AFP Indonesia

This video shows Brunei's sultan giving advice to his new ministers in 2018

Published on 21 January 2020 at 03:45

A video has been viewed more than one million times on YouTube alongside a claim that it shows the Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah, criticising Indonesian President Joko Widodo. The claim is false; the video shows the sultan giving advice to his new ministers in 2018.

Credible reports document persecution of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang -- but only one of these photos was taken in China

Published on 20 January 2020 at 09:05

Three photos have been shared thousands of times in multiple Facebook posts alongside a claim they show Korans being burned in China's northwest region of Xinjiang. The photos have been shared in a misleading context; whilst persecution of Uighur Muslims is Xinjiang is widely documented, only one of the photos was taken in Xinjiang during the destruction of confiscated “illegal” religious items in 2014; the two other photos actually show damaged Korans dumped by the Saudi embassy in Morocco in 2016.

This photo of Iranian missiles has circulated in reports since at least 2013

Published on 15 January 2020 at 09:10

A photo of two missiles has been shared hundreds of times in multiple Facebook posts alongside a claim that Iran has started to "deploy its army, navy and airforce fleets and direct their missile arsenals" after the US military killed its military commander, Qasem Soleimani. The photo has been shared in a misleading context; it has circulated in media reports since at least 2013 about Iranian medium-range ballistic missiles; multiple media reports stated that Iran fired short-range missiles in an attack on US bases in Baghdad on January 8, 2020.

This video has circulated in reports about a man arrested for 'attacking police' at a Dutch mosque

Published on 14 January 2020 at 05:30

A video has been shared and viewed hundreds of times on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube alongside a claim that it shows an imam being arrested by police officers inside a mosque in Norway after reciting the Koran. The claim is false; the video has circulated in Dutch media reports about a disturbance at a mosque in Rotterdam in which police arrested a man after he allegedly attacked them.

This photo shows a US army helicopter dropping flares over Baghdad’s Green Zone in 2019

Published on 13 January 2020 at 05:50

A photo has been shared hundreds of times in multiple posts on Facebook alongside a claim it shows a rocket attack on the US embassy in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad in January 2020. The claim is false; the image actually shows a US army helicopter dropping flares over Baghdad’s high-security Green Zone in December 2019 after Iraqis breached the outer wall of the US embassy.

Languages