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Old videos of overcrowded trains in India have resurfaced in social media posts that falsely claim they show mismanagement around the holding of eligibility exams for government jobs in Uttar Pradesh. While there were reports of large crowds waiting to board trains to take them to the exams in October 2022, these videos predate those exams. The videos were shared in separate Facebook posts here and here on October 15, 2022. Together they garnered more than 218,000 views. The first video shows two trains at a railway station as a huge crowd tries to board them. Its Hindi-language caption reads: Today is the UPPET exam. Scores from this exam will be used for filling up Group C positions. Over 3.7 million candidates have applied for the positions. There's a huge number of candidates at the railway stations. Some will need to take their tests at centres 400-500 kilometres away from their homes. UPPET refers to the Uttar Pradesh Preliminary Eligibility Test -- a preliminary step for candidates applying for highly sought-after state government jobs. Group C positions are typically clerical level jobs in the government. Screenshot of the misleading Facebook post, captured on October 19, 2022 The second video is 26-seconds long and shows an overcrowded train moving along a track as passengers hang on to the outside of its carriages. Its Hindi caption reads, Look at this picture of free India. PET Candidate #pet_exam. Screenshot of the misleading Facebook post, captured on October 19, 2022 The videos have been viewed thousands of times in similar posts on Facebook here and here and on Twitter here and here . They circulated after the eligibility exams for Uttar Pradesh state government jobs were conducted over the weekend of October 15 and 16. According to a report published in English-language daily The Indian Express , the exams were conducted at 1,899 centres across Uttar Pradesh. The report, which was accompanied by photographs of overcrowded railway platforms, said around 3.78 million candidates registered for the exams. The videos circulating in social media posts, however, are old and unrelated to these entrance exams. Railway platform video A reverse image search on Google of keyframes from the first video led to an April 2022 report about train fares in the Indian city of Mumbai that was published by local news organisation NDTV. A still image from the video -- marked as File to indicate it was not a new image at the time of publication -- is used in the report. Below is a screenshot comparison between a still from the video used in the false posts (left) and the file image used by NDTV (right), with corresponding elements highlighted by AFP: A screenshot comparison between a still from the video used in the false posts (left) and the file image used by NDTV (right), with corresponding elements highlighted by AFP. Further keyword searches found the same video had been uploaded to YouTube here by a user called Navin Poojary on March 21, 2016. Its caption reads Amazing Mumbai Local Crowd, but does not identify the station where the video was filmed Passengers clinging to overcrowded train A comment on one of the Facebook posts that misleadingly shared the second video -- showing passengers hanging precariously from a train as it moves along a track -- included a link to a YouTube video from February 2018. Below is a screenshot comparison of the video used on Facebook (left) and the YouTube video from 2018 (right): Screenshot comparison of the video used on Facebook (left) and the YouTube video from 2018 (right) The YouTube video is a longer version of the video falsely shared on Facebook. Its Hindi-language caption reads: #train: This view can be seen only in Patna. Patna is the capital of the eastern Indian state of Bihar. A keyword search found a tweet from the verified handle of North Central Railway , a division of national railway operator Indian Railways, debunking the claim that the train was carrying people taking the UPPET exams in October. The Hindi-language tweet, posted on October 15, reads: Avoid rumours! With reference to @priyankagandhi 's tweet (now deleted) it is clarified that coach number 40042 of MEMU train has not passed Prayagraj today and this image has nothing to do with the UPPET exam. Prayagraj is a city in Uttar Pradesh, around 190 kilometres (118 miles) southeast of the state capital Lucknow. The tweet contains screenshots of another tweet from the verified account of Priyanka Gandhi, the general secretary of the opposition Congress party, that shared the video alongside the false claim.
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