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patriciaB
Guest
In the past few weeks, many news organizations were carrying the story of a lesbian blogger in Syria that had gone missing. She was suspected of having disappeared in the midst of the chaos in that country. It turned out that Amina Abdullah Arraf was not a real person, but a creation of an American pupil studying abroad in Scotland.
Learner discovered to be the author of a blog
Right now, "A Gay Girl in Damascus" is one of the biggest hoaxes of all time considering it was written by a 40-year old Master's degree student named Tom MacMaster at the University of Edinburgh. MSNBC states that in an odd attempt to get Syria's situation more attention, MacMaster made up the "author" Amina Abdallah Arraf al-Omari and the blog. For months, MacMaster wrote posts under this assumed persona of a young lesbian in Syria, criticizing the current regime and "covering" the continuous protests and horrific crackdowns by the Syrian army. MacMaster knew he would have problems when organizations started to call asking for interviews.
Fake arrest leads to being discovered
The blog started to get a lot of attention in June, which led to stresses and MacMaster wanting a way out. So he invented a cousin named "Rania Ismail," who guest-blogged on Amina's site on June 6 that Amina had been abducted. A "Free Amina Arraf" campaign started on the internet while CNN and other news organizations ran stories on her disappearances. There were several inconsistencies though. On June 7, English newspaper The Guardian was contacted by Jelena Lecic, an administrator at the Royal College of Physicians in London. Pictures of Arraf were taken from Lecic's Facebook profile photos. The University of Edinburgh was where the IP address of Arraf's emails came from. In February, an American reporter asked "Arraf" about the University of Edinburgh IP address, and "she" said that she had to stay away from getting caught by the Syrian authorities by going through proxy IPs, reports the Daily Mail. The Scottish IP address information came out on June 10. By June 12, MacMaster had confessed.
Hoax was not meant to be that way
MacMaster admit the hoax and spoke with the New York Times afterwards. He said that he knew he had to shut the blog down after the international attention started to hit it. He claims, according to Al Jazeera, that the identity was not real, but the information about chaos in Syria "on the ground" was accurate. MacMaster is a Middle East peace activist with his wife, Britta Froelicher. They were in Turkey on vacation when the story occurred. The University of St. Andrews is where Froelicher is a Master's pupil. Actual Syrians, which includes actual LGBT Syrians, are in real danger at present, and individuals are dying there. MacMaster is an American learner at a university in Europe.
Articles cited
MSNBC
msnbc.msn.com/id/43372835/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/
The Telegraph
telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/8572884/A-Gay-Girl-in-Damascus-how-the-hoax-unfolded.html
The Daily Mail
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2002854/A-Gay-Girl-Damascus-Tom-MacMaster-40-blogger-Amina-Arraf.html
New York Times
thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/13/gay-girl-in-damascus-blogger-admits-to-writing-fiction-disguised-as-fact/?hp
Al Jazeera
english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/06/201161345554900720.html
Learner discovered to be the author of a blog
Right now, "A Gay Girl in Damascus" is one of the biggest hoaxes of all time considering it was written by a 40-year old Master's degree student named Tom MacMaster at the University of Edinburgh. MSNBC states that in an odd attempt to get Syria's situation more attention, MacMaster made up the "author" Amina Abdallah Arraf al-Omari and the blog. For months, MacMaster wrote posts under this assumed persona of a young lesbian in Syria, criticizing the current regime and "covering" the continuous protests and horrific crackdowns by the Syrian army. MacMaster knew he would have problems when organizations started to call asking for interviews.
Fake arrest leads to being discovered
The blog started to get a lot of attention in June, which led to stresses and MacMaster wanting a way out. So he invented a cousin named "Rania Ismail," who guest-blogged on Amina's site on June 6 that Amina had been abducted. A "Free Amina Arraf" campaign started on the internet while CNN and other news organizations ran stories on her disappearances. There were several inconsistencies though. On June 7, English newspaper The Guardian was contacted by Jelena Lecic, an administrator at the Royal College of Physicians in London. Pictures of Arraf were taken from Lecic's Facebook profile photos. The University of Edinburgh was where the IP address of Arraf's emails came from. In February, an American reporter asked "Arraf" about the University of Edinburgh IP address, and "she" said that she had to stay away from getting caught by the Syrian authorities by going through proxy IPs, reports the Daily Mail. The Scottish IP address information came out on June 10. By June 12, MacMaster had confessed.
Hoax was not meant to be that way
MacMaster admit the hoax and spoke with the New York Times afterwards. He said that he knew he had to shut the blog down after the international attention started to hit it. He claims, according to Al Jazeera, that the identity was not real, but the information about chaos in Syria "on the ground" was accurate. MacMaster is a Middle East peace activist with his wife, Britta Froelicher. They were in Turkey on vacation when the story occurred. The University of St. Andrews is where Froelicher is a Master's pupil. Actual Syrians, which includes actual LGBT Syrians, are in real danger at present, and individuals are dying there. MacMaster is an American learner at a university in Europe.
Articles cited
MSNBC
msnbc.msn.com/id/43372835/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/
The Telegraph
telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/8572884/A-Gay-Girl-in-Damascus-how-the-hoax-unfolded.html
The Daily Mail
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2002854/A-Gay-Girl-Damascus-Tom-MacMaster-40-blogger-Amina-Arraf.html
New York Times
thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/13/gay-girl-in-damascus-blogger-admits-to-writing-fiction-disguised-as-fact/?hp
Al Jazeera
english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/06/201161345554900720.html
