Authors
Preeksha is a journalism graduate interested in exploring and working on the phenomenon of fake news globally. She desires to work on compelling stories that employ digital journalism to bring forth narratives that matter. She is also a budding researcher, studying the COVID-19 infodemic as a research fellow with the Institute of Economic Growth.
The internet is full of amusing videos of unusual acts. And amidst these unusual posts, a video has surfaced, of a driver with the claims that it is a daring U-Turn made on a one way road beside a cliff.
The video, which shows a blue coloured car taking a U-turn on a narrow road has been shared on Twitter and Facebook extensively has garnered
DNA India News also posted the video on their YouTube channel with a caption commenting on the daring skills of the driver making the U-turn on such a narrow road.
The same 1:21 minute long video shared by Twitter user @Joydas has received 1.5 million views on his tweet. It has also been retweeted 4,576 times and liked 27,900 times.
The same tweet has the source of the video mentioned as a Dr.Ajayita just below the video in the tweet.
The tweet by Dr.Ajayita (@DoctorAjayita) was found to be posted on January 23, 2022 at 9: 26 a.m. Comparing it with the time stamps on various other tweets, this seems to be the earliest post of the video on the platform.
The video was also retweeted by actress Raveena Tandon which was shared by Dr.Ajayita on her Twitter timeline.
FactCheck/Verification
To ascertain the authenticity of the viral video Newschecker conducted a keyword search on YouTube. This led us to many channels which had posted the same video, the oldest of these videos was by a channel named ‘Driving Skill’. The video showcases an expert driver demonstrating how to take a U-turn from a very narrow one-way road.
The video was uploaded by the channel on December 25, 2021 and had 24 Million views on it. It was slightly longer at 1:34 minute than the video being shared on Twitter.
On visiting the channel’s homepage we could see that the channel had multiple videos of dangerous U-turns in various terrains and settings.
The About section of the YouTube channel says that the channel is from HongKong and was created in October 2021.
In these videos, we found another video of the same incident of the alleged blue colour car taking a U-Turn beside a cliff.
This video was taken from the opposite side of the vehicle as shown in the viral video. This angle shows that the video has actually not been shot at a cliff side road as suggested by the viral claims but on a hilly road with another road just below it with a steep descent.
The screengrab above also shows a car parked on the road at a distance from where the blue car is seen taking a U-Turn. This confirms that there is infact a road below the one where the car in the video is shown.
Thus, showing that the viral video was not made on a road beside a cliff but was taken at an angle that made the viewer believe so.
Result- Misplaced Context
Conclusion
The video was shot from an angle which did not reveal the road below from where the driver was attempting a U-turn. The driver did not take the U-turn from a road adjacent to a cliff but adjacent to a steep hilly road.
Our Sources
YouTube Channel ‘Driving Skill’
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Authors
Preeksha is a journalism graduate interested in exploring and working on the phenomenon of fake news globally. She desires to work on compelling stories that employ digital journalism to bring forth narratives that matter. She is also a budding researcher, studying the COVID-19 infodemic as a research fellow with the Institute of Economic Growth.
