A staged video from Egypt showing a man dressed in a burqa kidnapping a child on a busy street, is being shared on Indian social media falsely claiming that it is a real incident.
The 28-second long viral video shows a person dressed in a burqa kidnapping a young boy with the help of another man and whisking the boy away in a tuk-tuk rickshaw.
The video is being shared with the caption, "We have to be alert from all sides"
(Original text in Hindi - हमें चारों तरफ से सतर्क रहना है,,…)
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The same video was also tweeted by Santosh Chauhan from Sudarshan News. BOOM has previously debunked misinformation shared by Sudarshan News.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral video is from Egypt and is scripted. Four men have been arrested by Egyptian authorities for allegedly creating the video and circulating it.
We broke the viral video into key-frames and ran a reverse image search using Google Images. The search results showed Egyptian news reports stating that the incident is staged and four people had been arrested for making the viral video.
According to a news report by Egyptian news website El Watan News dated June 28, 2022, four youth were arrested from Sohag Governorate in Egypt for the staged video which showed a burqa-clad man kidnapping a child.
The report quotes Egypt's Ministry of Internal Affairs on the viral video stating that it is staged and was allegedly created with a motive of achieving "financial returns and viewership on social media."
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Taking a cue from this, we also checked Egypt's Ministry of Interior social media handles and found a post from June 29, 2022, where the accused can be seen narrating the incident.
The caption when translated reads, "Revealing the circumstances of the circulation of a fabricated video clip on social networking sites of a veiled woman kidnapping a child inside a "tuk-tuk" vehicle after he was drugged with a pin prick in his shoulder with the help of others. On examination, it was found that the aforementioned video was fabricated. After codifying the procedures, it was possible to identify and control those responsible for the video, and it was found that they were (4 people, residing in Sohag governorate, "one of whom wore the niqab to deceive viewers of the video clip that he was a woman). The city of #Girga in Sohag governorate and that it is a representative scene that was broadcast on social media with the aim of achieving a financial return by increasing the viewership rate.The Ministry of Interior confirms that all legal measures are taken against the promoters of lies and rumors that would create confusion in a decisive manner."