Skip to content
1 February 2023

annie lab

@HKU Journalism | IFCN Signatory

  • Home
  • 中文 (繁/简)
  • Ukraine
  • In-depth
  • Hotline
  • Our Standards
  • About Us
    • @HKU Journalism
    • IFCN Signatory
    • 國際事實查核聯盟認證
  • In the Media
  • Archive

Misleading

The claim is accompanied by non-altered evidence but it is used out of context or in a demonstrably misleading way. The key evidence may be fact-based, but the claim and information associated with the evidence are not true.

COVID-19 Misleading 

Misleading: Japanese study on mask hygiene does not support dropping mask mandate

25 January 202326 January 2023 3 min read

The 2022 study by researchers at an Osaka-based university actually recommends the hygienic use of masks and cautions people, especially those with immune issues, against repeated use of the same masks to avoid potentially pathogenic microbes that can grow on the surface.

Read
Fact check Misleading 

Misleading: These images of street sign and police are not related to China’s COVID-19 protests

28 December 202228 December 2022 4 min read

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.

Read
Fact check Misleading 

Misleading: Group singing of ‘The Internationale’ was performed in 2021 as celebration, not protest

8 December 2022 1 min read

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.

Read
Misleading 

Misleading: Liaison Office photo was taken months before Jiang Zemin’s death

5 December 20225 December 2022 3 min read

The viral photo is a screen capture of a TV news report in April. Many people in Hong Kong also lined up and offered flowers to the deceased former Chinese president outside the Liaison Office on Dec. 1.

Read
COVID-19 Misleading 

Misleading: Video shows Chengdu Marathon, not people taking PCR tests in China

4 December 2022 3 min read

The video actually shows marathon participants waiting for the start on Nov. 20, 2022.

Read
Misleading 

Misleading: Video shows Yiwu market in Shenzhen, not Zhejiang’s world’s largest wholesale market

23 November 202223 November 2022 2 min read

The video has nothing to do with the famous Yiwu International Trade City in Zhejiang, also known as the Yiwu market, which was locked down only for 10 days in mid-August.

Read
COVID-19 Misleading 

Misleading: Image of peacocks wrapped in cardboard has nothing to do with COVID-19 test

22 November 2022 2 min read

This photo was posted in March 2019, months before the pandemic began, when the birds were brought to the Yunnan Arts University in China.

Read
COVID-19 Fact check Misleading 

Misleading: Kids spacesuit is for celebrating China’s space mission, not for preventing COVID-19

21 November 202223 November 2022 3 min read

China successfully launched its Shenzhou-12 and 13 spacecraft in 2021. Many children wore spacesuit costumes at school’s sporting events that year.

Read
COVID-19 Fact check Misleading 

Misleading: This ‘eerie’ video does not show people following China’s strict COVID rules

18 November 202221 November 2022 3 min read

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.

Read
Misleading 

Misleading: This photo has nothing to do with protest messages in China’s public bathrooms

17 November 202221 December 2022 3 min read

This image is at least 12 years old. It has nothing to do with recent anti-Chinese government messages found in public restrooms.

Read
Misleading 

Misleading: Media’s Guangzhou protest coverage includes old video from 2017

16 November 202221 November 2022 3 min read

BBC, Al Jazeera and other news organizations included five-year-old footage from Qingyuan that has nothing to do with the recent protests in Guangzhou.

Read
Fact check Misleading 

False: Video shows fire in Hebei, not Beijing’s Xizhimen Hotel

7 November 20229 November 2022 2 min read

The fire occurred in the Nanxinglong residential area in the city of Chengde in Hebei province.

Read
Misleading 

Misleading: Anti-Chinese government banner was hung in Los Angeles, not in Guangzhou

31 October 20221 November 2022 2 min read

Self-proclaimed advocate for the independence of Guangdong province staged a protest in the U.S.

Read
Misleading 

Misleading: Protest in Chongqing happened last year over parking fees, not last month over social restrictions

19 October 202219 October 2022 2 min read

The viral video was filmed in July 2021. The protest broke out in one of the Evergrande residential complexes in the city, according to news reports.

