Confronting and anticipating rumors... A symposium at the Faculty of Al-Alsun

The Community Service and Environmental Development Sector at the Faculty of Al-Alsun, Ain Shams University, organized a symposium entitled "Facing and Anticipating Rumors", under the auspices of Prof. Mahmoud El-Meteini, President of the University, Prof. Ghada Farouk, Acting as Vice President for Community Service and Environmental Development, Prof. Salwa Rashad, Dean of the Faculty, and the supervision of Prof. Youmna Safwat, Vice Dean for Community Service and Environmental Development, during which Major General Pilot Dr. Hisham Al-Halabi, Advisor at Nasser Military Academy, lectured and moderated the symposium, Dr. Ayman Salama, a professor of international law and a member of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, and a member of the Faculty Council.

During her inaugural speech, Prof. Youmna Safwat, Vice Dean for Community Service and Environmental Development, said that rumors are a threat to Egyptian society in an unprecedented way during the current stage, and civil society institutions, led by universities, must develop a clear strategy to confront these risks that aim to directly destabilize the security and stability of Egyptian society.

While Prof. Ayman Salama, Professor of International Law and member of the Faculty Council, said that the cultural season at the Faculty of Al-Alsun is full of distinguished personalities and rich information that contributes to building the knowledge layer of university students.

Pilot Major General Dr. Hisham Al-Halabi, advisor at Nasser Military Academy, confirmed that the Faculty of Al-Alsun is a national security since the era of Muhammad Ali Pasha, as the faculty was one of the pillars upon which the comprehensive development of modern Egypt was built to transfer knowledge and sciences to Egypt from abroad, explaining that the faculty sheds light on knowledge from Through translations for the development of the homeland.

He went on to point out that rumors cannot be dealt with without knowing their concept. It is the promotion of fabricated news or contains part of the truth, or part of the truth appended with false information, and he stressed that citizens are the ones who unintentionally contribute to its promotion in a large and rapid manner.

Pointing out that the aim of the rumors is to create instability, frustration, and the fluctuation of the national position of the homeland, and pointed out that the statistics of the Egyptian Cabinet confirm that we encountered 21 thousand rumors in only three months, which is evidence of the cooperation of a group of intelligence agencies against Egypt, and those rumors targeted the ministries at a rate of 800 rumors per Ministry, working to disperse ministries to confront rumors and disrupt the work of these vital institutions.

Haditha continued, stressing that creating instability and losing hope in the future for the youth is an intelligence ploy aimed at striking the Egyptian state in its strongest characteristics, as the Egyptian state has 100 million, 60% of whom are young people, and they are the driving forces for Egypt, and with their loss of hope, the future of Egypt will be destroyed.

Haditha continued, pointing out that Egypt's recruiting base is 60 million fighters for the Egyptian Armed Forces, which are military forces that cannot be underestimated, and the creation and promotion of rumors aims to disperse society, terrorize them, kill the ambition of youth and destroy the state from within, stressing that the people of Egypt, since the civilization of the Pharaohs, are among the creative peoples and spread rumors. Creativity is destroyed due to despair and frustration, and the exaggeration of problems contributes to changing the characteristics of the Egyptian personality for the worse, making it difficult to learn, guide and lose hope.

Rumors contribute to the spread of crimes alien to society, and also contribute to attracting young people to extremism and falling into the nets of terrorists to exploit them against their homeland.

During the symposium, he reviewed the types of rumours, including slow ones, which circulate slowly, where vague and small information is presented only once, but it is information that arouses the interest of the recipient, so the citizen searches for information related to it and contributes to spreading the rumor by circulating asking questions about it, and the quick rumor, which is a quick piece of news. It also spreads and quickly disappears, and it is an investment in an event in the country for a period of time that is not short and there is no clear information about it. The third type is the recurring rumor, such as annual exams, and repeated rumors about them, such as leakage of exams or other rumors that are launched repeatedly about the same event at a specific date. And the offensive rumor that is launched against a responsible person in the state to demolish the achievements that are taking place on the ground, and there is the fear rumor that aims to sow fear of the future and destabilize the security and stability of society, and the reconnaissance rumor is an attempt to explore the reaction of the street towards a specific event, directing a warning tone to indulge in a procedure Opinion polls on social media pages, explaining that it is very dangerous because it is used by the intelligence services to create rumors against us.

On how to confront rumors, he explained that the severity of the rumor is equal to the degree of interest of the subject to the citizens in the degree of ambiguity, and by making the degree of ambiguity equal to zero, the rumor is eliminated, by searching for the truth from knowledgeable people and the Cabinet Information Center that clarifies the facts.

In conclusion, Prof. Youmna Safwat, Vice Dean for Community Service and Environmental Development, honored Major General Pilot Dr. Hesham Al-Halabi, Advisor at Nasser Military Academy, and handed him a certificate of appreciation for his contributions to developing awareness of the college students and enriching the symposium with important information.