False: Tea culture event falsely described as ‘enslavement’ of black people in China
The black women seen picking tea leaves in the video are international students attending a tea-harvesting event in Jiangxi province.
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Fact check
Misleading: Video of prominent factories closure in China includes plants that are still in business
Two of the four factories are still operating, while the other two were reportedly shut down for losses incurred before the pandemic.
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Misleading: This trash mountain is located in Indonesia, not China
The viral video shows one of the world’s largest landfills in Bantar Gebang in Bekasi on the outskirts of Jakarta in Indonesia.
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Analysis: Geolocating China’s medical insurance reform protests
Annie Lab tracked down a dozen protest videos allegedly about China’s medical insurance reform in Wuhan and Dalian.
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Misleading: These images of street sign and police are not related to China’s COVID-19 protests
Wulumuqi Zhong Road (乌鲁木齐中路) in Shanghai was not renamed to Wu Zhong Road (乌中路). The image of a police officer holding a “white paper” comes from a two-year-old public services announcement video.
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Misleading: Group singing of ‘The Internationale’ was performed in 2021 as celebration, not protest
The video was produced last July to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. It has nothing to do with recent COVID-19 protests in the country.
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Misleading: Kids spacesuit is for celebrating China’s space mission, not for preventing COVID-19
China successfully launched its Shenzhou-12 and 13 spacecraft in 2021. Many children wore spacesuit costumes at school’s sporting events that year.
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False: This video shows fire in Daegu, not near Halloween crowd crush at Itaewon in Seoul
The fire in Daegu, a city about 240 kilometers from Seoul, broke out on the same night the widely-reported crowd surge occurred at Itaewon.
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Misleading: This ‘eerie’ video does not show people following China’s strict COVID rules
The video consists of two pieces of footage. One shows students wearing white raincoats, and the other shows construction workers building a makeshift hospital in Shanghai.
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False: Video shows fire in Hebei, not Beijing’s Xizhimen Hotel
The fire occurred in the Nanxinglong residential area in the city of Chengde in Hebei province.
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False: Photo shows two US aircraft carriers; neither is China’s Fujian warship
The image shows USS Gerald R. Ford and John F. Kennedy docked in Virginia last year. It does not show China’s latest aircraft carrier launched with fanfare in June.
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Misleading: Graduation video is manipulated. It does not show a speech at Peking University
The popular video combines footage of a graduation ceremony in Macau with an unrelated audio track.
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Misleading: ‘Reckless’ police car in China was driven by intoxicated man, not duty officer
The police car was seized by a man after an officer tried to intervene in an altercation between the man and a woman in Jiangsu province in 2019.
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False: Flag made of hair is a 2014 artwork, not a protest sign by Iranian women
The artwork has nothing to do with the death of a 22-year-old woman in Iran that triggered international outcry and protests.
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Misleading: These videos have nothing to do with recent wildfires or climate change
Annie Lab looked into two video clips claiming wildfires are manmade, which also implied climate change is not real.
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Misleading: Video does not show celebrations after Italian PM’s resignation
The first half of the video shows a 2021 mass protest in Rome against a vaccine pass mandate. The second half features a taxi drivers’ demonstration against a bill related to ride-hailing services.
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Misleading: Video does not show fire in Vatican City
The fire took place more than 10 kilometers away from the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church. It reportedly started in an archaeological park in an area called Centocelle in eastern Rome.
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Misleading: Image sequence reversed to make watermelons appear stolen from Abe’s memorial
Annie Lab reached out to a journalist who also took photos of the roadside memorial around the same time. The two slices of watermelon were placed later than the flowers on the ground.
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Analysis: Viral social media posts about Dutch farmers’ protests
Annie Lab investigated two images used in misleading social media posts about the ongoing farmers’ protests in the Netherlands.
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Misleading: Pope Francis was not holding a Ukrainian flag with Nazi symbol
The flag shows the symbol of the uprising in Kyiv in 2014 known as the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine.
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False: Zelenskyy did not say he uses cocaine in this interview
The video was doctored with stitched video frames and spliced audio track. In the original video of the full interview, he said he doesn’t use drugs but he is into coffee and gets his energy from daily exercise.
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False: Woman protesting against Zelenskyy on Ukrainian TV is a digital mashup
The montage mixes a live news broadcast in Ukraine with an unrelated clip using green screen technology, according to the TikTok user who made it.
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Misleading: Photo in Malaysia was used to illustrate Swatch craze in Hong Kong
Hundreds of people indeed waited outside the stores across the city, but the photo shows a long queue at a shopping mall in Malaysia.
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Misleading: ‘Shirtless Putin on a panda’ image was not used by the Economist
The image is one of the mock-up designs explored by the magazine. The published cover features only Putin’s face overlapping the face of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
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Misleading: WHO asked Ukraine to destroy pathogens in public health labs, not bioweapons
WHO routinely collaborates with member states on the safety and security of labs. Bioweapon allegations have been debunked by scientists.
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Misleading: This video shows a climate protest, not corpses in Ukraine
The video shows a demonstration held by climate activists against Vienna’s climate policy on Feb. 4, not casualties in the recent conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
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False: Putin was not holding a picture of the late King Bhumibol of Thailand
The image is manipulated. The original shows Putin holding his father’s portrait in 2015.
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Misleading: Photo of dog disposal not related to Beijing Olympics
The photo shows a dog cull in Yunnan Province in April 2006.
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Misleading: Video shows missile drill in China; not Russian attack on Ukraine
The GIF is a clip from a 2017 CCTV video about China’s People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force.
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Misleading: People handcuffed outside hospital are suspected illegal immigrants
The police told Annie Lab that seven men and 15 women were taken to the Pok Oi Hospital for COVID-19 nucleic acid testing recently.
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