Read
COVID-19 Misleading 

Misleading: This dark building is not where victims of fatal Guizhou bus accident lived

18 October 20221 November 2022 2 min read

All 45 passengers lived in another district. The misleading photo shows an unrelated building six kilometers away.

Read
Fact check Misleading 

Misleading: Graduation video is manipulated. It does not show a speech at Peking University

17 October 20221 November 2022 3 min read

The popular video combines footage of a graduation ceremony in Macau with an unrelated audio track.

Read
Fact check Misleading 

Misleading: ‘Reckless’ police car in China was driven by intoxicated man, not duty officer

14 October 202225 October 2022 2 min read

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.

Read
COVID-19 Misleading 

Misleading: Video shows panic at a US county fair, not COVID-19 scare in China

14 October 202217 October 2022 2 min read

Local reports say people ran in panic after a shooting scare at a travelling carnival in Texas on Sept. 23.

Read
Misleading 

Misleading: Video shows 2020 US Navy expedition, not Pelosi being escorted to Taiwan

18 August 202219 August 2022 2 min read

The video shows a military exercise called Valiant Shield in the South China Sea in 2020.

Read
Misleading 

Misleading: China did not update the national map after Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan

17 August 202224 August 2022 2 min read

Some internet users say China published a new map to include many disputed areas and Taiwan, but the map in question is not new. The so-called “10-dash line” has been around for decades.

Read
Misleading 

Misleading: Apple and Google Maps have been calling Taiwan a “province” for years, not just after Pelosi’s visit

16 August 2022 1 min read

The controversy surrounding Taiwan’s status on the two maps goes back for more than a decade.

Read
Fact check Misleading 

Misleading: These videos have nothing to do with recent wildfires or climate change

2 August 202212 August 2022 5 min read

Annie Lab looked into two video clips claiming wildfires are manmade, which also implied climate change is not real.

Read
Fact check Misleading 

Misleading: Video does not show celebrations after Italian PM’s resignation

25 July 202227 July 2022 3 min read

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.

Read
Fact check Misleading 

Misleading: Video does not show fire in Vatican City

21 July 202229 July 2022 2 min read

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.

Read
Fact check Misleading 

Misleading: Image sequence reversed to make watermelons appear stolen from Abe’s memorial

18 July 202221 July 2022 3 min read

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.

Read
Fact check Misleading 

Analysis: Viral social media posts about Dutch farmers’ protests

15 July 202212 August 2022 6 min read

Annie Lab investigated two images used in misleading social media posts about the ongoing farmers’ protests in the Netherlands.

Read
Misleading 

Misleading: Video shows a rescue robot in Japan, not Communist Party’s ‘corpse picker’

14 July 202210 January 2023 2 min read

The Japanese rescue robot is called Robocue. The Tokyo Fire Department introduced it in 2009.

Read
Misleading 

Misleading: Although CO2 facilitates plant growth, excessive amount could be harmful as well

13 July 20226 September 2022 4 min read

Experts say increased carbon dioxide impacts the natural ecosystem as a whole. The science of climate change has advanced since the 1920 experiment mentioned in the misleading tweet.

Read
Misleading 

Misleading: Photo of litter-filled street does not show the aftermath of climate protest in Netherlands

6 July 20228 July 2022 3 min read

The photo has nothing to do with the protest. It shows a trashed area outside the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam before the concert of singer Billie Eilish.

Read
COVID-19 Misleading 

Misleading: ATMs in Shanghai were never suspended over fears of virus-carrying banknotes

30 June 20225 July 2022 5 min read

Banking services in Shanghai were suspended during the lockdown from mid-March to the end of May 2022. In June, they were fully in operation.

Read
  • ← Previous

  • HOME
  • 中文
  • In-depth
  • About US
  • Our Labels & Standards
  • Hotline
  • In the Media
  • Archive

About us

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.

Creative Commons License
Our work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Copyright © 2019 - 2023 annie lab. All rights reserved. CC BY-ND.