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16 August 2022

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False

The claim is demonstrably false. The photo/video has been doctored. Main debunking is about the claim and/or the authenticity of photo/video.

False 

False: Photo of Chinese and Russian soldiers taken in 2014 in Jordan, not Ukraine in 2022

12 August 2022 2 min read

The two participated in the Annual Warrior Competition held by the Jordanian Armed Forces in Amman in 2014.

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False 

False: Video shows dead fish found in Huizhou in 2021, not in Taiwan after China’s military drills

8 August 202211 August 2022 2 min read

The fish kill reportedly took place at Shuangyue Bay in Guangdong in November 2021. It has nothing to do with the recent Chinese military exercise near Taiwan.

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COVID-19 False 

False: Monkeypox has nothing to do with Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines

28 July 20228 August 2022 3 min read

Monkeypox has been reported in 77 countries including India, Russia, and Venezuela where the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is not available. Experts say there is no link between the two.

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False 

False: Japan’s ex-PM Abe did not ‘answer a phone call’ in ambulance

21 July 202226 July 2022 2 min read

Shinzo Abe collapsed shortly after he was shot and fell unconscious. The misleading social media posts in Chinese appear to stem from inaccurate translations of a local news report.

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"FALSE" stamped on screenshots of Twitter and Instagram posts
COVID-19 False 

False: Japan’s Abe did not oversee vaccine rollout or distribute ivermectin

18 July 202222 July 2022 4 min read

A widely shared conspiracy theory suggested Japan’s former prime minister was assassinated because he disobeyed the World Economic Forum. Annie Lab looked into three specific claims and found all of them unsubstantiated.

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False 

False: Images of ‘smiling’ newscasters announcing Shinzo Abe’s death are doctored

15 July 202219 July 2022 5 min read

Annie Lab obtained the videos of original broadcast and can confirm the two anchors were not smiling. The doctored images were created by a photo editing app for mobile devices called FaceApp.

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False 

False: Polish president did not recently indicate changing or reversing the anti-abortion law

7 July 202215 July 2022 3 min read

The last time the Polish president indicated making any changes to the abortion law was almost two years ago.

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False 

False: Water in container does not prove Chinese astronauts are not in space

5 July 20228 July 2022 4 min read

Experts say it is possible for water to remain inside a container in space because of surface tension. It is also possible to fill a container with water in a space station.

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False 

False: This headshot does not show a ‘19-year-old’ Tangshan victim

25 June 202228 June 2022 2 min read

The image was uploaded on a photo-sharing platform in 2019. The blogger refuted the rumor on her social media account.

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COVID-19 False 

False: This video in China shows anti-pandemic drama, not a staged ‘fake’ tragedy

21 June 202230 June 2022 4 min read

The clip has been traced to a Douyin account of one of the actors in the drama, posted in 2020.

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False 

False: Video of public death penalty trial shows Myanmar, not China

7 June 202210 June 2022 2 min read

The public hearing and execution took place in Wa Self-Administered Region in Myanmar where authorities also speak Mandarin Chinese.

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Claim that Ukrainian President Zelenskky admitted to using cocaine in an interview
Fact check False 

False: Zelenskyy did not say he uses cocaine in this interview

26 April 2022 2 min read

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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claim that ukrainian citizen interrupted news broadcast to protest Zelenskyy is false
Fact check False 

False: Woman protesting against Zelenskyy on Ukrainian TV is a digital mashup

1 April 20227 April 2022 3 min read

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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Fact check False 

False: Putin was not holding a picture of the late King Bhumibol of Thailand

4 March 20225 March 2022 2 min read

The image is manipulated. The original shows Putin holding his father’s portrait in 2015.

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False 

False: Video of man punching banana tree was filmed in Indonesia last year, not Tonga in 2022

18 January 20225 March 2022 3 min read

The video was posted in December 2021 and shows the tidal bore in Kampar river in Indonesia.

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Featured image
COVID-19 False In-depth Investigation 

False: COVID-19 vaccines did not kill 29,939 people in Europe

7 January 20222 March 2022 5 min read

There is no established causal relationship between these deaths and vaccination.

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COVID-19 False 

False: This video does not show China using livestock transport trucks to move people to quarantine

23 November 2021 3 min read

The misleading video has been edited. A longer version shows the truck was evacuating people out of flooded roads.

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False 

False: This video does not show Hong Kongers singing a patriotic song in a mall on National Day

12 November 202117 November 2021 2 min read

A different audio track was added to old footage taken during the 2019 Hong Kong protest.

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Screenshot of the Reddit post and the manipulated image
Fact check False 

False: Image of white man with ‘Black Lives Matter’ flag standing on the back of two Black people is digitally manipulated

8 November 2021 3 min read

The “Black Lives Matter” flag is taken from another photo and was added to what appears to be an older tourist image.

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Fact check False 

False: This video does not show Chinese police ‘kidnapping’ a Uyghur girl in Xinjiang

8 November 20218 November 2021 4 min read

It actually shows an officer trying to protect the girl from a bike coming at her. The video was taken in Suining, Sichuan, not in Xinjiang.

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Annie Lab newsroom is a fact-checking project at HKU Journalism, in collaboration with ANNIE, a not-for-profit educational organization that promotes news literacy in Asia through collaborative curriculum development.

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