Social media is replete with misinformation around novel coronavirus. Alt News has debunked several such claims in past weeks. A video is now viral on social media with the claim that in the light of the epidemic, China is allowing Muslims to read the Quran which was previously banned.
Posted by Peronda Pasarmalam on Monday, 9 March 2020
“The Holy Quran was banned in China. Now the ban has been lifted. Chinese Muslims are allowed to read Holy Quran. Look at the Joy!!!!! ALLAHHUAKBAR,” reads the viral text shared with the video. It is also getting shared with the same message in Hindi.
Alt News has received multiple requests to fact-check this video on its official mobile application.
Fact-check
Alt News broke the video into multiple key-frames with the help of digital verification tool InVid. According to an article published on March 19, 2013, by a website called ‘Gospel Prime‘, the video depicts the moment when people saw the bible for the first time. Although, the article states that it is unclear where and when was the video made.
The video was later uploaded by a YouTube channel named International Christian Concern on March 17, 2014. Some reports also claimed that the video is from the 1980s.
Alt News couldn’t independently verify the video and its content. Suffice to say, it is unrelated to the recent outbreak of coronavirus since it has existed on the internet at least since 2013.
Independent journalism that speaks truth to power and is free of corporate and political control is possible only when people start contributing towards the same. Please consider donating towards this endeavour to fight fake news and misinformation.
