The image has been doctored from a photo showing a different truck
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on September 17, 2021 at 11:55
- 2 min read
- By AFP Hong Kong
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"Tesla might sue the Taliban for appearance infringement," reads this Weibo post from September 10.
The image shows three armed people riding in a truck. The vehicle's distinctive shape resembles Tesla's Cybertruck, an all-electric vehicle with a "nearly impenetrable exoskeleton" and "armor glass" that was unveiled by the innovative tech firm in 2019.
Taliban fighters entered the Afghan capital Kabul on August 15, sealing the group's nationwide military victory in just 10 days.
The same image was also shared alongside similar claims about Tesla's Cybertruck here on Weibo; here and here on Twitter; and here on Facebook.
However, the image has been doctored from a photo that shows the fighters riding in a different vehicle.
Reverse image and keyword searches found this photo published by AP on August 16.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the image shared in the misleading posts (L) and the photo published by AP (R):
"Taliban fighters stand guard in front of the Hamid Karzai International Airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Aug. 16, 2021," the photo caption reads.
"Thousands of people packed into the Afghan capital's airport on Monday, rushing the tarmac and pushing onto planes in desperate attempts to flee the country after the Taliban overthrew the Western-backed government."
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