France has elected a new president on May 7 in the person of 39-year-old Emmanuel Macron and the hoax makers were quite swift in making up fake news about Macron. Their story? They claimed that Macron said that he will ‘do a Duterte’ to crackdown on drugs and lawlessness in France.
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The website states-tv.com was among the first sites to publish the story. It even included a statement that allegedly came from Macron, saying: “I’ll do a Duterte as I crackdown on drug trades and lawlessness in the country.”
The article also attributed several quotes to Macron, which we found to be true, based on an English-translated video of Macron’s speech at The Louvre in Paris by FRANCE 24 English.
What caught the Filipino netizens’ attention though was Macron’s alleged remark about doing a Duterte. However, we could not find any other reliable source carrying the said statement from Macron.
Unfortunately, the fake story has been shared hundreds of times on Facebook.
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Even PEZA Chief Charito Plaza shared the story.
Plaza also shared a few fake stories before, such as those about PH being the ‘most reformced country’ under Duterte and Trump promising not to disappoint Filipinos for supporting him.
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What actually happened is that President Rodrigo Duterte has congratulated Macron for winning the French election.
“President Rodrigo Roa Duterte extends his congratulations to Emmanuel Macron on his election as President of France,” said Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella in a statement.
“France is one of the biggest trading partners of the Philippines in the European Union (EU), and we look forward to working with the incoming Macron administration to enhance PH-FR bilateral relations,” he added.
What didn’t happen is Macron telling his people that he will follow Duterte’s example in stopping drugs and lawlessness in his country. It’s fake news.
And it’s not the first fake news to come out of states-tv.com. We also spotted others, such as Queen Elizabeth II’s death hoax, Olympic gold medalist Joseph Schooling divorcing his wife even though he’s single, Kenya hosting the 2020 Olympics instead of Japan, former US President Barack Obama falling for Queen Elizabeth II’s death hoax, and more.
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Sources: ( rappler.com , independent.co.uk )
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