Blog Post 9

    In the world, there is false information and many different types. One type of incorrect information I researched was False Flagging. False flagging originated in the 16th century as an expression. It means an intentional misinterpretation of someone's alienation. False flagging has been around for centuries. The Oxford English Dictionary traces false flagging to 1560; false flagging is harmful. It is often a military event or action designed to appear as though it is done by someone other than the group/person responsible for it. This is typically used to calculate and generate sympathy for the attached group, sometimes to describe a deliberate misinterpretation of someone's motive. 

    False flagging traces back to pirates when they would fly the flag of a target ship until the ship got close enough to attack. They would then raise the skull and crossbones flag, which was too late for target ships to escape. 

    False flagging goes deeper and more mainstream than pirates. In a 1914 law journal article, The Law Maritime, it was perfectly legal for a ship to have a false flag to chase an energy ship or to escape. It is widely acknowledged that a boat must fly its national flag just before an attack. US maritime had "false flag" prohibited. When breaking the maritime law, the first citation of the maritime meaning is "A flag used to disguise a ship by misinterpreting its nationality, allegiance, intent, etc. It's from 1824 through it was in use much earlier."  

An important time in history when false flagging was used was the German invasion of Poland. In 1939, when Germany invaded Poland, seven SS men on the German side of the Polish border assaulted the Gleiwitz radio tower while posing as Poles. The outbreak of the Russo-Finnish War in 1939 was when Shells were fired toward the village of Mainila in Russia. The Soviet Union used the alleged strike to violate its non-aggression pact with Finland and launch the so-called Winter War because it occurred not far from the Finnish border. Following this, it was established that the NKVD of the Soviet Union, not Finland, was responsible. These are just two past examples of when false flagging was used, but it has been used recently in 2020 at the Kashmir Border, and in more recent news, Ukraine accuses Russia of planning a "false flag" attack in Belarus. False flags have been seen all over in history. False Flag is a term generally used by conspiracy theorists to explain world events such as terrorist attacks were done by the government to create fear or a political or social goal. 

False flagging can also be seen in social media. People post fake news and fake facts all the time that relate back to the original definition of false flagging which is an intentional misrepresentation of someone's identity on social media or spreading false news that could harm others. Not only does false information hurt the people reading it, they impose themselves as other brands and ruin their reputation. Social Media apps started to filter this information to help people sort the real news from the false news. This is important because a lot of the false flags look real which is why social media apps such as Facebook are labeling fake news as fake and is known as“epicenter of misinformation,” which is an expanding network of professional fact checkers.