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29 June 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.

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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Misleading 

Misleading: ‘Lennon Walls’ were not spared because the head of the city department supports protest movement

30 June 202016 April 2021 4 min read

Official document shows the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department cleared ‘Lennon Walls’ 950 times at 295 locations in nine months.

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Misleading 

Misleading: This photo does not show ‘anti-police education’ in a classroom

30 June 202016 April 2021 4 min read

The event took place in the foyer of the Admiralty Centre shopping arcade, not in a school of any kind, in 2014.

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Misleading 

Misleading: Satellite images of warped Three Gorges Dam in China are not accurate

26 June 202016 April 2021 7 min read

The “distortion problem” is a common phenomenon. Those images are a mosaic of satellite and aerial photographs taken on different dates.

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Misleading 

Misleading: ‘Dead’ Hong Kong journalist image is artwork, not a staged news photo

24 June 20204 July 2021 4 min read

Tommy Fung, a well-known photoshop artist, was working on his new artwork when the pictures were taken.

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Misleading 

Misleading: This US gun store robbery video is not related to the George Floyd protests

12 June 202016 April 2021 3 min read

The claim is false. The footage actually shows a robbery in Houston that took place more than four years ago, on March 1, 2016.

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COVID-19 Misleading 

Misleading: Murder of Chinese researcher in the US is not related to COVID-19

31 May 202016 April 2021 3 min read

Local police determined the case was a result of “a lengthy dispute regarding an intimate partner.”

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COVID-19 Misleading 

Misleading: Popular freedom of speech quote in China and Hong Kong is not from Plato

28 May 202022 October 2021 5 min read

The passage was likely to be taken from an essay by Zhang Xuezhong, an outspoken Chinese scholar critical of the government.

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Misleading 

Misleading: This video does not show China’s Three Gorges Dam collapsing

27 March 202016 April 2021 3 min read

It took place in southern Switzerland in 2012. Some 300,000 cubic meters of rock crashed 1,000 meters down to the valley floor.

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Misleading 

Misleading: This video does not show an American soldier trying to spread coronavirus in Wuhan

26 March 202016 April 2021 4 min read

The video was taken in Brussels, Belgium, on March 10, 2020.

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COVID-19 Misleading 

Misleading: These charts about COVID-19 contain inaccurate medical information

21 February 202022 October 2021 5 min read

Self-diagnosis based on these charts could be harmful.

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COVID-19 Misleading 

Misleading: This map does not show 5 million Wuhan residents flying out before the lockdown

14 February 202016 June 2022 2 min read

The map is merely “an illustrative picture of the global air network” that shows international flight connections.

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Misleading 

Misleading: This bird was not killed by Hong Kong police tear gas

18 November 201916 April 2021 4 min read

While the photo was not fabricated, it was taken in 2010 in the town of Berlin, Connecticut, U.S.

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Misleading 

Misleading: No formal invitation to Carrie Lam does not mean she was uninvited

26 October 201916 April 2021 3 min read

Lam was among the expected informal guests along with dignitaries from Taiwan and Macao.

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Misleading 

Misleading: A photo showing Carrie Lam on her mobile phone was taken before the Japanese emperor enthronement ceremony began

22 October 20193 November 2021 5 min read

The TV screencap was taken while dignitaries and heads of state were still arriving.

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Misleading 

Misleading: This Red Bull “freedom” video was not produced in support of the Hong Kong protests

11 October 201922 July 2021 5 min read

It was made before the HK protests. Red Bull has produced a series of similar videos in multiple languages in the past.

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Misleading 

Misleading: MTR Corporation has not revised the end-user agreement since protests began

10 October 201916 April 2021 6 min read

The clause that stipulates the conditions under which the MTR can share the user data has been in the agreement since 2014.

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Misleading 

Misleading: This photo does not show “rioters” setting fire to Junius Ho’s office

9 October 201916 April 2021 3 min read

The photo was taken in Shandong Province on September 4.

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