A few days ago, before the election, the Corriere della Sera published a piece in which it is said that last month the Italian police had "blocked 128 fake news."
Exactly, 128.
Not one more or one less.
Most of the reactions to the piece focused on how the debate on the issue has now bottomed out, and how the expression "fake news" has finally lost what little sense that remained.
All right, but for my part I would like to point out one thing: there is none escaped one.
About a month ago, inspired by the elections and some cases in the news, I wondered: is it really that easy to scrub the Italian press, even that which is perceived as a serious and makes us the sermons of trolls Russians?
Really just send an email with a fake press release from the catchy title to attract media attention, triggering a snowball effect and bring the catchy title in print and on the newsstands?
So I decided to give it a try.
Objective, see how far I could reach with minimal effort: a few weeks of work and a single email * to publish a completely fabricated story (it was not just a racist buffalo) in a national newspaper.
The first step was to think the right story.
Under the media elections tend to be less careful than usual, especially on those who are the "hot" issues that can best polarize readers.
It was precisely on these issues that I wanted to play.
So I got to thinking: what are the topics better able to creep into the rhetoric of politicians, worry or boost wider electorate layers and stimulate the imagination of conspiracy theorists?
Islam and the so-called invasion, I told (the episode of Giorgia Meloni to the Egyptian Museum of Turin was still to come).
And then the banks and finance that controls the world (that was easy).
And then, foreign investment and the role of Milan as the most European city in Italy (a rhetoric with which to bombard Expo there still today).
Ok.
I've put together these three elements, I mixed them well and here is my story: there is a giant Saudi announcing investments of 100 million euro, a new office in Milan and plans to bring "Islamic finance" in Italy, where banks are weak and immigration from predominantly Muslim countries has created a potentially large market.
Omar bin al-Faisal Salwiya, rampant Saudi millionaire with a curiously similar to my name, was born that way.
When you invent a character you have to create all his life-even the parts that do not tell.
So I started thinking about a credible background for my alter ego and his family business.
Also because presumably the recipients of my press releases would have googled some information on al-Salwiya and their society.
The base was this: al-Salwiya are a rich Saudi family, starting from a construction company, came slowly to own a holding company active in several sectors, by the Urban planning to finance, with operations throughout the Middle Orient.
In 2018, the heir of the family was in charge of operating the landing company in European markets, starting from Milan.
To communicate all this information, along with other equally vague about the activities and history of the company, I created the official website of the holding-pomposissimo name The Saudi al-Salwiya Group, complete with a motto "Building a better world" and logo done by translating random words on Google translate, scontornandole and putting them together.
To make the site, as it was to subscribe to the premium version of Wix (to remove the banner "create your website with Wix" that appear when you have only the base version) and find the right template.
In the end I chose the standard for "construction company" whose fixed picture-the picture of a viaduct, scenes of life on a building site, and so on-they seemed suitable.
(Meanwhile the Wix premium subscription has expired, and the site went offline, you can still see it here)
As home of the background I put a video of Riyadh found on YouTube.
I added several sections: one on the group's activities, with a picture of the skyline of Doha (Qatar so) that I found on Flickr; with a glorious history-all in English, with translation into Arabic translated by Google translate;
And I completed it all with a list of awards won (all fictional, of course), a contact form and a list of fake customers made searching on Google "fake arabic logos."
After that I registered the domain AlSalwiyaGroup.com I connected the site there.
Then I opened the social profiles of Omar al-Salwiya: Twitter (because the Saudis are all using Twitter, it is known) and LinkedIn.
At this point, al-Salwiya were ready to land in Europe.
As for press releases, here are some steps that I took before starting if you were to mandarne in the future (I receive dozens a day, and I have one for my bookmarks folder):
- a mailbox that does not end in gmail.com (
I decided to go with "Islamic finance.
"- a simple text.
In my case, a few lines in which he made the announcement of the company, a quotation marks attributed to al-Salwiya on the weakness of Italian banks and the reasons of the operation, a figure thrown in at random to quantify the extent of 'investment (100 million euro).
To begin with I sent him to a series of hyper-local newspapers because, I thought, would be easier to me to publish the first there and then go up once Google would begin to appear on my results the Saudi and his company.
And indeed it did: most newspapers ignored my email, but the few that I have taken have been enough to fill one page of results.
They not used it other, so no one goes beyond the first page of Google.
A few days later, on a Skyscrapercity.com-themed forum-city and urban planning they have begun to appear thread imminent arrival of the Saudis and what it would mean for the city.
"Hello guys, it seems that the Saudis in al-Salwiya Group want to finance a new urban regeneration project," wrote one user.
"From what we read between the lines it seems that the seat just want to build it from scratch!"
He commented another.
The second and third day of my experiment I sent the same email to other levels tested a little bit higher than the various I-Lorenteggio, La Martesana and Rho News.
This time the goal was not to create results on Google, but to know my name.
It happened almost immediately: on January 24 ended up on Italian affairs.
Business Italian has a good catchment area, and the "Islamic finance" expression sparked quite the reaction I had anticipated.
Within a few days, the piece has done more than 3000 shares.
In general, the reactions were apocalyptic tones below the post: "What's the next step?
Breaking down the churches and remove the crosses from cemeteries? "
There was no lack findings filled with bitterness: "We should not blame those who do it but who let him."
