False Tamaki info reposted mostly by X users outside Okinawa

Almost all reposts of an online post containing false information about Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki, who failed to secure re-election in Sunday’s gubernatorial race, were made by social media users outside the prefecture, an analysis showed Wednesday.

The false X post made at around 10 a.m. on July 26 claimed that Tamaki had decided to relocate U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in the city of Ginowan to the Henoko coastal area in Nago.

The post in question also claimed that the campaign against the base relocation was a publicity stunt orchestrated by Tamaki.

It was also structured, at first glance, to make it appear, with a photo, that Tamaki himself had described the relocation decision as a “brilliant decision.”

The number of reposts stood at 54 in the first hour after the original post appeared on X, snowballing to over 1,300 reposts in three hours, over 3,600 reposts in six hours and over 9,000 reposts within 24 hours, according to a survey using social media analysis tool Brandwatch.

Locations of social media users could be deduced for a total of 1,927 reposts made within the first 24 hours through their profiles, social media messages and current location information.

A total of 98.8% of such reposts were made by social media users outside Okinawa, with those in Tokyo accounting for over 60%. The number of such posts made from Okinawa stood at only 24, or 1.2% of the total.

Contrary to what the post said, there is no evidence that Tamaki had decided to relocate the base. The “brilliant decision” remark was found unrelated to the base relocation.

While some social media posts were made the following day or after to point out the factual errors, even the most widespread such post only had about 600 reposts in the first 24 hours.

In August, Japan Fact-Check Center, a nonprofit organization, concluded that the post in question was “false.”

Genta Koja, who won the gubernatorial election and is set to become Okinawa’s new governor on Sept. 30, was also caught up in a social media misinformation issue.

His camp came out to say that it had not created an election poster-like image that was doing the rounds on X. The “poster,” with Koja’s photo, said that he would aim to create an Okinawa that serves the national interest.

During the election campaign period between Aug. 27 and Sunday, about 1.67 million posts on X contained the words “Okinawa gubernatorial election.” Of about 360,000 posts whose location of origin could be deduced, about 95% were from outside Okinawa.