False information claiming that the Arakan Liberation Party (ALP) started to move 3000 troops in Rakhine State to attack The Arakan Army (AA), and the allegation that some members of AA had surrendered to the Military Council, is being spread online.The misinformation was posted on a Facebook page called ‘Myanmar News’ on October 13.
A post headlined as ‘Patriotic ALP contained writings defaming AA. The post accused that ‘AA claimed that they stand for the welfare of the Rakhine people, but actually the public was being pushed to the brink of war by AA, and AA was helping Muslims by collecting tax from Rakhine people’.
The post also claimed that ALP with about 3000 troops had interfered to stop AA from destroying the Rakhine people, and carrying out underground activities in Rakhine State. (These are the original quotes from the post)
Furthermore, the post allegedly said that ‘ALP is fighting together with the Military Council, disguised as civilians to collect information about AA, and infiltrating among AA members to spy for the Military Council’. The clear purpose is to incite tension and sow division between the two 2 armed organizations of Rakhine.
It has also been written that ‘some members of AA surrendered to the Military Council and about 8000 ULA/AA troops already registered to join ALP’.
In the current political situation, there is undoubtedly some tension between the two sides, but not a major conflict as is alleged by posts on the ‘Myanmar News’ Facebook page. And the ALP doesn’t have 3000 troops either.
You can find out more about ALP/ALA and its forces here (https://bit.ly/3D5E8gi) compiled by the Institute for Strategy and Policy – Myanmar (ISP-Myanmar), a research organization.
Also, contrary to what was written on the ‘Myanmar News’ Facebook page, only the Military Council troops surrendered to ULA/AA, spokesperson of ULA/AA Khaing Thu Kha said at the 5th press conference of the organization. Here's what ULA/AA spokesperson
Khaing Thu Kha had said. (https://bit.ly/3TesBBg)
After conducting a fact-checking thoroughly and carefully, it emerged that the information on the ‘Myanmar News’ Facebook Page was entirely false, and only fueled tensions and distrust between the two organizations. In addition, the post on the ‘Myanmar New’ Facebook page was also shared, copied and re-posted by many supporters of the Military Council and nationalists.
Nowadays, it can be seen that misinformation related to NUG, CRPH and ethnic armed organizations, misinformation related to the dialogues between the Junta leaders and ethnic leaders, false news intended to distribute hate speech and to ignite conflicts between the different races are being deliberately spread online.
When disseminating such false news, old photos are occasionally used to mislead the readers.In the current period of political instability, there are people who spread misinformation online in various forms. So it is best to first check the news from reliable media outlets, before sharing sensitive news online.
