False claims alleging theft by foreigners in Japan spread on social media
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Videos falsely portraying foreigners as stealing metal from railway tracks in Japan have spread widely on the country's social media,
Tokyo-based cybersecurity firm Constella Security Japan discovered that videos falsely depicting foreigners stealing metal from railway tracks have been widely shared on social media in Japan. The misinformation aims to portray foreigners as a threat to public safety. Roughly 4.3 million views were accumulated by September 15 across platforms like X, YouTube, and TikTok.
One March post described "metal theft by foreigners" and showed footage of people allegedly stealing cable from tracks. Similar posts were found on TikTok. Constella traced the footage to an August 2022 Instagram post in Arabic, unrelated to railway theft in Japan. Since March, Japanese posts replaced Arabic text with unrelated Japanese descriptions, indicating false information.
Accounts spreading the misinformation in Japan, often with anti-immigrant stances, had large followings. Analyst Ryuna Nagamine warned viewers to scrutinize the content of videos independently of accompanying text and verify facts. Previous disinformation campaigns in Japan included claims of foreign theft after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and recent posts questioning the number of crimes committed by foreigners ahead of elections.
Written by urgent.news from The Mainichi's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
This story
This is one outlet's version. Read the fullest account.
