Analysis: An array of misinformation about earthquakes in Turkey
Annie Lab examined some popular social media content posted after the devastating quakes in Turkey and Syria.
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False
The claim is demonstrably false. The photo/video has been doctored. Stories investigate factual validity of the claim and/or the authenticity of photo/video.
False: This Tiananmen Square video does not show China’s COVID-19 protests
The video was taken during the National Day celebration on Oct. 1, 2022. The audio track of chanting voices was added from an unrelated military training video shot in 2021 in Tianjin.
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False: Elon Musk’s ‘buying TikTok’ tweet was created by modifying HTML
The user who created the fake tweet says it was made by changing HTML codes.
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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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False: This image of Greta Thunberg’s ‘weight gain’ is also doctored
The new viral photo manipulated a picture uploaded four years ago. Various recent news photos do not show any major changes in her appearance.
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False: This video was not shot in Iran; it shows old protest footage in Ukraine and Hong Kong
It is a composite of different footage featuring protesters hurling Molotov cocktails with slingshots in Ukraine in 2014 and in Hong Kong in 2019.
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False: This video shows ongoing protests in Iran, not celebrations over Khamenei’s ‘death’
Protesters chanted, “death to the dictator.” It does not connote the supreme leader’s death, as implied in the tweet. Khamenei is alive and made speeches in public after the post.
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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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False: This marching soldier has nothing to do with Putin’s call-up of reservists
The earliest version of the same video we found was posted in 2019, three years before Russia announced drafting 300,000 more reservists in the ongoing war with Ukraine in late September.
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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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False: Video of violence against woman is unrelated to human trafficking in Cambodia
The clip shows a woman repeatedly beaten up by three men in Brazil. Local media said she was attacked in a dispute over drugs.
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False: Photo shows a Thai woman killed in 2019, not a Taiwanese victim of human trafficking
The Thai woman was reportedly murdered by a serial killer. The images have nothing to do with the victims of recent employment scams in Southeast Asia.
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False: Japan did not warn China of retaliation over missile landing
The “statement” shared on Chinese social media is not official. It originates from a Japanese tweet that simply expressed the user’s view on the incident.
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False: Photo of Chinese and Russian soldiers taken in 2014 in Jordan, not Ukraine in 2022
The two participated in the Annual Warrior Competition held by the Jordanian Armed Forces in Amman in 2014.
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False: Video shows dead fish found in Huizhou in 2021, not in Taiwan after China’s military drills
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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False: Monkeypox has nothing to do with Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines
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: Japan’s ex-PM Abe did not ‘answer a phone call’ in ambulance
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: Japan’s Abe did not oversee vaccine rollout or distribute ivermectin
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: Images of ‘smiling’ newscasters announcing Shinzo Abe’s death are doctored
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: Polish president did not recently indicate changing or reversing the anti-abortion law
The last time the Polish president indicated making any changes to the abortion law was almost two years ago.
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False: Water in container does not prove Chinese astronauts are not in space
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: This headshot does not show a ‘19-year-old’ Tangshan victim
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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False: This video in China shows anti-pandemic drama, not a staged ‘fake’ tragedy
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: Video of public death penalty trial shows Myanmar, not China
The public hearing and execution took place in Wa Self-Administered Region in Myanmar where authorities also speak Mandarin Chinese.
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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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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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False: Video of man punching banana tree was filmed in Indonesia last year, not Tonga in 2022
The video was posted in December 2021 and shows the tidal bore in Kampar river in Indonesia.
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False: COVID-19 vaccines did not kill 29,939 people in Europe
There is no established causal relationship between these deaths and vaccination.
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False: This video does not show China using livestock transport trucks to move people to quarantine
The misleading video has been edited. A longer version shows the truck was evacuating people out of flooded roads.
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