Authors
Vasudha noticed the growing problem of mis/disinformation online after studying New Media at ACJ in Chennai and became interested in separating facts from fiction. She is interested in learning how global issues affect individuals on a micro level. Before joining Newschecker’s English team, she was working with Latestly.
Claim
Viral video, allegedly showing the recent standoff between the Indian and Chinese army in Arunachal Pradesh, was featured in a news report from 2021.
Archived version of the tweet can be seen here.
Fact
On closely analysing the screengrab, we spotted the logo of NBC News on the top left corner of the image. The alleged report is dated February 19, 2021, and the headline reads, “Chinese state broadcaster releases footage of deadly..”.
Taking a clue, we looked up keywords “NBC News,” “Chinese broadcaster, “deadly clash,” & “February 19” on Google which yielded a report by the news major with the same headline, caption and dateline as seen in the viral image. However, it featured a different thumbnail. A comparison between the viral image and screengrab of the NBC report can be seen below.
The NBC report carried a 1:35 minutes long video of a standoff between India and China and stated, “China’s state TV has released footage for the first time showing a deadly brawl between Chinese and Indian troops along the fiercely-disputed border between the two countries. The clash happened in June 2020 in the Galwan Valley of the Himalayas. At the time, India announced that 20 of its soldiers had been killed. Only now has China admitted four of its soldiers also died.”
On comparing the footage in the NBC report and viral image we did not find any similarities – the terrain and some elements of the soldiers’ uniform seen in the visuals are different. Neither did we find any frame matching the video.
Furthermore, we looked up the archived version of the NBC report, dated February 19, 2021. It carried that same video of the Indo-China clash as seen in the live page, proving that the video was never changed on the live website.
Several Indian news outlets had also shared the footage of the Galwan valley clash released by China around the same time as the NBC news (February 2021). Such reports can be seen here, here and here.
We could thus conclude that the viral screengrab of an NBC news report from February 2021, carrying the widely circulated footage allegedly showing the recent standoff between the Indian and the Chinese army, has been digitally edited. The NBC News report carried another video of the Galwan clash released by China. However, we could not independently verify the veracity of the viral footage claiming to show the recent clash between the two armies in Tawang.
Newschecker has also reached out to NBC News for their comments on the same. The article will be updated upon receiving their response.
Result: Altered Photo
Sources
Report By NBC News, Dated February 19, 2021
Self Analysis
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Authors
Vasudha noticed the growing problem of mis/disinformation online after studying New Media at ACJ in Chennai and became interested in separating facts from fiction. She is interested in learning how global issues affect individuals on a micro level. Before joining Newschecker’s English team, she was working with Latestly.
