All section Close
Fact Check: Viral WhatsApp Claiming Muslim Owned Restaurants Spitting In Food To Spread Novel Coronavirus Are Old
India, 4 April 2020 11:56 AM GMT | Updated 6 April 2020 4:28 AM GMT
Editor : Bharat Nayak |
As the founding editor, Bharat had been heading the newsroom during the formation years of the organization and worked towards editorial policies, conceptualizing and designing campaign strategies and collaborations. He believes that through the use of digital media, one could engage the millennial's in rational conversations about pertinent social issues, provoking them to think and bring a behavioral change accordingly.
By : Aditi Chattopadhyay
Aditi, part of the fact checking team of The Logical Indian likes to read, write, cook and laugh, in short live life as it is supposed to be. What makes her fascinated is to discover the truth behind a story and more often than not, it is either fact or myth at the end.
The Logical Indian Fact Check team investigated the claim that Muslim owned restaurants are spitting in food to spread Coronavirus.
A video of a restaurant worker blowing air into a paper bag is viral on social media.
A Whatsapp message along with the clip reads, "Many Muslims who own restaurants like the Empire, Imperial, paramount, Beijing bites, Hyderabadi Biryani House, Bawarchi biryani, etc employ Muslim cooks who are brainwashed by ppl who attended d Tablighi congregation in Delhi.
"They spit in d food that v order to infect us with covid19. A lot of them also work for online food delivery agencies like Swiggy, dunzo, etc. pls stop ordering food from d above-mentioned restaurants & online delivery from any restaurants at least for another couple of months".
One of our community members sent that video and asked us to verify its authenticity.
On March 20, a Facebook page "India against Urban Naxals"(1.2 Million Followers) posted the same video, The accompanying message reads, "Corona Virus, This is dangerous". The post has over 10,000 shares and 340,000 Views. Including several shared posts making misleading claims.
Claim:
Muslim owned restaurants spitting in food to spread Coronavirus.
Fact Check :
The claim is misleading.
After breaking the video into multiple frames using the digital verification tool InVid, we performed a Google reverse image search of multiple keyframes and found that the video is as old as of April 2019.
We located the video on a Chinese website where the same video was shared 11 months ago.
In view of the coronavirus pandemic, we found that the video has recently started circulating in many countries.
On March 19, 2020, Singapore food agency(SFA)-a statutory board responsible for the supply of safe food, following an investigation stated that video was from 2019.
A story in the Gulf News of March 22, 2020, reported that the Abu Dhabi public prosecutor's office confirmed that the viral online video of a worker blowing into a plastic bag that contains food was not shot in the UAE.
We could not find the exact origins of the video, however, we were able to ascertain the video, predates the coronavirus pandemic.
It is noteworthy that the video is being shared at a time when questions have been raised on the Muslim community after a religious congregation organized by the Islamic group Tablighi Jamaat (TJ) turned into major COVID19 hotspot in India, with over 400 cases reported in connection to the event.
If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343
Also Read: Fact Check: No, Muslim Men Are Not Sneezing In Unison To Spread Novel Coronavirus In Viral Video
Must Reads
We are an independent and public-spirited digital media platform for Indian millennials. We report news and issues that matter as well as give you the opportunity to take action.
