Government goes to police over fake news stories doing the rounds on Facebook

The Office of the Prime Minster has asked the police to investigate several fake stories that have circulated on social media, insisting it would not be taking the issue lightly

7 January 2019, 5:18pm
by Karl Azzopardi

1 min read

A police report has been filed by the government over several fake news websites mentioning the Prime Minister, ministers and the government in general. The stories recently started to crop up as sponsored posts on social media platforms.

The fake news adverts and websites which have been appearing for the last couple of months, point the user to fake news websites making claims about unprecedented government investments or programmes as well as websites promoting cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

Fake news website: Traders Funds

A statement released by the Office of the Prime Minister on Monday said the government had filed a police report over the stories, adding that it would not take such matters lightly.

“The stories not only have fraudulent intentions, but also try to cast a shadow by reporting untruthful facts,” the statement read.

Fake news website: TechRide News

Most of the Facebook pages posting links to the fake stories appear to have been set up since the end of November. They link to websites that provide no information about the entity that registered them.

Karl Azzopardi is Online Editor and an IGM press awards (Human Stories) winner of 2019