Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
Claim
A Chinese soldier brutally thrashes a Uyghur Muslim for keeping a copy of the Quran at his home.
The archived version of the tweet can be seen here.
Fact
Newschecker ran a reverse image search of keyframes, which led us to the same video shared on Instagram, dated May 15, 2017, leading us to a news report that stated the incident happened in Jakarta, Indonesia. We learnt that the uniformed military officer was beating up a pickpocket after he was caught at the Depok Baru railway station platform on May 13, 2017. Similar reports can be seen here and here, confirming the incident is from Indonesia, while adding that the officer was consequently dismissed from his duties at the railway station
We also learnt that the video had gone viral with the false claim in January 2019, following which a prominent Chinese diplomat, Lijian Zhao, clarified on Twitter that the viral video does not not show a Chinese officer beating a Uyghur Muslim.
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Result: False
Source
Tribune News report, May 24, 2017
X post, Lijian Zhao, January 3, 2019
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Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
