Two-year old travel image by Jaihoon falsely shared as curfew violation in W. Bengal- reports Alt News, the news portal that aggressively combats fake news.
Years back, Mujeeb Jaihoon, the UAE-based Indian writer, had posted on his blog the photo-essay of his journey to West Bengal. Little did he know then that his travel photos would be misused on social media by fake news exploiters, especially to spread misinformation about the Corona lockdown.
The story of Jaihoon’s photo manipulation was exposed by Al News, a non-profit fact checking website founded to combat the phenomenon of fake news.
According to the report, the manipulated image was falsely shared across social media to show the violation of the government imposed lockdown in the wake of the Corona virus. Jaihoon’s photo of laborers in Kolkatta, taken in Aug 2017, along with other photos dating back to twelve years, was combined and shared to falsely depict the violation of lockdown by the public. This fake news post has gone viral while garnering more than 1,300 shares, including by government officials.
AltNews, the tech-savvy news exposer certified by the International Fact-Checking Network, had carefully examined the image posted on Jaihoon.com, the UAE-based Indian writers’ blog, including the EXIF data of the image which revealed the date when it was clicked.
Mujeeb Jaihoon, a published author who hails from Kerala, is a prolific traveler passionate about narrating the unexplored tales of human civilization. Besides India, he has travelled to Javanese Islands, Uzbekistan, Western China and other Middle East countries including Jordan, Egypt and Palestine.
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Reference
www.altnews.in/old-images-from-rawalpindi-pakistan-shared-as-crowd-during-lockdown-in-kolkata-west-bengal/
www.jaihoon.com/16334.htm
