A photo of a man with a swollen face has been posted on Facebook in Kenya.
“Chinese man beaten in kilimani for deliberately coughing in the face of a security guard,” the caption reads. Kilimani is a neighbourhood in the capital, Nairobi.
The story has been shared on several Facebook pages since 10 May 2020.
Since the outbreak of Covid-19, photos that falsely claim to show incidents related to the disease have circulated on social media. Is this one genuine or misleading? We checked.
Using a reverse image search, we traced the photo to a video posted on a Cambodian Facebook page on 1 May.
On 6 May, it was posted on Facebook by a user in Thailand.
On 7 May, the photo appeared on the social news platform Reddit with a joke suggesting the man’s face was swollen from bee stings.
We could find no credible news or social media reports of a Chinese man being beaten by a security guard in Nairobi’s Kilimani neighbourhood. No photos or videos of the incident have turned up.
The photo appears to have originated in either Cambodia or Thailand. There is no evidence of an assault on a Chinese man in Kilimani, Kenya and which contribute to stigma associated with the disease. – Grace Gichuhi
“Chinese man beaten in kilimani for deliberately coughing in the face of a security guard,” the caption reads. Kilimani is a neighbourhood in the capital, Nairobi.
The story has been shared on several Facebook pages since 10 May 2020.
Since the outbreak of Covid-19, photos that falsely claim to show incidents related to the disease have circulated on social media. Is this one genuine or misleading? We checked.
No evidence Chinese man assaulted in Kilimani
Using a reverse image search, we traced the photo to a video posted on a Cambodian Facebook page on 1 May.
On 6 May, it was posted on Facebook by a user in Thailand.
On 7 May, the photo appeared on the social news platform Reddit with a joke suggesting the man’s face was swollen from bee stings.
We could find no credible news or social media reports of a Chinese man being beaten by a security guard in Nairobi’s Kilimani neighbourhood. No photos or videos of the incident have turned up.
The photo appears to have originated in either Cambodia or Thailand. There is no evidence of an assault on a Chinese man in Kilimani, Kenya and which contribute to stigma associated with the disease. – Grace Gichuhi
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.
Further Reading
[email protected]: The challenges of working across Africa
Misinformation knows no borders and Africa Check often responds to similar false claims from country to country.
Add new comment