But my favorite comments were those who dared geopolitical analysis: "They are eager to integrate economically anywhere in several ways.
Given that oil will not last forever.
They are watching over and probably will be saved by exploiting the West ... and the West will sink. "
These sentiments were not only expressed in the comments of Tom and Dick.
Between 3000 and broken piece of shares in fact there were some fairly significant: for example, that Paola Bacchiddu (journalist and former head of communication of the list The Other Europe Tsipras in 2014), to Kawtar Barghout (Italian-Moroccan blogger who writes the Journal, known as "right-wing Muslim") and that of Maryan Ismail, a candidate in the regional in Lombardy with Fontana, who used al-Salwiya to campaign.
But my favorite remains the one in Rome sucks-a blogger that deals so often polemical everything about Rome, the urban decor and the management of the city-who complained of the fact that investments are always in Milan and never in Rome.
Even more or less extreme buffalo sites and right they are thrown to the fish.
The history of Islamic finance, which is to invade Italy because here the banks are weak was chopped by a seriedi profiles right Twitter, has been spit out by fake news sites like VoxNews and ImolaOggi and finally was served by the website the official South-Salvini with the southern section of the League.
Meanwhile, the history of Islamic finance began to feed my inbox.
From the form of site contact came curriculum and spontaneous applications from people who wanted to work with me (even with executive-a guy roles had proposed me as country manager), my private writing, and companies that wanted to do business with me and journalists who do not eager to interview me.
There was the CEO of a startup trading he wanted to convince me financially, I convinced he had found the goose that lays the golden eggs, a company that deals with certifications for companies working in the field of Islamic finance (the real one) that persistently tried to contact me probably because the al-Salwiya Group does not resulted certified company, an Italian banking law expert who wrote to me to tell me to contact him if I ever needed help with the bureaucracy and the Italian regulations.
I felt very well received.
To most of these emails I never responded because I did not want to make fun of the people who were working or looking for work.
As for journalists, a particular channel has asked me to work together to give the Saudi al-Salwiya Group the right media coverage on their own channels.
the only ones have been to which I replied (as PR manager Emanuele Rossi), and what followed was a surreal phone call, with repeated calls to send "a spokesman, one of your" in transmission to be interviewed in front of which I prevaricated, saying that, having just landed in Italy, it was a moment a little 'chaotic.
"Come on, then I put you in the loop of our press releases," he said.
At this point I felt like saying that he learned this great truth in the media world is like the game of Telephone Wireless.
Come taken from a source makes you end up on another and then another, and so on.
Some time ago I followed the epic of Alexander Proto that on this thing we built a career for years managed to pass himself off as a millionaire financier, the promise of the center and a personal friend of Trump, and just sending out press releases to editors newspaper in which he said that his real estate group was treating this or that affair with a famous person.
In practice it applied that famous phrase of Goebbels: a lie repeated a number of times until it became real.
In my case, however, after two weeks of experiment the situation was stationary.
Of course, al-Salwiya was finished on a certain number of sites, several newspapers were interested in interviewing him, his email box was bursting.
But now the pressure of the press release was running out.
Until then, one Thursday in late February-two weeks of my experiment and after sending the press release-jumping has come.
My Saudi ended in Avvenire.
Although a Catholic daily, Avvenire is one of the Italian newspapers that respect the most, because in many respects is more serious and open the Republic.
I respect him so much that I had not even considered among the newspapers that send my press releases.
Yet there he was, Omar al-Salwiya, that "in the frame of Riad Business Forum" (which does not exist) announced "plans to enter the European market through an office that will be located in Milan."
In accordance with Article arouse the news "more of a question," these questions seemed to apply only to administrative and legal aspects of the transaction ( "in Italy, in fact, there are no regulations that allow the opening of banks' sharia -compliant ' ") and not the actual existence of the company or of my Saudi, presented as a manager" son of the founder of the Saudi giant al-Salwiya construction Company, from 1977 starring the fields of construction, urban planning and infrastructure.
In time, al-Salwiya family has been able to expand its activities by opening a luxury, business development and financial services. "
When they sent me on WhatsApp the photo of this short article could not believe it.
The same evening I went to a library close to home, that old newspaper copies, and check.
It was all true.
But it was still only a paragraph, a newspaper that according to latest figures sold 120 thousand copies in print and online.
Type of Free Journalists.
Because the morning after the Google alert that I had given the task to tell me for each new result with the word "al-salwiya" he emailed me segnalandomi this study to all:
"Sharia in the current account"
"Islamic finance has landed in Italy - The Saudi group Al-Salwiya Opens Office in Milan.
Spokesman: here there is room for us, banks are weak, "Free headline on page 8.
The article (here you can read it in better resolution) was not simply a copy-paste of my press release, but it was quite detailed: reported my statements, commenting, we associated various data on Islamic finance taken by the International Monetary Fund and the state the Italian legislation.
Next was even a summary sheet on the history and activities of al-Salwiya Group.
My sincere congratulations to the author for his commitment and adherence to 5W.
Unfortunately I could not find the paper Libero of that day, so I can not frame it and hang it in the house.
I like to think that it is sold out.
I like to think that morning, in some bar in a town somewhere in Italy, some old he slammed his fist on the table cursing Islamic finance.
* Actually, technically I did not send ONE email, because I sent the same release two or three times in different newspapers, within a couple of days, with several emails containing all roughly the same text.
From Vice