In a world full of disinformation, it is more important now than it ever has been to provide concrete, truthful, and contextualised news to an audience.

I guess someone forgot to tell Rebreak ‘news’ that.

A hypothetical ‘news’ group, Rebreak is known for its “Breaking News” videos of violence between teenagers in Dundee, abuse against some of Dundee’s most vulnerable, police cars in random locations, and people who are inebriated on buses or in the streets.

But most of all, they post absolutely nothing of any value to anyone in Dundee.

Each and every one of these posts lacks any hint of context and just causes confusion online; first because no one knows what’s going on; second, because no one knows why these videos are being posted in the first place.

Damaging Content

It’s not just things out of context that get posted, but there’s also highly sensitive and damaging material too.

Just recently, a video was posted of a 14-year-old girl being attacked by other teenagers. That video has went viral because of Rebreak News, who took no action in protecting the victim’s identity, or any care in the damage that the video’s circulation would do to the victim and her family.

The group posts videos regularly of youths causing chaos around Dundee, simply labelling them as “#youngteam”. This does absolutely nothing but promote awful and violent behaviour in Dundee, yet Rebreak is relentless in posting such content, defending its actions as “informing the community.”

It really does seem like anything they receive from the public gets reposted immediately regardless of what it is, all in attempt to go viral.

Therefore, it’s obvious that Rebreak News’ sole goal is to exploit vulnerable people for views, and they will do this in a careless, uncontrolled and immature manner.

Naturally, this is incredibly damaging to Dundee and its people, as it constantly paints the city in a very bad light.

If you state your disagreement to them, or criticise the group in any way, they will shamelessly bring the ban hammer down on you.

This is not how a normal news group operates. Both the Courier and the Evening Telegraph take criticism all the time, but they will in no way censor, nor ban those who disagree with them.

It is a fundamental aspect of journalism to inform people of truth and provoke individual thought upon a topic.

Rebreak, in this case, does nothing of the sort. In fact, it seems to provoke collective thought against its own existence more than anything else.

“Not a News Channel”

In an even more bizarre move, their defences to the Courier and Evening Telegraph’s reporting on them have devolved into complete lunacy.

On Facebook, they had this to say in a response to criticism:

Yes, you read that right, Rebreak ‘News’ is not a “news”, nor a news group, despite the fact that they have identified themselves as such since their creation in 2015.

Not only that, but it’s in direct contradiction of their Facebook description:

“Keeping you informed about what’s happening in your area — from local events and breaking news to community stories that matter.”

Their logo, which brands them as “Rebreak News” is apparently not meant to be taken seriously. But also, Rebreak News wants to be taken seriously. This is especially evident when they boast of soon being “partnered” with either STV or BBC, two serious and professional platforms, attributes Rebreak does not and will likely never possess.

This partnership idea seems to have stemmed from a single time where STV asked if they could use a video they posted. It could be the case that Rebreak’s videos are often asked for by these groups, but that in no way spells out negotiations of a “partnership”. That is delusional.

In addition, only a few months ago they expressed a desire to become the main news media group within Dundee.

If that ever happens, Dundee is doomed.

Student Opinions

Asking for student opinions on Rebreak, I got nothing in lieu of positive responses:

Jack Beal:

“I feel like they just promote antisocial behaviour, painting Dundee in a bad light. Many of their videos have people assaulting each other I even saw one where someone set a fire outside someone’s door in an apartment building.

“I feel like this is why we need to spread positive stories about Dundee, I might not be Scottish but it’s a beautiful place and I love living in Dundee.”

Toby Anderson:

“They perpetuated a lot of antisocial behaviour in the city centre last year when they kept posting videos shot by a wannabe ‘gang’ of 13-year-olds called ‘the young team’ or something of that sort, getting into fights on city square and harassing Fast Eddie.

“I remember that they posted a lot of lowbrow snapchat drama too, recently they put up a video of a guy verbally abusing his mother that was recorded off snapchat, just generally a lot of irresponsible “journalism”.

“Also the pivot away from being rebreak news is funny because I remember them posting their office and having some of their ‘journalists’ as they were calling themselves speak”.

Kerr Boyle:

“They post utter nonsense, and that nonsense is extremely poor quality.”

Matthew Rees:

Politics student Matthew was approached for recruitment by Jordan Martin, a once-prominent member of the group. He asked Matthew to join the group for his ability to ask the “tough questions.” Matthew declined.

The Future of Rebreak

Rebreak has already caused so much damage to the people of Dundee and its reputation, and it seems like they want to perpetuate that damage as much as they possibly can as long as it means high viewership. Therefore, it stands to reason that they should be boycotted within Dundee, in the hope that they stop posting awful and damaging content in the city altogether.

Like a band that’s lost it, which Rebreak certainly has, they should break up, and never get back together.