deception. "Anna ", an activist of Extinction Rebellion who refused to give his real name, confirmed by phone to have participated in the operation with a cell at the Swedish movement.
