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28 May 2022

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Misleading

Non-altered (not manipulated) evidence is used out of context or in a misleading way. The key evidence may be fact-based, but the claim and information associated with the evidence is not true.

COVID-19 Misleading 

Misleading: This video does not show Mexican immigrants in “storage containers” in the US; it shows mobile homes at a quarantine site in China

12 April 202116 April 2021 2 min read

A tweet suggested the U.S. President Joe Biden has created what looks like “concentration camps” at the U.S.-Mexican border but the embedded video clip actually shows a COVID-19 quarantine site in Yunnan province, China.

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Misleading post of protester being shot at
Misleading 

Misleading: This picture does not show a protester in Kalay, Myanmar, being shot with his hands raised

26 March 202121 April 2021 2 min read

The photo claims to show a man named Zin Myo Maung being shot in Kalay in Myanmar. However, the photo was taken in Yangon and does not show him.

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misleading
Misleading 

Misleading: These photos do not show the Burmese burning the Sino-Myanmar pipeline

24 March 202120 April 2021 2 min read

Photos in the tweet are either old news photos or stock photos. None of the photos was taken in Myanmar or related to the ongoing protests.

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Misleading 

Misleading: Two pictures in this collage show protesters in Turkey, not Myanmar

19 February 202116 April 2021 5 min read

While some images show the scenes from the ongoing protests in Myanmar, others are old photos taken in Turkey in 2011 and 2013.

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Misleading 

Misleading: These rescue photos do not show Vietnamese working for ‘illegal islands’ in the South China Sea

12 January 202116 April 2021 8 min read

The crew members had been stranded on a grounded dredger for three days that had just completed a construction work in the Cua Viet channel.

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COVID-19 Misleading 

Misleading: Number of confirmed COVID-19 cases at Japan’s airports does not correspond to domestic cases in China

8 January 202116 April 2021 8 min read

Annie Lab found the popular online calculation has no validity. Three datasets do not show what the claim implied at all.

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van
Misleading 

Misleading: This video does not show Hong Kongers being transported to “re-education camps”

18 December 202016 April 2021 5 min read

It shows supporters of jailed activists Joshua Wong and two others bidding farewell when the trio left court after sentencing, not being sent to re-education camps.

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nanjing road
Misleading 

Misleading: This video does not show closed stores in Shanghai or China’s economic collapse

14 December 202016 April 2021 7 min read

The Nanjing Road in this video is not in Shanghai. It is located in one of the counties of Jiangsu province.

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Misleading 

Misleading: This video shows kindergarten education in China, not Japan

25 November 202016 April 2021 7 min read

Children being taught about public transportation etiquette were from Xinjiang, China.

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Misleading 

Misleading: This video does not show China using a large sonic gun to harass Indian soldiers

9 November 202016 April 2021 4 min read

The original video was produced in 2016. It shows a fire alarm, not a sonic gun. It has nothing to do with the China-India conflict in 2020.

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Misleading 

Misleading: This video shows failed rocket launch in Japan, not China

2 November 202016 April 2021 3 min read

The rocket in the video was actually developed in Japan by a startup company Interstellar Technologies. The Japanese rocket, named MOMO-2, failed to launch and exploded more than two years ago on June 30, 2018, in the northern island of Hokkaido.

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COVID-19 Misleading 

Misleading: Popular coronavirus origin video by Hong Kong legislator consists of unsubstantiated conspiracy claims

25 August 202016 April 2021 4 min read

Pro-establishment legislator Ann Chiang Lai-wan’s popular video features a number of misleading and false claims that have been debunked.

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COVID-19 Misleading 

Misleading: US health agency did not find Lianhua Qingwen effective in COVID-19 treatment

25 August 202020 February 2022 2 min read

The study in question was actually conducted by researchers in China and published in a journal by a Dutch company.

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Misleading 

Misleading: Giant hogweed seeds are not immediately dangerous and there’s no evidence mysterious mail from China contains them

18 August 202016 April 2021 8 min read

There is no verifiable report of unsolicited packages from China containing giant hogweed seeds.

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Misleading 

Misleading: Video of wall collapsing in flood was shot in Indonesia, not China

17 August 202016 April 2021 4 min read

The video was taken in January in West Java, Indonesia, during heavy rainfall.

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Misleading 

Misleading: Popular photo of USSR flag-waving protestors not related to this year’s Black Lives Matter movement

7 August 202016 April 2021 11 min read

The two-year-old image has been used misleadingly by activists and politicians, sometimes in comparison with the protests in Hong Kong.

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COVID-19 Misleading 

Misleading: COVID-19 vaccines not ready for clinical comparison or pricing

30 July 202016 April 2021 8 min read

Two vaccines for COVID-19 are still in the experimental stage and nobody can determine their price or effectiveness right now.

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Misleading 

Misleading: Some photos and videos are not related to ‘grain stock fires’ in Chinese cities

13 July 202016 April 2021 7 min read

The photo was shot in the US and the video was filmed last year at a cooking oil storehouse.

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Misleading 

Misleading: City engulfed in flood waters in popular video is not Chongqing, China

7 July 202016 April 2021 4 min read

The video was taken in Genoa, Italy, either in 2011 or earlier. It was not filmed this year, or in 2019 or 2014.

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Misleading 

Misleading: Popular tornado video is old and not filmed in Beijing or Xilinhot

6 July 202016 April 2021 4 min read

The powerful tornado shown in the video was actually filmed in Kaiyuan, Liaoning, a year ago.

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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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