Cleric highlights online disinformation about 'girl accidently run over by her mother in lawnmower tragedy' in Enniskillen toddler message
A Church of Ireland cleric has highlighted online disinformation after a viral message on social media claimed that a child had been critically injured in a lawn mower accident over the weekend.
One version of the message seen by the News Letter claimed that "a mother accidentally ran over her two-year-old daughter with her ride on mower".
This message, circulated on Sunday, claimed the child was airlifted to the children's hospital and was in surgery but in "extremely bad shape".
It urged readers to circulate the news widely to prayer groups.
Significantly, the version of the message seen by the News Letter openly admitted that the writer did not know the family, was unsure where it happened, and was unsure if the case was even true.
It did not mention any alleged date or time when the incident occured.
The writer used the terms "apparently" as well as "don't know" and "I think" to indicate how uncertain they were of the facts.
The final line of the message read: "Apparently this has happened today. I don't know the family but I think they are local to Enniskillen."
Rev Pete Smith of the Church of Ireland Parishes of Loughgall & Grange acknowledged that they had initially shared a prayer request after seeing some version of the appeal.
Writing on social media on Sunday, he said: "Unfortunately this prayer request is likely to be either a scam, or at least, was genuine, but has originated in USA. If genuine we do pray for healing for the child and comfort and strength for the family. We also pray for those in our world who would share false information with the desire to seek attention or otherwise irrespective of the consequences."
He also paid tribute to the many good people linked to his parish who are so ready to pray for people in crisis.
The News Letter contacted the NI Ambulance Service and PSNI to see if they were aware of any such incident on Sunday in Northern Ireland.
Neither of them could find any matching information.
Fermanagh South Tyrone UUP MLA Tom Elliott also told the News Letter he was unaware of any such incident in the Enniskillen area.
The News Letter spent some time researching the initial report on social media and found it had also been shared widely in the USA on Sunday as well as by a Londonderry group.
However, once again there were no specific details reported of a name, place or date in any of the social media posts.
At this stage it is not known where the message originated or the motive of the person responsible.
Experts are increasingly attempting to warn the public on how to spot fake news and disinformation online and on social media.
According to basic journalistic standards - which can be used by anyone - claims or facts can be verified by treating all anonymous information with healthy scepticism and refusing to act on it until it has been cross checked with credible sources or authorities, such as recognised community leaders or responsible news outlets or experts.
Warnings about disinformation have increasingly come to fore in light of so-called fake news on social media, sometimes generated by malicious online actors such as totalitarian states, terror groups or radical political or religious activists.