On March 29, Facebook user Levan Navi published a post, according to which the Suez Canal blockage for several days seemed doubtful, because the map showed nothing about what was happening there. The post is accompanied by Google Maps video and images showing a large portion of the canal in black. Later the same day, another Facebook user Catrine Maraneli also posted an identical video with a caption “What does Google hide in the Suez Canal…!”
The claim as if the Suez Canal blockage and the ongoing developments are being concealed and therefore, one of its portions is not shown in Google Maps is disinformation. A giant container ship found itself stuck sideways in the Suez Canal creating a maritime traffic jam and disrupting global shipping. A lot of satellite images depicting the fact emerged on the Internet soon after the accident. Google gets satellite images for its application through combining several photos and therefore, some portions of water are sometimes black or vague.
- Why did the Suez Canal get blocked?
Not a conspiracy theory, but rather a stuck ship became the reason for blocking the Suez Canal. One of the world’s largest container ships named “Ever Given” and owned by the Evergreen Marine Corporation was beached on March 23 in the Suez Canal after an unexpected wind and dust storm passed through the area. The ship created a maritime traffic jam in the Suez Canal and disrupted global shipping.
photo: Maxar Technologies
The 224,000-ton vessel was almost as long as the Empire State Building and therefore, it took almost six days to free the ship. Ultimately, efforts to free the container ship wedged diagonally across the Suez Canal succeeded on March 29.
- Why is one of the portions of the Suez Canal shown on Google Maps in black?
The videos circulating on social media show that one of the portions of the Suez Canal is shown in black in the Google Maps application that promoted the spread of a conspiracy theory among netizens. In fact, Google sometimes creates satellite imaginaries through combining several photos. These images are taken on different dates; so, their lighting conditions and camera angles are different. In most cases, the images are stitched together. They normally are not so noticeable, but satellite imagery of water can sometimes make stitching more visible. To illustrate this process, Google shows “a sunken ship” illusion in London, which is a regular, operating ship that might appear underwater due to the way the satellite imagery gets stitched together.
photo: Google
Other places that show a similar effect include the Panama Canal and Lock Ness Lake.
Panama Canal
Lake Loch Ness
Before circulating among Georgian netizens, conspiracy videos related to black images of the Suez Canal were spread in the United States on March 28. PolitiFact also verified the information.
As for the ship stuck in the Suez Canal, the photos showing the vessel as well as maritime traffic jam caused by it were widely circulating on the Internet and any interested person could view them. For example, several photos of Ever Given captured from various satellites were published on space.com.
photo:Airbus
Vessels stuck in the maritime traffic jam, photo: Planet Labs, Inc.
Oleg Artemyev, a Russian cosmonaut, is the author of another photo depicting the stuck shop.
- How did the ship named Ever Given become the target of conspiracy theories?
After Ever Given blocked the Suez Canal on March 23, a conspiracy theory emerged on social media according to which the vessel was involved in human trafficking operation run by Hillary Clinton. To promote their theories, the conspiracy theorists argued that the name of Ever Given’s managing company is Evergreen that is Hillary Clinton’s codename. They also suggested that the vessel’s call sign H3RC intentionally matched Clinton’s initials – HRC (Hillary Rodham Clinton).
The conspiracy theory was fact-checked by Politifact and USA Today who noted that there is no evidence that the ship stuck in the Suez Canal is linked to a human trafficking operation run by Hillary Clinton. In the interview with USA Today, Michael Vooss, a spokesman for the company Evergreen, denied that the company is “engaged in illegal activity of any sort,” adding that cargo aboard the vessel can include a wide spectrum of goods. As for the Secret Service codename Evergreen, it was assigned to First Lady Hillary Clinton in 1993, while the Panama-based company with the same name was established in 1968. As for the call sign matching Clinton’s initials, it is noteworthy that H3 is the code assigned by the National Telecommunications Administration (NTIA) to Panama and therefore, it is common for all ships flying the flag of Panama.
Conspiracy theories about the links between the stuck ship and Hillary Clinton were mainly spread by QAnon believers. These people believe that the ruling elites are involved in a large-scale network of human trafficking and child sexual abuse.
Myth Detector has verified a number of the QAnon conspiracy theories spread in Georgia:
- The information about a special operation conducted at the underground tunnel is a conspiracy by QAnon
- Who Stands Behind the Conspiracy that U.S. Americans are Allegedly Using Baby Blood to Become Prettier?
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