21-04-2025
How a fake news story about Islamist anti-dog-walking leaflets circulated in Canada and the UK
Did people really post Islamist anti-dog leaflets in Canada and the United Kingdom? Since early April, several photos of leaflets and fliers asking people to no longer walk their dogs out of respect for their Muslim neighbours have inflamed Islamophobic discussions online. However, all of these photos are old and were flagged as potential fakes even when they first came out. We take a look at how three different fake news items have circulated.
"Do not walk your dog here! Muslims do not like dogs. This is an islamic area now,' reads a flyer shown in a photo posted on X on April 15 by Ashlea Simon, the chairman of the British far-right political party Britain First.
"I'd prefer to keep the dogs and deport the Islamists if I'm honest,' she said in her post, which garnered more than 300,000 views in two days.
Quite a few British social media accounts shared the photo, showing a piece of A4 paper taped to a sign near a park.
'Should we be told where we can walk our dogs?" reads a post by the X account Simon Scissorhands, who describes himself as a 'proud patriot' in his bio.
But where did this flyer come from? It turns out that this flyer isn't recent. The conservative account Update News already shared it back in July 2024 in a post that garnered more than 1.5 million views on X.
However, the article did provide more information about the photo, which the article reported was taken in the borough of Tower Hamlets in East London.
Read more on The Observers - France 24
