Update (February 28th 2022): An image of US streamer WingsOfRedemption, aka Jordie Jordan, has once again been used in a tweet from a fake CNN Twitter account, which has this time tricked a Russian diplomat and British politician George Galloway.
The fake account @CNNUKR, which has now been banned by Twitter, attempted to fool people into believing it’s a ‘CNN Ukraine’ account. It published a tweet saying Bernie (a false name used next to Jordie’s picture) is an activist who was ‘the first American casualty of the Ukraine crisis’.
The news comes after a string of separate fake news accounts posted last year the fake news that Bernie was a journalist murdered in Afghanistan (scroll down for that separate news article).
This time, the tweets have tricked Russian diplomat Dmitry Polyanskiy, the deputy permanent representative of Russia to the UN, who either believes these are actual legitimate CNN accounts that posted the tweets, or is playing dumb to present American media as an enemy. He called the tweets the ‘lies and fakes of mainstream media’.
Others were also fooled by the troll accounts, including George Galloway. The British politician and broadcaster currently produces content for RT UK, a TV news channel based in the UK which is part of the RT network, a Russian state-controlled and funded TV network.
The news prompted an actual CNN member of staff to come out and publicly deny the validity of the reports.
Matt Dornic, head of strategic communications at CNN, told Reuters the posts are “absolute fiction”.
“The social handles and stories are bogus,” he said. “CNN never reported either of these accounts.”
WingsOfRedemption was recently banned on Twitter. Last year, he was banned on Twitch, but it seems his Twitch account is live again. He currently streams on YouTube.
What would WingsORedemption say about this?
“Ban any Russian diplomat in the chat who believes I’m a figure created by CNN to publish fake news,” probably.
Related article: How the esports community is reacting to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
Original article (published August 2021) by Billy Studholme:
Amidst the social-media furore around the crisis in Afghanistan, an image of American streamer WingsOfRedemption has this week been circulated as that of a murder victim in Afghanistan.
Fake news accounts — copy-catting BBC News, CNN, and MSNBC — circulated the image of WingsOfRedemption, real name Jordie Jordan, on Twitter, stating that he was a journalist killed by Taliban insurgents in Kabul. All three accounts have since been suspended.
Images of Jordan were also circulated after the Beirut explosion last year.
What’s more, in Jordan’s own words, the name attributed to his image by the fake accounts, when spoken aloud, is a racial slur with the first name Bernie. Jordan has been accused of racism in the past as well as various other wrongdoings.
It is believed that WingsOfRedemption’s online trolls are responsible for the lie. Not the most beloved online personality, the American streamer is infamous for his toxic streams and questionable beliefs on various sensitive subjects.
Furthermore, in typical social-media fashion, commentators used the fake news to suit their own agendas without checking facts. Popular conservative commentator Steven Crowder, on his website ‘Louder with Crowder’, used one of the fake tweets to criticise Joe Biden’s policy decisions in Afghanistan.
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Dom is an award-winning writer who graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV as well as Riot Games and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Association up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and as an esports consultant helping brands and businesses better understand the industry.
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