CLAIM
As coronavirus has pushed countries into lockdown, a video is being shared online that shows a human wrapped in a white cloth scaring people away.
The video has been shared by India Today on its Twitter handle with a claim that the video is from Goa and it shows ‘a man’s innovative way to make people stay indoors in Goa’.
The same video was shared by the the Editor of news agency ANI, which was further retweeted by 2,300 users.
The video has also been shared on Facebook.
TRUE OR FALSE?
The claim with which the video is being shared is false. The video is neither recent nor from Goa. We could trace the video back to May 2019 and it is purportedly from Indonesia.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
On fragmenting the video into several keyframes using InVid, a Google Chrome extension, and then conducting a reverse search using Yandex, we came across the same video that was uploaded on YouTube in May 2019.
Taking a cue from here, we did a keyword search and came across an article on a website called ‘Vivacoid’, which suggested that the video was from Indonesia.
However, the video on the website wasn’t the same as the viral video. From here, we were directed to another page, ‘Liputan6.com’, which was published on 17 May 2019.
This article carried the same video and suggested that the video was from Jakarta.
The Quint has not been able to independently verify the video, but it is evident that it is older than India’s lockdown, and so clearly doesn’t show a prank in Goa to scare people to keep them inside their homes.
You can read the rest of our fact-check stories on the coronavirus outbreak here.
(With inputs from SM HoaxSlayer)
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