Before U.S. president-elect Joe Biden formally announced Antony Blinken as his pick for Secretary of State, an anonymous Wikipedia editor took it upon himself to edit Blinken’s Wikipedia page. The editor beefed up the section on his attitude towards Russia and its President Vladimir Putin, throwing in a quote attributed to Blinken for good measure. The quote was quickly picked up by Russian and Ukrainian media and it spread across social networking sites. But as it turns out, Antony Blinken never actually spoke those words.
On November 24, the quote caught the attention of Wikipedia’s moderators. They deleted it as an incorrect citation and the author who added it to the article was blocked for a month.
However, by that time, the fake quote had already spread across Russian-language media and social networks. Gazeta.ru published an article containing the quote on November 23 and it was cited word-for-word in several Ukrainian publications (including reprints on Russian state media websites). The quote was also featured on Politekspert — in 2017, RBK journalists uncovered that this website belongs to a media holding linked to the so-called “troll factory” that investigative journalists have, in turn, connected to Russian billionaire Evgeny Prigozhin. On social media, this quote was also picked up by patriotic bloggers from both Russia and Ukraine.


Currently, she works as a research intern at the Middle East Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School, where she explores conspiracy belief, and has previously carried out other important research works on the media representation of Muslim women, where she curated an exhibit at the American University in Cairo titled “Princess Fawzia and the Duality of Egyptian Women.” “I really believe that young women in the Middle East will help break generational cycles of inequality. We have to find more ways to also include them in peacemaking processes and amplify their voice, because once you have young women in the decision-making process, collectively, our society becomes better and stronger,” she says, “I am working to turn this into real action.”

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