“We must suspend judgment” in the face of shocking information, warns Tristan Mendès-France, conspiracy specialist

The explosion at a Gaza hospital left many victims on Tuesday. “Faced with violent, extreme images, our natural threshold of vigilance will lower,” indicates a conspiracy specialist.

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A hospital in Gaza was hit by an explosion on October 17, 2023. (BELAL KHALED / ANADOLU)

Tristan Mendès-France, associate lecturer at Paris Diderot University, specialist in digital cultures and collaborator of the Conspiracyist Observatory, alerted Wednesday October 18 on franceinfo on the behavior to have on social networks when faced with shocking images. “We must suspend judgment”assures the one who also hosts the podcast Complorama on franceinfo.

>> Explosion in a Gaza hospital: what the images show

During events like that of the Gaza hospital explosion on Tuesday October 17, where it remains difficult to know the origin, Israel and Hamas accusing each other, Tristan Mendès-France recognizes “that we are in an information fog, induced by the multiplicity of actors who produce content and who each have particular agendas”.

The conspiracy specialist also explains that “faced with violent, extreme images, our natural threshold of vigilance will weaken”which pushes, for example, to share in a way “viral” content that has not been verified. “There is no injunction to take a position in the face of a tragedy”advises Tristan Mendès-France.

Finally, he reminds us that it is necessary “truly trust the serious media, which are well established and which do work which will take time to establish the reality of the facts. The time for validating information is not the time for emotion”.


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