Another example that caused significant outrage at
the time was this image of a child inside a cage that
circulated in the summer of 2018.
It received over 20,000 retweets. A similar post on
Facebook received over 10,000 shares. The picture
was actually staged as part of a protest against
immigration policies, that took place two days
previously at Dallas City Hall. Another example of
a genuine image where the context got framed and
warped. In this example, however, the author did not
realise it was part of a protest when he shared the
image. A case of misinformation not disinformation.
In a similar vein, during the lead up to the
US midterm election, there was a great deal
of coverage around the ‘caravan’ of immigrants
travelling to the US from Central America. Genuine
imagery was shared, but with misleading frames.
One was this Facebook post, that was actually an
image of Syrian refugees in Turkey from 2015.
The child depicted in this
photo was actually staged
as part of a protest against
immigration policies. Archived
on September 6 2019.14
30
I N F O R M AT I O N D I S O R D E R
This photo was posted in the
context of the migrant ‘caravan’
in the US, but is actually a photo
of Syrian refugees in Turkey
from 2015. The original image
was shared by the photographer
who captured it on Twitter.
Archived on September 6 2019.15
FA L S E CO N T E X T
31