A 3-minute footage of a physical education teacher from Myanmar doing aerobics exercise has gone extremely viral on social media for an astounding reason - in the background a convoy of armoured vehicles of the Myanmar military can be seen in the process of carrying out a coup d'état, while the teacher continues her aerobics oblivious to the military's intentions.
The video has now started a major debate, with many claiming that a green screen has been used to superimpose the armoured vehicles in the background. BOOM geolocated the area in the video, and matched it with other videos by the lady in the video to find that the video was in fact taken at the Raised Lotus Roundabout near the Myanmar Presidential Palace, and is likely to be authentic.
On February 1, news of the arrest of Myanmar's newly elected government officials, including de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, shocked the world, as the Myanmar military took control by force and called for a one-year state of emergency.
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Later that day, the viral video was posted by Facebook user Khing Hnin Wai, which has since been shared more than 19,000 times and garnered more than 3,000 comments from people all over the world. According to her Facebook profile, Wai describes herself as a physical education teacher, employed by the Ministry of Education of Myanmar.
Soon after, people began to doubt the authenticity of the video. Hindustan Times' foreign editor Rezaul Hasan Laskar claimed that a green screen has been used to join the footage of then armoured vehicles and that of the dancing lady together because 'the lady's shadow disappears at the joint line'.
Disappearing Shadow? It Is Just A Step
Going through the comments of the posts on Facebook and Twitter, BOOM came across multiple suggestions that the video was shot at the Raised Lotus Roundabout, or the Yarza Thingaha Roundabout, in the Burmese capital Naypyidaw, located near the Myanmar parliament.
We matched steps where the lady danced, to the steps of Raised Lotus Roundabout, as seen in Google Map's street view. The fact that the Google Map street view's image capture is from 2018, could explain the missing steel barriers seen in the viral video, which could have been placed later.
The sudden disappearance of the shadow can be explained by the fact that it can get cut off due to the steps. Using one of the screenshots of the video, we noticed that the shadow can be seen in the side of the steps, when she moves to the right.
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We also compared the background in the viral video, to the the street across the roundabout that led to the Presidential Palace, and found it to be a close match.
Finally, we noticed a shrine in the background of the viral video. Using Google Map, we located a shrine named JulyOo, along the same road that led to the Presidential Palace. A close up of the shrine using the Street View revealed that it resembles the structure that can be seen in the video.
These led us to believe that the video was in fact shot at the Raised Lotus Roundabout at Naypyidaw. Finally Wai posted multiple past videos of her dancing at the same location.
We reached out to the lady in the video for a comment, and the article will be updated if and when she responds. The evidence provided above counter the claims of green screen being used to shoot the video.