Old, unrelated image viral as condoms found in Shaheen Bagh - Alt News
Kinjal
20th February 2020 / 6:03 pm / Last updated: 4th December 2020
Since December 15, peaceful protests led by women against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act have been taking place at Shaheen Bagh, New Delhi.. A few days ago, a picture of used condoms dumped in heaps is being circulated with the claim that they were found at the protest site.
Facebook user Prabhu Sagar, who is a member of Hindu Samaj Party (as per bio), posted the viral picture and said, ” If you want evidence, comment below. I will send the proof in abundance. Municipality employees found this scene in the drain behind Shaheen Bagh while cleaning.” His post received over 1,400 shares before it was taken down.
[Translated from साक्ष्य चाहिए तो कॉमेन्ट करे। प्रमाण मै भेजुगा नगर पालिका कर्मचारियों को सफाई करते समय शाहिन बाग के पीछे वाले नाले में ये दृश्य देखने को मिला है ।]”
@pokershash, the co-founder of Fact Hunt, tweeted (archive link) the viral image and said, “Someone send me this pic of back stage of Shaheen Bagh and told Kudrati Khana yaha se aata.”
Alt News performed a reverse image search on Yandex and found the viral image in an article by lanhmanh.com, a Vietnamese website. According to the website, the condoms were found in the garbage of male students. The article’s headline when translated to English reads, ‘Stunned at the shocking revelations about the “pink” life inside the male dormitory.’ The article is from three years ago.
Using this as clue, Alt News did another reverse image search on Google along with the Vietnamese keywords ‘bao cao su nam ký túc xá’ [Translates to male dormitory condoms]. We found the viral image on two more Vietnamese websites – baomoi.com and doisongphapluat.com. The former website republished the latter’s article which was published on December 13, 2016. Thus, the viral image isn’t recent. Alt News couldn’t independently verify the location of the image but its existence on the internet since 2016 proves that it cannot be from Shaheen Bagh.
The picture has been shared on social media with false claims to target the ongoing CAA protests in Shaheen Bagh. Prior to this misleading claim, several false claims have been shared to target the protests in Shaheen Bagh.
Kinjal Parmar holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. However, her keen interest in journalism, drove her to pursue journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. At Alt News since 2019, she focuses on authentication of information which includes visual verification, media misreports, examining mis/disinformation across social media. She is the lead video producer at Alt News and manages social media accounts for the organization.
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