Short Bytes: Over the past few days, we’ve read numerous stories about ISIS terrorists using PlayStation 4 for talking to each other and planning – but it turns out that it was all due to a mistake on the behalf of a Forbes writer. There’s no evidence that PS4 was used to plan the attack.
Over the past few days, we’ve read reports about terrorists using PlayStation 4 for talking to each other and planning – but it turns out that it was all due to a reporting mistake.
The interview of Belgian federal interior minister Jan Jambon, that was used as a basis for the Forbes story, actually took three days before the Paris attacks.
Now, the Forbes reporter who established this PS4 and ISIS connection, has admitted that it was a reporting error that resulted from wrong interpretation. The minster was referring to the PS4’s Party Chat feature that allows users to exchange messages in a group.
The Forbes reporter went on to invent a story that included a PlayStation 4 console as the evidence. Minister Jan Jambon spoke about the PlayStation on November 10, 3 days before the attacks, and outlined weaknesses in Belgium’s security.
In their edited article, Forbes has corrected the mistake.
“This was actually a mistake that I’ve had to edit and correct. I misread the minister’s statement, because even though he was specifically saying that PS4 was being used by ISIS to communicate, there is no public list of evidence list of what was found in the specific recent raids. It’s my fault, as I misinterpreted his statement,” writer Paul Tassi told Kotaku.
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