Authors
Believing in the notion of 'live and let live’, Preeti feels it's important to counter and check misinformation and prevent people from falling for propaganda, hoaxes, and fake information. She holds a Master’s degree in Mass Communication from Guru Jambeshawar University and has been a journalist & producer for 10 years.
A video is doing the rounds on various social media platforms and messaging apps. In the video, a little girl is coughing and crying. According to one of the viral claims, this girl is internet sensation Anahita Hashemzadeh and she is infected with COVID-19. We found this claim on various social media platforms, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and Sharechat.
Fact Check
We first did a Google search about Anahita Hashemzadeh and found out that the girl hails from Iran and is an internet sensation with over one million followers on Instagram. A video of a girl coughing and crying is circulated with her images. To verify whether the girl in the video is Anahita or not, we carefully studied the video.
We noticed that the eye color of the girl in the video and that of Anahita’s is different.
We then searched Anahita’s Instagram account, which is managed by her mother, for more information. In one of the pictures, many users asked about the rumors of Anahita suffering from COVID-19; to this, her mother replied: “She (Anahita) is healthy.”
She also posted a video on her Instagram story clarifying Anahita is “Healthy and Safe.” You can see the video below:
So, it is clear with all the evidence we found that Anahita is not suffering from COVID-19, and she is not the girl in the video.
We tried to find out more about the viral video with the help of Google Reverse Image Search.
The video was first shared by a Facebook page Mascula.city on 20 March, though there was no information about the girl given in the description.
We can’t say whether the girl is suffering from coronavirus infection or not as we are still trying to identify the girl in the video.
Tools Used
- Google Search
- YouTube Search
- InVID
- Google Reverse Image Search
Result: False
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Authors
Believing in the notion of 'live and let live’, Preeti feels it's important to counter and check misinformation and prevent people from falling for propaganda, hoaxes, and fake information. She holds a Master’s degree in Mass Communication from Guru Jambeshawar University and has been a journalist & producer for 10 years.