Viral false claims about quakes, Hiroshima expose Japan’s online conspiracy problem

Two outlandish claims that gained large audiences online in Japan recently have “shocked” misinformation experts, who say conspiracy-style narratives are feeding on disaster anxiety, fading wartime memory and an online information ecosystem that rewards outrage and suspicion. In the aftermath of the July 28 earthquake in Kumamoto prefecture in southern Japan, a social media user claimed that seismic data from the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience showed the...

By Julian Ryall