The moment the Facebook fact check feature actually helped!

Several tabloids and blogs report on “sex tourism” to Serbia; the British tabloid The Mirror, for example, headlines “Sick Brits 'traveling to Serbia for sex with dogs at animal brothels.”

What it's about: The tabloid and blog articles describe British tourists traveling to Serbia to visit "zoophile brothels." These articles mention Belgrade as a kind of “hot spot” for this zoophilic sex tourism. Here people have the opportunity to have sex with different animals. “Goats, sheep, donkeys, dogs, cats, geese and cows” are mentioned. However, the sex tourists do not only come from Great Britain, but also from Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden.

What's it?

Interestingly, Facebook displays a fact check when you post a link to this topic on the network. At least we were shown the following fact check: Le Monde's “Les Decodeurs” consider this story to be a hoax!

MIMIKAMA

In this fact check, Le Monde makes particular reference to the tabloid reporting from The Mirror (linked above). This article is based on a Serbian-language report broadcast by Serbian RTL, according to Le Monde. Pavle Bihal, a member of the Serbian animal rights group Levijatan, is quoted there. In its original version, The Mirror also used a photo of a dog in tights and heels, which was merely a symbolic image, but was quickly incorrectly listed on blogs as photo evidence.

However, this photo does not come from Serbia, but was used online for various (tasteless) memes before the reporting on suspected animal brothels in Serbia. Le Monde states in its fact check that some sites that used this photo (like The Mirror) subsequently changed their articles and removed the photo or then described it as a symbolic photo. The Mirror now writes:

This article originally included an image and reference to a dog in tights. The picture was supplied to us by an agency and used in good faith after it appeared during the broadcast on RTL, a respected European TV channel. When we were alerted to the picture not being directly related to the animal brothel claims we removed it and the reference from the story

Le Monde highlights the problem of lack of evidence!

A very important point in this story is the lack of evidence to support the allegations. According to Le Monde there is none, and the media reports also end at the point that they are still waiting for confirmation of the brothel location. There is no other source apart from the animal rights activists; the media reporting refers to these statements or has been copied from a posting on Facebook.

According to Le Monde, the editor of the Serbian RTL report said that the animal rights activists showed her evidence and also stated that this was not an official brothel, but rather a private apartment that was used for this purpose. According to her, the association even had the address of the apartment in question, but had not been able to go there yet.

The summary of the Le Monde fact check:

It cannot be ruled out that the place of animal prostitution mentioned by the animal protection association exists. But how you can get a cow and horse through a stairwell and keep them in an apartment remains difficult to explain. However, according to Le Monde, what becomes clear is that the claim about zoophilic tourism as a “trend” in Serbia is rather far-fetched and not true.

One could speculate as to whether the presentation was not so massively exaggerated in order to achieve “accounting”, i.e. to draw attention to a topic so that it can be discussed in principle.

Reference:

  • Le Monde : « Scandale zoophile en Serbia » : aucune preuve formal derrière les gros titres
  • The Mirror : Sick Brits 'traveling to Serbia for sex with dogs at animal brothels for as little as £60'


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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )