{"id":115418,"date":"2022-06-09T21:04:30","date_gmt":"2022-06-09T15:34:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/?p=115418"},"modified":"2022-06-10T01:45:18","modified_gmt":"2022-06-09T20:15:18","slug":"inside-the-world-of-scripted-cctv-videos-on-facebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/inside-the-world-of-scripted-cctv-videos-on-facebook\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the world of scripted ‘CCTV’ videos on Facebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this year, novelist Paulo Coelho tweeted<\/a> a video from India. The video allegedly shows CCTV footage wherein a physically challenged person is trying to reset a tricycle’s chain on a busy street. He is clearly struggling with it yet no one offers help. However, two school children see his plight and help him. Not only this, they also helped the person hop on his tricycle.<\/p>\n

Coelho wrote, “Two boys from India to brighten your complicated day.” This video gained over two million views. A quick glance at the replies reveals many people believe that the video shows true-life events. However, this video is staged and several others have pointed it out as well.<\/p>\n

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Two boys from India to brighten your complicated day pic.twitter.com\/KfVep2IwAv<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Paulo Coelho (@paulocoelho) February 25, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Coelho is not the first influential personality to have posted such a video. We found that there has been a drastic increase in the number of such posts after December 2020. The screenshot below is from the social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle. [If you have access to CrowdTangle, you can view the search result here<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

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In the past two years, several verified Facebook accounts have posted staged drama clips. These videos offer a feel-good or a seemingly important public service message on wide-ranging topics such as child kidnapping<\/a>, mobile usage<\/a> or being wary of friends at parties<\/a>. The table below shows the top 19 most viewed staged dramas posted by verified Facebook accounts in India.<\/p>\n

[table id=25 \/]<\/p>\n

What appears to be positive and uplifting content has become a part of a problematic trend. Since people believe these videos are true-life, many of the clips are being shared with distorted context mainly targeting the Indian Muslim community. In October 2021, we published our first fact-check report<\/a> on this phenomenon. Hariom Rajawat, a supporter of the Vishva Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal, shared such a staged video as genuine and claimed that a Muslim youth was planning to rape his Hindu friend by mixing an intoxicant in her drink. Since then, Alt News has published 10 reports that debunk misinformation around staged ‘CCTV’ videos \u2014 half of them targeting Muslims. [View spreadsheet<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Why do people fall for it?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Despite several giveaways that the video cannot be real, many people continue to fall for such videos. Why is that? Disingenuous disclaimer<\/strong>. In order to ensure that Facebook’s policies are not violated, the accounts add a “disclaimer” in the video’s description or in the final few frames in the video clip. Let’s inspect these disclaimers more closely.<\/p>\n

Disingenuous video description<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nearly all such videos are posted with click-bait title, which includes emojis. Some examples are – ‘This is Amazing \u2764\ufe0f\u2764\ufe0f\ud83d\ude4f\ud83d\ude4f,’ Don’t Judge So Quickly \u2764\ufe0f\u2764\ufe0f\ud83d\ude4f\ud83c\udffb\ud83d\ude4f\ud83c\udffb, and ‘Be Careful \ud83d\ude28\ud83d\ude28\ud83d\ude4f\ud83c\udffb\ud83d\ude4f\ud83c\udffb’. The screenshot below lists more such examples.<\/p>\n

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In order to view the disclaimer before watching the video, one has to click up on ‘See More button’ in the video description. The disclaimer is typically in English only. As a result, anyone who isn’t fluent in English will not realise that the video in question doesn’t show a true-life incident.<\/p>\n