A picture has been spreading rapidly among Nepali social media users with a claim; “In Sri Lanka, the people of Sri Lanka have stood up and buried the leaders who looted the country without fear of army police!!
Should Nepalese also learn something??”
(Screenshot from Facebook post)
(Spread of the claim on social media)
Debunked Source
Fact Check
In order to verify the claim, we performed a reverse image search and found that the picture dates back to 17th June 2021 from Varanasi, India. We found an article from the ‘Jagran News’ website with same picture.
(Screenshot from Jagran News website)
Source
https://www.rediff.com/news/report/yeh-hai-india-swimming-in-shit/20220205.htm
Rating
Misleading/False
Conclusion
Our fact-check confirmed that the image with the claim that people of Sri Lanka have stood up and buried the leaders who looted the country without fear of army police is not from Sri Lanka. The photo was taken while the sewage was being cleaned in Varanasi, India. The image was shared in a false context to trigger mobs against the ruling government of Nepal.
ABCDE Framework-Based Analysis
| Actor | Independent social media users are circulating misleading claims. |
| Behavior | False claims 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 disinformation was shared across social media platforms, Nepalese encouraged the fierce actions of Sri Lankan and pledged to do the same without fearing the police or army. |