A report has recently been circulating on social media claiming that Nepal Police has opened recruitment of 118,000 temporary police personnel for the upcoming election. We carried out digital forensic analysis and investigated the news to verify the claim made by social media user.
Debunked Source
https://www.facebook.com/Bishal-online-page-100375842606542/photos/104694785507981
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2761717304130178&set=pb.100008758066177.-2207520000..&type=3
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1344159772726127&set=ecnf.100013963507887
https://www.collegenp.com/vacancy/118000-myadi-police-to-be-recruited-for-local-level-election/
Fact Check
Using AI Assisted Tools we did a reverse image search of the posted image and found the original image[1] which dates back to Nepalese year 2074 (2010).
[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20180903010352/https:/nepalpolice.gov.np/images/documents/updates/myadi-police-2074-06-24.PDF
The information uses both English numerals and Nepali numerals. In the information, the year 2078 and demand police number is 118,000 in English and the rest of the numbers are in Nepali.
In order to verify the above-mentioned job vacancy, we checked for official website of Nepal Police and found that the vacancy is different from the above-mentioned screenshot.
We also found that Nepal Police had released a Press Release terming the information as Fake.
Translation
Press release
As it has been found on social media that information regarding the recruitment of “temporary police” required for security for the local level election 2079 has been posted on the social media, we would like to inform that such information has not been published/disseminated by the Police Headquarters so far. We would also like to inform you about the required periodical police recruitment information to be published on the police website and public media in the future.
Source
ffhttps://english.khabarhub.com/2022/11/240994/
ffhttps://faraknepal.com/salary-of-temporary-police-to-be-higher-than-rs-30000
ffhttps://www.janaaastha.com/archives/82268
ffhttps://blog.educatenepal.com/2017/10/vacancy-temporary-cops-myadi-prahari.html
ffhttps://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=286109520318245&set=a.182869150642283
Rating
Disinformation/ Forged
Conclusion
The government has announced local level elections on April 12. While, the Police Headquarters has published the announcement of temporary police recruitment for the upcoming elections to the House of Representatives and the Provincial Council. According to the police, temporary police is being recruited for the 2078 House of Representatives and State Assembly elections. No election has been declared in 2078 BS. There are only 35 days left in this year. Then the new year 2079 begins. Posting forged notification was an effort to mislead the general public.
ABCDE Framework-Based Analysis
| Actor | Independent social media users are circulating misleading posts. |
| Behavior | Misleading social media post are posted to spread disinformation. |
| Content | Social Media posts. |
| Degree | Fake news really speeds up the course of polarization as most social media users don’t check the validness of the data source that they view online prior to sharing it. |
| Effect | The vast majority of the false claim has been on Facebook making it challenging to differentiate between fake news and genuine news for common social media users. |