AFP Sri Lanka

No, this man was not sentenced to death in Pakistan after farting in a mosque

Published on 14 June 2019 at 11:00

A photo of a Sri Lankan newspaper article which reports that a man who farted in a mosque in Pakistan was sentenced to death has been shared hundreds of times on Facebook. The report is false; the photo in the newspaper report actually shows a Canadian citizen who was sentenced to 13 years in prison in June 2018 for manslaughter; the story about a death sentence for farting originated on a satirical website.

No, this video does not show school children paying their respects to an army soldier from India

Published on 12 June 2019 at 08:15

A video has been viewed thousands of times in multiple posts on Twitter and Facebook alongside a claim it shows schoolchildren paying their respects to a soldier in India. The claim is false; the video has previously circulated in news reports about an incident in Sri Lanka; multiple elements in the footage -- including the soldier's uniform and the transparent bags carried by the children -- show it was filmed in Sri Lanka.

No, this video does not show Muslims in the English city of Birmingham attacking cars in the street during Ramadan

Published on 8 June 2019 at 01:28Updated on 10 June 2019 at 04:20

A video that has been shared thousands of times on Facebook shows people attacking cars on a dark street. Text across the top of the footage, which has been shared in multiple countries including Canada and Sri Lanka, claims the video shows Muslims in the English city of Birmingham attacking cars because they want to hold their Ramadan fast-breaking meal, iftar, in the street. The claim is false; the video actually shows football hooligans in Basel, Switzerland in May, 2018.

No, these photos do not show a recent weapons handover by Muslim groups in Sri Lanka

Published on 5 June 2019 at 09:30

A set of photos has been shared thousands of times a month after Sri Lanka's deadly Easter Sunday bombings in Facebook and Twitter posts that say they show Muslim militants handing over a haul of weapons to the military. The photos are being used in a misleading context; they do show Muslim groups surrendering weapons, but the event took place in 2009, not after the 2019 attacks.

No, this video does not show restaurant workers in Sri Lanka washing crockery in dirty water

Published on 30 May 2019 at 06:15

A video has been viewed tens of thousands of times in multiple posts on Facebook and Twitter alongside a claim it shows workers at a restaurant in Colombo washing crockery in dirty water. The claim is false; the video has circulated online since March 2018 in reports about an Indian restaurant in Malaysia.

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