Mumbai Police PRO Manjunath Singe confirmed to BOOM that the message circulating has not been issued by Mumbai Police.

News: A fake message is circulating on social media claiming Mumbai police has issued a warning to citizens to be careful of a gang who under the guise of being government officials ask for identification documents and thumb print to generate a tax recipet, but then abscond with the details.

The fake message is in Marathi and claims the warning was issued by a police officer named ‘Avinash Zodge’ and is being forwarded on WhatsApp.
It warns that the gang “of three to four people including women” is going to people’s houses and ask for property documents, 7/12 document, the person’s PAN card, aadhaar card, electricity bills and other important identification proofs.

BOOM found that the simulated video was made by geologists to portray the destructive nature of underwater volcanic eruptions.

News: A simulated video of an underwater volcanic explosion has gone viral on social media and messaging apps with a false claim that it shows a volcanic eruption in North Sumatra, Indonesia.

BOOM received a video of an underwater volcanic eruption on its WhatsApp helpline number along with a caption that said, “Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra, Indonesia, sent a huge plume of thick ash 7km high into the sky during an eruption on 9 June. Residents living near the volcano were urged to use masks when ash rains down and those living along the rivers upstream were warned of cold lava floods during rains. There were no reports of casualties.Watch till the end”.

BOOM spoke to the chief engineer, Roads and Buildings Department of the Gujarat Government who informed that the bridge was more than 40 years old and PM Modi never came to inaugurate it.

News: A photograph of a collapsed bridge on the Junagarh-Jamnagar Highway is viral on social media with false claims that it was recently inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi

The West Bengal Congress’ official Twitter handle also tweeted the same image with a similar misleading claim that the Jamnagar Junagarh Highway bridge collapsed, only three months after its inauguration by PM Modi.

The archived version of the tweet can be viewed here.

BOOM spoke to the chief engineer, Roads and Buildings Department, Gujarat Government, who informed that the bridge collapsed as it was more than 40 years old.

BOOM found that the same image is viral on Twitter with a similar caption.

While two of the main accused in the brutal attack on a woman are brothers of a Congress councillor, viral post tries linking the video with Modi government.

The banner in the original image reads, “We Want Azaadi”, and is taken during a protest in Kashmir in August 2016.

News: An image of Kashmiri protestors holding Pakistan flags and demanding ‘Azaadi’ has been photoshopped to falsely claim that they are Pakistani cricket fans holding banners of ‘We don’t want Kashmir, give us Virat Kolhi’. The image is being shared after India defeated Pakistan in a recent match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 with a false claim that Pakistani fan want Indian cricket team captain Kohli instead of Kashmir.

BOOM found that the original image is from 2018 and shows protestors in Kashmir displaying Pakistan flag and banners demanding ‘freedom’.

Writer and academic Madhu Kishwar, who has in the past shared fake news tweeted the same photo with the caption, “At one time Pakistanis used to chant, “Madhuri de do, POK bhi le lo”. New ambitions, new frustrations.” 

Click here to view the post.

The banner in the original picture reads, “We Want Azadi” and not  “We don’t want Kashmir, give us Virat Kohli” which has been photoshopped on it.

With India defeating Pakistan in the cricket match played on June 16, social media has been flooded with unrelated videos linking them to the ongoing World Cup.

 

News: Ever since India defeated Pakistan on June 16 in the ongoing World Cup Cricket, social media has been abuzz with cricket-related videos and images shared as Pakistani cricket fans reacting to the loss. However, most of these photos and videos are old and some in fact not even from the recent match.

BOOM analysed three such posts – two videos and one image viral on Facebook being shared with misleading claims.

Woman Reading The Quran Video

A viral clip shows a woman sitting in a stadium amid cheering fans and reading from a book kept in her bag. The book is in her hand bag with Urdu writing clearly visible in the book. The woman keeps on peeping at the book throughout the 14-second-long video.

The caption with the video reads ‘Even the heavenly book couldn’t save them because it’s clearly mentioned in the book that the day they (Pakistanis) have a face off with Indians would be the Doom’s Day for them.’

(Hindi: आसमानी किताब भी नहीं बचा पाई |क्योंकि किताब में साफ साफ लिखा है जिस दिन हिंदुस्तानियों से पाला पड़ेगा वो दिन कयामत का दिन होगा |)

You can access the post here.

BOOM found that the images are old and the objects in the image did not melt due to the weather in Kuwait.

News: Unrelated images of car bumpers and traffic signal lights ‘melting’ are being shared with a misleading claim that they are from Kuwait, with the objects melting due to extremely high temperatures in the country.

BOOM found that while one image is from cars melting from a fire at a construction site in Ariazon and the other one is from a traffic signal that caught fire in Kuwait after a road accident.

The images are accompanied with the caption, “Kuwait on Saturday recorded the highest temperatures in the world; reaching upto 63 degrees Celsius under direct sunlight, according to Al Qabas newspaper.”