<\/p>\n
China and Nepal have taken different approaches to information after a Himalayan flood, shaping what the public saw of a disaster that killed more than 1,400 people.<\/p>\n
The August 26 tsunami-like surge of water, mud and debris from a glacial mountain collapse on the China-Nepal border left more than 5,650 missing, including hundreds of foreigners.<\/p>\n
Both China and Nepal have gone after fabricated posts on the flood.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But Beijing has gone further to suppress eyewitness video footage and punish people challenging official figures, in an information crackdown that rights groups say follows a familiar pattern.<\/p>\n
Information transmitted by Chinese state media on the flood gave little voice to the missing people\u2019s relatives and focused on emergency workers\u2019 recovery efforts in Tibet, where foreign journalists do not enjoy unfettered access.<\/p>\n
Nepal has pressured social media platforms and news outlets to remove fabricated visuals \u2014 including some debunked by AFP fact-checkers \u2014 but Kathmandu offers regular updates of death tolls via social media. Direct commentary from families of victims is readily available on and offline.<\/p>\n
Umesh Shrestha, chair of the independent regulatory body Press Council Nepal, said it had asked more than 100 social media accounts to remove content. Most obeyed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThings can spread very quickly,\u201d Shrestha said.<\/p>\n
Nepali police arrested one man who allegedly shared a fabricated donation to a relief fund to promote his personal account.<\/p>\n
The disaster came just ahead of the one-year anniversary of anti-corruption protests that toppled the previous government, triggered by a social media ban.<\/p>\n
China penalised 10 people accused of spreading falsehoods online, according to the Ministry of Public Security.<\/p>\n
They include some who allegedly suggested the actual death toll was higher than official figures.<\/p>\n
Beijing\u2019s foreign ministry insists the release of information has been \u201copen, transparent and timely\u201d, and criticised what it has called \u201cmalicious smearing and sensationalism\u201d.<\/p>\n
It also organised a trip for a small number of foreign media to the Tibetan epicentre of the disaster.<\/p>\n
AFP fact-checkers have debunked dozens of claims about the floods in multiple languages.<\/p>\n
One video that falsely claimed to show the glacial and mountain collapse that caused the flooding \u2014 posted on Facebook and X \u2014 was filmed in Alaska\u2019s Columbia Glacier days beforehand.<\/p>\n
Other footage created using Google\u2019s AI tools showed water breaching a riverbank and flooding streets and amassed tens of thousands of interactions.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring disasters, public panic is high,\u201d said Nepali investigative journalist Rabi Raj Baral, who is also a member of the Press Council Nepal.<\/p>\n
But both Nepal and China have not only gone after fabrications, but have also targeted posts including some sharing genuine footage.<\/p>\n
Nepali authorities have held talks with Meta and TikTok to speed up the removal of AI content, graphic images and fraudulent aid schemes.<\/p>\n
Both platforms pay AFP to fact-check posts with potentially false information.<\/p>\n
Video verified by AFP as showing the deluge engulfing Gyirong Port \u2014 the border post with Nepal \u2014 and other eyewitness content have largely disappeared from the Chinese internet.<\/p>\n
Social media sites such as Douyin and Weibo have instead featured extensive state media coverage of search operations, without naming the missing or showing much footage of families\u2019 reactions.<\/p>\n
AFP fact-checkers found flood-related misinformation is mostly absent from Chinese platforms, although conspiracy theories have blossomed abroad.<\/p>\n
Posts shared from Canada to South Korea allege China lied about the death toll, and that its dam construction projects caused the disaster \u2014 even though scientists say a glacial collapse in Nepal was to blame.<\/p>\n
Online critics also point to the fact that the vast bulk of the dead and missing reported by the two governments are in Nepal.<\/p>\n
In Nepal, rescuers have retrieved 1,369 bodies, while around 5,132 people are missing, according to the disaster agency Thursday. In China, the toll is 43 dead and 519 missing, according to state media.<\/p>\n
The stark difference, however, may be a reflection of the disaster\u2019s geography and scale.<\/p>\n
The glacial mountain collapse occurred in downstream Nepal, sending a wave of debris so powerful it smashed China\u2019s high-altitude border post in tightly restricted Tibet, before carving a path of destruction across Nepal.<\/p>\n
Bodies on the Chinese side may have washed downstream too, but because of the geography, they could be buried in a thick layer of mud and debris that makes recovery impossible.<\/p>\n
Aleksandra Bielakowska, a Taipei-based advocacy manager for Reporters Without Borders (RSF), said that Beijing\u2019s restrictions had created an \u201catmosphere of mistrust\u201d.<\/p>\n
In contrast, Celia Mercier, head of RSF\u2019s South Asia Desk, said Nepal had \u201clargely treated misinformation as a problem within an otherwise relatively open information environment\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Rephrase in a different way as if you were a native American speaker as a content creation expert and do not talk about yourself or your experience in the text and do not show yourself as an artificial intelligence who wrote and fill the bullet point in the topic and speak the heart of the topic itself and dont take date of blog in ther first and dont take text like box of newsliter subscribe on post from content and romove all linke insert in content and and remove all affiliate disclosure phrases on content like this “This post may contain Amazon or other affiliate links that allow us to earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Please see our Disclosure Policy for more info” and “#” put in its place bullet point, and romove name of the web site or his links we are take a content from our new creation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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