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
Chinese government demolishes mosque.
Fact
Video shows the controlled demolition of the minaret of a mosque that was damaged by the earthquake in Turkey in 2023.
A three-second video, showing a minaret of a mosque being brought down is being widely shared on social media. Users sharing the video claim that the incident took place in China and that the Chinese government was demolishing it as part of its crackdown against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities. The archived version of the tweet can be seen here.
Fact
Newschecker ran a reverse image search of keyframes of the video, which led us to this tweet, dated February 27, 2023, which when translated from Turkish stated that a minaret damaged after an earthquake was demolished in a controlled manner. A similar tweet by Turkish news outlet, Aykiri, can be seen here, dated February 26, 2023, confirming that it was a “controlled demolition” of a minaret damaged after the earthquake, which resulted in an injury to an officer.
A 7.8-magnitude quake had struck southern Turkey and northern Syria on February 6, 2023, killing more than 40,000 people and devastating entire cities.
We also came across a Turkish news report from media outlet EnSonHaber, dated March 3, 2023, stating that controlled demolition was being undertaken in one of the 150 mosques in Adana, which were found to be damaged due to the earthquake. A similar report can be seen here.
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Conclusion
Video of controlled demolition of a minaret damaged by the earthquake in Turkey last year falsely claimed as the Chinese government demolishing a mosque.
Result: False
Sources
Aykiri tweet, February 26, 2023
EnSonHaber report, March 3, 2023
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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.
