Covid-19
(File photo) Chinese actor Jackie Chan speaks to journalists during an event dedicated to the 'Purchase from Africans for Africa' (PAA Africa) programme, part of a South-South Cooperation Project, in Hawassa, Ethiopia, on March 21, 2014. (AFP / Zacharias Abubeker)

Hoax circulates on Facebook that Jackie Chan is offering cash handouts during COVID-19 pandemic

  • This article is more than one year old.
  • Published on July 13, 2020 at 08:30
  • Updated on September 2, 2020 at 18:23
  • 2 min read
  • By AFP Myanmar

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A video has been viewed more than 1.7 million times on Facebook alongside a claim Hong Kong actor Jackie Chan is offering cash handouts to people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The claim is false; the video has been created using two separate clips which do not state that Chan is offering donations to those affected by COVID-19; the first clip was originally published on Chan's official Facebook account in April 2020; the second clip was taken from a 2017 post on the Instagram page of US boxer Floyd Mayweather.

The video was published here on Facebook on July 7, 2020. It has been viewed more than 1.7 million times and shared 54,000 times. 

It was shared here in a Myanmar-based Facebook group.

The 42-second clip is a split screen video that features Chan speaking on the left, and stacks of British and euro banknotes on the right.

The text superimposed on the video reads: “STAY AT HOME. Jackie Chan gift money”.

A screenshot taken on July 8, 2020, of the misleading Facebook post

The post reads, in part: "for all countries .. !!! Register from home and get prizes in 5 minutes, we are publishing this to help those who are affected by the explosion of CORONA virus. Pick the first letter of your name and you will receive a gift of your choice….Your money will be sent 5 minutes after registering your name".

The same video was also viewed here, here and here on Facebook alongside similar claims.

The claim is false.

Jackie Chan video

A reverse Google Image search with keyframes extracted from the footage in the misleading posts found a longer version of the video published here on Jackie Chan’s official Facebook page on April 3, 2020.

In the video, Chan says, in part: “Hello I am Jackie Chan. I know it is a very difficult time for everyone right now. And we all face the same problem - the coronavirus....Protecting yourself is protecting your family. Stay safe. Stay strong. I too believe we have a brighter future ahead. Thank you.” 

Chan does not mention handouts at any point during the video.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the misleading post (L) and the video on Chan’s Facebook page (R):

Banknotes video

A second reverse image search also found a longer version of the video in the misleading posts published here on the Instagram account of US boxer Floyd Mayweather.

The video is captioned “Pounds and a few Euros”. It is dated May 27, 2017, more than two years before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the misleading posts (L) and Mayweather’s Instagram post (R):

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