“I have served police for over 30 years and I'm forced to say this is the worst I've seen. I cannot work with a police that prides in torturing people. This is why I want to retire honorably before more atrocities are committed on Ugandans,” reads a screenshot of a tweet posted on Facebook.
The screenshot appears to be from the Twitter account of former Ugandan police officer Asan Kasingye. Kasingye left his job in May 2022 after his contract expired.
Uganda has previously hit the headlines for police brutality. So a tweet seemingly by an insider could be seen as evidence of increased police brutality in the country.
The screenshotted tweet appears on Facebook here, here, here and here.
Kasingye is active on Twitter, but does the screenshot really show one of his tweets? We checked.
Hints of fake tweet
The date format on Kasingye’s Twitter account around the time of the screenshot is different to that on the screenshot itself.
The date format when the tweet in question was posted is 05/05/2022. But on his official verified Twitter account, the date format for the same day is May 5, 2022.
Disregard fake tweet
The retired senior police officer posted the screenshot on his official Twitter account – stamped “FAKE NEWS.”
“Please disregard this. It’s fake. I never authored & posted such a tweet! @PoliceUg,” Kasingye tweeted.
For publishers: what to do if your post is rated false
A fact-checker has rated your Facebook or Instagram post as “false”, “altered”, “partly false” or “missing context”. This could have serious consequences. What do you do?
Click on our guide for the steps you should follow.
Publishers guideAfrica Check teams up with Facebook
Africa Check is a partner in Meta's third-party fact-checking programme to help stop the spread of false information on social media.
The content we rate as “false” will be downgraded on Facebook and Instagram. This means fewer people will see it.
You can also help identify false information on Facebook. This guide explains how.
Add new comment