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The image on the left side has been reversed
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on November 21, 2019 at 04:00
- 4 min read
- By AFP Indonesia
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The two images of Indonesian corruption investigator Novel Baswedan were posted on November 7, 2019, on Facebook here.
Below is a screenshot of one of the misleading posts:
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The Indonesian-language caption translates to English as:
“All Indonesians are deceived.
Humans sometimes forget..
That contact lens is sometimes put on the left, sometimes on the right..
Sorry I just want to make a reminder sir.. ??
#AllIndonesiansAreDeceived.”
Novel is a senior investigator at the Indonesian Corruption Eradication Commission. In April 2017, he was attacked with acid, leaving him partially blind. The police have not identified a suspect. A fact-finding task-force formed by president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo concluded the attack was related to Novel's work as a graft buster. Here is an AFP story on the investigation.
More recently, a politician accused Novel of faking his eye injury and reported him to the police.
The two photos were also shared alongside a similar claim on Facebook here and here; and on Twitter here, here and here.
But the claim is false; one of the images has been flipped.
Google keywords searches for the first image that shows Novel’s damaged right eye found this April 18, 2018, photo published on the website of Indonesian news portal Liputan6.com.
Below is a screenshot of the Liputan 6 photo:
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Translated to English, the caption of the photo reads: “Corruption Eradication Commission senior investigator Novel Baswedan when he was at the commission’s office, Jakarta, Thursday (22/2). Novel Baswedan was previously splashed with acid after he joined a mass prayer at dawn on April 11, 2017. (Liputan6.com/Herman Zakharia).”
Below is a screenshot comparison between the first photo in the misleading post (L) and Liputan 6 photo (R); AFP has cropped the original image to match the size of the misleading photo.
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Below is a screenshot comparison between the first misleading image (L) and the reversed version of Liputan 6 photo (R):
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The misleading image has an additional small red color on the bottom left corner. Image noise analysis using image forensic tool 29a.ch reveals an uneven texture of noise on the bottom-left corner bordered by a turquoise blue line.
Below is a screenshot showing the noise analysis result of the misleading image; AFP has put a red arrow to point to the anomaly in the bottom-left corner.
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Google keyword searches for the second image showing Novel wearing a cap found the image is part of this October 18, 2019, video posted on the official YouTube channel of Indonesian broadcaster Kompas TV.
The headline of the two-minute, 20-second video translates to English as: “Novel Baswedan’s case, the advocacy team sends a letter to the president.”
At 1:39 mark, the video shows the same image seen in the second picture of the misleading posts.
Below is a screenshot showing Novel at the 1:39 mark of the video:
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Below is a screenshot comparison between the second image in the misleading post (L) and a scene in the Kompas TV video (R):
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