US ‘fake news’ hits NZ gun buyback efforts
Misleading stories about New Zealand’s gun buyback have gone viral across gun lobby groups and conservative media in North America. Marc Daalder reports on the spread of what one expert has categorised as "fake news".
The story first started on Guns America Digest, the news arm of firearms auction site gunsamerica.com. Published on July 2, its headline proclaimed: “New Zealand Compliance Rate for Gun Buyback Program Stands at Less than 1 Percent.”
There was a good reason for the low rate of compliance: the buyback had yet to start.
The article cited reports from Stuff, Radio New Zealand, and the Washington Post that raised legitimate issues with the buyback process. The lack of a gun registry means police will have a tough time accurately assessing what percentage of now-illegal firearms have been turned in.
However, the conclusion the article drew – that there was a high rate of non-compliance - in the area of 99.3 to 99.7 percent - is equally unverifiable, particularly since the actual buyback didn’t begin until July 13, nearly a fortnight after it was first published.
Since then, more than 3200 now-banned firearms have been handed over to police, alongside an extra 7800 prohibited parts and accessories. The buyback has already dished out more than $6 million to the 2100 people that have taken part in police-managed collection events.
'Sophisticated' fake news effort
Of course, none of this context has been added to the Guns America piece, which went viral among right-wing Twitter and Facebook pages.
Dr Catherine Strong, a senior journalism lecturer at Massey University who studies social media and fake news, told Newsroom the stories appeared to her to be fake news and were particularly advanced.
“These ones on the gun control are quite insidious. They’re very sophisticated,” Strong said.
“They look like they’re a genuine news story and they even have links to a genuine source. But if you follow that link and read it, that’s not what that said at all.”
On July 8, American Military News ran a piece in its 'Controversy' section entitled “Less than 1 percent participate in New Zealand gun buyback”. The article used the same flawed logic as Guns America and was shared more than 7000 times, including by a major Canadian gun lobby group.
(After being notified by Newsroom about omissions in its article, American Military News significantly updated the piece. In an email, editor Laura Widener insisted: “It was not our intent, nor is it ever our intent to intentionally mislead people.”
To explain the error, Widener said, “New Zealand’s data on guns is obscure and even difficult for experts to estimate, as I assume you’ve also noticed in your research. We believe all estimates and solid data on the issue should be discussed in the effort of full disclosure.”)
The Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights shared the AMN article on both its Facebook and Twitter pages, leading to dozens of angry comments and more than 100 extra shares.
The greatest coup, however, came later on the same day when Reason, the US conservative magazine with a circulation of 50,000, ran an article stating: “Noncompliance Kneecaps New Zealand's Gun Control Scheme.” While Reason avoided citing the misleading 1 percent figure, it still failed to note that the buyback had yet to actually begin at the time of writing, which would contextualise any claim about non-compliance.
The Reason article went viral all over again, garnering hundreds of appreciative shares on Twitter and Facebook, including from high-profile US conservatives like Ryan Saavedra, a reporter at the right-wing Daily Wire who has more than half a million Twitter followers.
The entire saga has led to a complete misunderstanding of New Zealand’s gun culture and gun buyback among international firearm enthusiasts.
