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  • 2019-05-23 (xsd:date)
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  • No, this video does not show a Hindu boy being attacked because he flew a saffron flag from his house in West Bengal (en)
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  • A video has been viewed hundreds of times in multiple posts on Facebook and Twitter in May 2019 alongside a claim that it shows group of people attacking a Hindu boy because he flew a saffron flag from his house in the Indian state of West Bengal. The claim is false; the video has circulated online since at least March 2018 in connection with a financial dispute in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The video was shared here in a Facebook post on May 18, 2019. The English language caption states: This is the position of Hindus in West Bengal. This Hindu boy hoisted saffron flag atop his house. Forwarded by LT Col Dilip Kumar Havanur. The day is not too far every Hindu crusified like this boy. Share it maximum to reach every Hindu. Below is a screenshot of the video: Snapshot of the misleading Facebook post The colour saffron is considered sacred in Hinduism. Here is an explanation of the colour’s significance in a presentation by the Western Oregon University. Saffron is also a colour included in the emblem of India’s ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The logo appears here on the party’s official Twitter page. AFP located at least 25 posts with the same video and a similar claim on Facebook, including here and here . The same video was also shared here and here on Twitter with a similar claim. The claim is false; the video has circulated online since at least March 2018 in connection with a money dispute in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The exact same video was posted here on March 30, 2018 with a caption that says in part: He was pleading for forgiveness with folding hands but the miscreants continued with beating him... This incident took place in Deoria. Deoria is a district in eastern Uttar Pradesh state. A journalist in AFP’s Delhi bureau analysed the video and found the people in the clip could be heard using abusive words and phrases in Bhojpuri, a language spoken in Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring areas of Bihar. A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the video obtained using digital verification tool InVid found this report published on the website of the The Indian Express daily on March 31, 2018. Below is a screenshot of the report: Screenshot of news report The report states police were investigating an attack on an 18-year-old boy in Uttar Pradesh’s Deoria district on March 28, 2018 after a video clip of the incident surfaced online. The first two paragraphs state: Six people have been arrested for allegedly flogging an 18-year-old youth after tying him to a tree in Uttar Pradesh’s Deoria district after a purported video of the incident surfaced on the internet, police said on Friday. The victim was assaulted as had reportedly asked one of the accused to return Rs 1,500 he had lent, they said. According to the police, the incident occurred on Wednesday afternoon in a village under Deoria’s Kotwali police station area. The victim, identified as Shamshad, was tied to a tree in a deserted field and brutally flogged, beaten and abused by six youths, who also recorded the incident on their mobile phones. This report published by the Hindi-language news and current affairs website The Lallantop on April 3, 2018, includes several screenshots from the video. A translation of the headline from Hindi reads: This video will show your children how quickly we humans can become animals. Below is a comparison of screenshots from video from The Lallatop website (Top) and those from the video published in the misleading posts (below): Image comparing screenshots published on Hindi news website (Top) and the video in Facebook post (Below) Commenting on the video in the misleading social media posts, Yadvendra Bahadur Pal, Station House Officer of Deoria's Kotwali Police Station, told AFP by phone on May 21, 2019, that police were investigating the case. He said: The incident occurred in the jurisdiction of the Deoria's Kotwali Police Station and a case was registered. The video has also been debunked by Indian fact check site BoomLive here . (en)
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