Czech Police say disinformation and hateful commentaries about the mass shooting in Prague are appearing online, their authors can expect prosecution
Czech Vice Prime Minister and Interior Minister Vít Rakušan (Mayors and Independents - STAN), speaking after the official press conference regarding the mass shooting at Charles University's Faculty of Arts (FF UK), warned the public against sharing and spreading disinformation and unverified information about the events. Police are monitoring social media and have already recorded the first hateful commentaries posted in relation to yesterday.
The mass shooting in Prague has cost the lives of 14 victims and injured another 25, 10 of them seriously. Speaking after an emergency cabinet session, Rakušan expressed his appreciation for the work of the Integrated Response System (Integrovaný záchranný systém – IZS) and thanked the first officers on the scene who entered the building and exchanged fire with the attacker.
“The less visible part of our work is the monitoring of social media. Immediately after the shooting, teams of analysts began analyzing and researching various posts. The authors of the worst atrocities will have an opportunity to show their heroism when they are prosecuted for their crimes,” the Czech Police posted this morning to the X social media site along with one of the distasteful posts.
” – 11 gender Ukrainian-loving sunshiners from the FFUK isn’t a bad score, but it could be better,” a social media user with a female name posted to one Facebook group. Rakušan commented on the police post on X as follows: “Days like yesterday should bring us together, not divide us further. Crisis moments show what we actually have in us. I firmly believe that such speech is a pathological exception to the rule of the overall image of Czech society. In any event, the police will address it, and I thank them in the name of the victims of yesterday’s mass shooting.”
The post police have commented on is not the only one to appear on social media. Other distasteful posts are spreading on Facebook from the account called Napisat Osmanova (“Write to Osmanova”).
“Let’s not forget that Prague is the center of global occultism and purges are currently underway. Everything is actually different than what the TV says…” a Facebook user with a male name posted together with the message that he feels “happy” after the horrible shooting in Prague.
An X user with a male name started to spread allegations in English that the shooter was from Dnipro, Ukraine. The original post is below:
The Government held an emergency cabinet session last night, attended by Czech President Petr Pavel. The cabinet decided that Saturday, 23 December will be an official day of mourning.
Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala (Civic Democratic Party – ODS) called on the public to honor the memories of the victims of this tragedy with a minute of silence. Bells will be rung throughout the republic.
President Pavel has appealed to the media, politicians and the public not to abuse the tragedy for political purposes, not to attack the police, and not to spread disinformation. He said he considers it important, among other matters, to find a reasonable way to prevent situations such as this tragedy from recurring.
What the Czech Republic needs to exercise right now, according to Pavel, is chiefly restraint. Rakušan expressed his appreciation for the communication by the police, who have transparently conveyed everything that is fit for publication.
“That information is relevant and openly available, so let’s please base our communications on those information sources and not on unverified rumors or interpretations,” Rakušan said. In his view, the media should avoid “replicating” the shooter’s story.
The Interior Minister said he intends to track the most serious disinformation and focus on it today.
