No, this video shows a market selling wild animals in Indonesia’s Sulawesi island
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on January 27, 2020 at 10:30
- 2 min read
- By AFP Philippines
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The four-minute, 41-second video was published in this Facebook post on January 26, 2020. It shows bats, rats, snakes and an assortment of other animal meat products being sold at a busy market.
It has been viewed more than 68,000 times.
Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:
Its caption, written in a mix of Tagalog and English, references the recent global outbreak of a new coronavirus strain, and states: “Whuan market China..the origin of corona virus /
Too much too much...This is their market in Whuan where all exotic foods are sold,that's why the Corona Virus disease emerged..”
Wuhan is the Chinese city where the coronavirus emerged in late 2019; the new virus strain is suspected to have come from animals in a market in the city, AFP reported here on January 27, 2020.
The virus has killed more than 80 people in China. More than 2,700 people in China and overseas are confirmed to have contracted the virus.
The video was also shared with a similar claim here and here on Facebook.
The claim is false; the video shows a market in Indonesia’s North Sulawesi province.
A reverse image search using keyframes extracted from the video using InVID, a video verification tool, found this four-minute, 41-second video that was uploaded to YouTube on July 20, 2019. The video was uploaded in high definition.
The video's Indonesian-language title translates to English as: “Langowan EXTREME Market”.
The Indonesian-language caption translates to English as: “The world’s most extreme food is available only at Langowan Market.”
“Langowan Market” is a traditional market in Minahasa regency, Indonesia’s North Sulawesi province, that sells wild animals for consumption, according to reports by US-based environmental news site Mongabay here and here.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the misleading posts (L) and the YouTube video (R):
At the 21-second mark, the YouTube video shows a building with an Indonesian-language sign that translates to English as:
“Government of Minahasa Regency
Trade Department
Langowan Market Office”.
Below is a screenshot of that portion of the YouTube video, with the building name circled by AFP:
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