With the Bihar Assembly elections round the corner, an image of bags containing liquor and soft-drinks has gone viral on social media as ‘preparation’ for the elections.
However, the image can be traced back to 2019, when a musician named Johnny from Thailand shared the picture on Facebook.
CLAIM
With over 9,000 shares on Facebook at the time of writing this article, one Facebook user captioned the image, “बिहार में चुनाव की तैयारी हो गई है”
(Translation: “Preparations for the elections in Bihar have been made”)
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
A reverse image search led us to a blog, ‘Thaihitz’, carrying the image. The article states that ‘Johnny buster’ had been distributing alcohol bottles as part of his ‘survival kits’ to the victims of flooding in the Ubon Ratchathani province of Thailand.
The article also linked the volunteer’s Facebook page, ‘@ johnnytalungkun,’ a musician who goes by the name ‘Stunned, Johnny the buster.’
The musician had shared the image on 22 September 2019.
He also shared an image of himself, giving away the ‘relief package’.
UNICEF had reported in September last year that relief efforts were deployed at the flood-affected area in Ubon Ratchathani province. Podul and Kajiki storms had affected around 32 provinces and Ubon Ratchathani had been heavily flooded due to overflow of water from Chi and Mun rivers.
Other Thai sites like TDaily and Dara Zone also reported on Johnny’s survival kits which contained alcohol bottles for the flood victims. However The Quint could not independently verify the veracity of the claims made by the blog,
The image was also shared by Thai TV Social on their Facebook page.
Further, a keyword search of Johnny’s caption also revealed that the liquor in the bottle is called ‘Hong Thong,’ which is produced by Bangyikhan Distillery according to ThaiBev.
Evidently, an old image from Thailand is being falsely shared as preparation for the Bihar elections.
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