Facebook users in Sri Lanka misrepresent image of Covid-19 victims in Myanmar
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on July 22, 2021 at 11:50
- 2 min read
- By AFP Sri Lanka
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"Our nurses strike has been extremely successful -- I am Ananda," reads the Sinhala-language text overlay to this image shared on Facebook on July 17, 2021.
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"Ananda" refers to Muruththettuwe Ananda Thero, president of Sri Lanka's Public Service United Nurses Union, whose photo was edited onto the image.
The misleading post circulated online after Sri Lanka's nurses union staged a nationwide protest in early July over unmet demands from the government.
An identical image was also shared alongside a similar claim on Facebook here, here and here.
The claim however is false: the image is unrelated to the nurses protest in Sri Lanka.
A reverse search on Google found the image was published here on July 15, 2021 by Khit Thit Media, a news organisation in Myanmar.
The image's Burmese-language caption translates in part as: "There were 22 people who died of Covid-19 today... Images of dead bodies at the mortuary in Myawaddy hospital today."
Myawaddy is a town in southeastern Myanmar.
Below is a screenshot comparison between the image in the misleading posts (L) and the image published by Khit Thit Media (R):
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Further keyword searches found the image was shared here on Facebook on July 15, 2021 by U Hla Tun, chairman of the Myanmar Rescue Organisation.
U Hla Tun confirmed to AFP he took the image.
"The image is from Myawaddy. The picture was taken with my phone," he told AFP.
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