Natasha`s Controversial Statements Have Not Been Endorsed by US Ambassador to SL, Julie Chung!
US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Julie Chung, is an active figure on Twitter and has regularly expressed views of the US government on crucial social and political matters related to Sri Lanka. However, recently, she has often become a victim of false propaganda. Following a prototype similar to past falsehoods, we recently noticed a wave […]
US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Julie Chung, is an active figure on Twitter and has regularly expressed views of the US government on crucial social and political matters related to Sri Lanka.
However, recently, she has often become a victim of false propaganda. Following a prototype similar to past falsehoods, we recently noticed a wave of altered screenshots targeting Julie Chung on the recently remanded stand-up comedian Natasha Edirisooriya. Let’s look at the viral Tweets.
Social Media Posts
The purported Tweet claimed that US Ambassador Julie Chung had endorsed the controversial statement of stand-up comedian Natasha Edirisooriya over Buddhist beliefs.
The edited message, as seen below, created in English, states that the US Ambassador wished that Natasha was waving the star-spangled banner (a reference to the US flag) as she needled Buddhists and that Natasha’s actions had validated the US decision to fund outfits such as SLVlog through the IREX program!
Most social media users had intended the purported Tweet to be a parody seen by sarcastic remarks.
Fact Check
First, we checked the official Twitter handle of the US Ambassador Julie Chung and Twitter archives but could not find any Tweets similar to the satirically altered ones.
Another key giveaway was that Ambassador Chung’s official Twitter handle now carries a grey checkmark, indicating that the Twitter account represents a government/multilateral organisation or a government/multilateral official. However, the altered Tweet carries the blue tick, which was earlier used to signify a verified account. More on profile labels and checkmarks on Twitter here
We also contacted the US Embassy in Colombo, who confirmed that Julie Chung had not posted such Tweets and that these were clearly part of a targeted campaign to mimic the US Ambassador.
Since the US Ambassador had been targeted numerous times on such misinformation campaigns covered as parody, we noticed that Ms Julie Chung pinned one of her Tweets from August 2022 to her Twitter handle, which said, “Fake tweets mimicking my account have been spreading on social media. If you ever have any doubts about my statements, please look directly at my verified account. Fake news - and fake tweets - are a real problem. Don’t be misled,” as seen below.
Over the last few months, the US Ambassador has been targeted multiple times, with several accusations. Here is an article the Factcrescendo SL team did in September 2022 regarding similar series of satirically altered Tweets targeting Ms Julie Chung. Factcrescendo Sinhala team debunked another misleading claim in July 2022, related to Julie Chung, after a meeting with the JVP leader, as seen here.
Coming back to Natasha’s involvement with the US embassy, we noticed that these were fueled by a series of social media posts, which highlighted Natasha’s full-time work involvement with the US Embassy in Colombo, as seen here, which were quoted from a LinkedIn account in the name of Natasha.
Natasha is NOT an Employee of the US Embassy either!
To ascertain the veracity of these claims, we contacted the US Embassy in Colombo, which confirmed that the US Embassy had never employed Natasha Edirisooriya at any point in time.
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Title:Natasha's Controversial Statements Have Not Been Endorsed by US Ambassador to SL, Julie Chung!
Written By: Kalana KrishanthaResult: Altered
