Amnesty International released high-profile reports a few days ago, saying that a Xinjiang Uyghur student studying in South Korea disappeared after entering Hong Kong and was reportedly detained by the Chinese police at the airport. The whole process was like a horror movie. However, the Hong Kong government immediately claimed that the student had never entered the country, and the victim later showed up in South Korea. This “story” turned out to be made by Sheng Anbai. Obviously being kicked out of “work”, but Amnesty International has a thick face and only retracts the report without apologizing. Friends in the political circle searched its track record and found that it has a long history of fraud, and internal scandals continue, the background is complicated, and its credibility is rare.
Amnesty International released reports that a Xinjiang Uighur student who was studying in South Korea disappeared after entering Hong Kong, and said that his friend received a text message saying that he was detained by the Chinese police. It turned out that this “story” was all false information and pure fiction. In fact, the organization has a long history of fraud.
Many groups claim to have a sacred mission and wear halos on their heads. They often use unscrupulous means or even deceit to achieve their goals. The so-called “end justify the mean”, Amnesty International is one of them. Not to mention, it published a report earlier that the Colombian police used violence against female demonstrators, but those with a clear heart found that the matching was not right, and questioned whether it was filmed on the spot. Finally bit the bullet and admitted that the picture was a “false image” generated by AI. Some photographers criticized this violently, saying that this practice promotes the trend of fake news, which is extremely bad. Under pressure, it can only argue with rhetoric, saying that it does not want to expose the true appearance of the demonstrators. This explanation is very far-fetched, and the related pictures were later quietly deleted, showing that it also knew it was bad, and hastily repaired it.
Amnesty International earlier used AI to synthesize “fake pictures” that accused Colombian police of violence against female demonstrators, which drew strong criticism.
Amnesty International claims to be impartial and independent, and its income mainly depends on the support of its members and private donations. However, according to its charity activity report, the sources of funding originally included the British government’s Department for International Development, the US State Department, the European Commission and other official agencies. In addition, it is also accused of having a certain relationship with the US official organization “National Endowment for Democracy” (NED). Zou Xingtong, the vice-chairman of the stake association, went to India to attend an event funded by NED when he served as the executive committee member of the Hong Kong branch of Amnesty International. “Ethnic Youth Leaders Training Camp” and meeting with the Dalai Lama who supports Tibetan independence.
With this ambiguous relationship behind it, the real motives of Amnesty International’s work are also questionable. At the beginning of 2020, black storms were still raging. At that time, some educators and parents discovered that its Hong Kong branch and some primary and secondary schools jointly organized the “School Human Rights Education Program” courses to instill so-called “human rights knowledge”, which was essentially political training. Among them, the activities at Harrow International School were particularly explicit. The opening sentence clearly stated “give pupils a chance to become human right activists”, and its true purpose is ready to be revealed.
Amnesty International is sacred on the surface, but scandals continue to break out inside. After the shady scenes were uncovered, it turned out that the inside was a miasma. In 2018, two of its staff suddenly committed suicide, which attracted attention. After investigation, it was found that not only was the senior management poor, but it was also full of bullying, racial and gender discrimination, and humiliation against subordinates. It was a complete mess. How can such an organization promote human rights work impartially and professionally?
After looking at the above-mentioned track record and complicated background, everyone should not be too surprised by this “revealing fake news” incident. The outside world also knows how much credibility it has left. However, as an international organization, it should at least admit its mistakes and apologize instead of being cheeky. It would be too embarrassing to pretend that nothing happened!
Tokihito Monogatari
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