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.
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who recently declared monkeypox a “public health emergency of international concern”, caught social media attention with several users claiming he has been arrested for “crimes against humanity”. Newschecker found the claim to be false and that the original article was satire.
Multiple Facebook users shared a screenshot of a website, which stated that the WHO director-general was arrested for crimes against humanity. One user termed the alleged incident “the great awakening”.
Links to such posts can be found here, here and here.
Other Facebook and Twitter users shared a link to an article elaborating on Ghebreyesus’s arrest.
Links to such posts can be found here, here, here and here.
Newschecker had earlier debunked a false post on a lawsuit against the WHO and WEF for crimes against humanity. You can read it here.
Also Read: No, CEO Of Disney Was Not Arrested For Human Trafficking, Viral Article Is A Satire
Fact Check/Verification
Newschecker began its investigation by conducting keyword searches for “WHO director arrested”, “Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrested”, “WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrest”, on Google, but did not find any credible news reports stating the same.
We noticed “Vancouver Times” written on the top of the viral images associated with the alleged arrest of the WHO director. Upon inspecting the link shared by social media users, claiming that Ghebreyesus was arrested for crimes against humanity, we were directed to an article by Vancouver Times, dated July 24, 2022.
Titled “WHO director arrested for crimes against humanity, the WEF may be next – #Nuremberg2 trends”, the article elaborated about Ghebreyesus’s arrest over Covid-related issues. Notably, in the end note it read, “This is a satire article. Health officials consider COVID-19 vaccines to be safe and effective. For more information, please visit CDC.org.”
Further, the “About Us” section of the website describes it as “the most trusted source for satire on the West Coast. We write satirical stories about issues that affect conservatives.”
Notably, the article carried an update calling out news outlets for fact-checking an “obvious satire story”.
Conclusion
Viral posts claiming that WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was arrested for “crimes against humanity” are false. The article in question was satire.
Result: Satire
Sources
Article By Vancouver Times, Dated July 24, 2022
Vancouver Times Website
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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.
