A mischievously edited photo of a man substituting a face mask with an underwear featuring the logo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM) party is doing the rounds on social media to take a jibe at the political party.
The image shows a man wearing a red underwear that covers his face and nose; The brief has text on the elastic reading C.P.M in Hindi ('सी.पी.एम') and features the logo of the party. In the original image, which is available on the internet since May, the brand name of the underwear can be seen on the elastic.
The image is viral on Facebook with a caption that takes a distasteful dig at the party based on the logo and the text. The caption reads, "CPM mask" (Original text in Hindi: ''सी.पी.एम. मास्क...'')
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Archive of the post can be seen here.
The post is viral on Twitter with a similar narrative.
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Fact Check
BOOM ran a reverse image search on the Russian search tool, Yandex and found a blog published in May 23, 2020, in the website Odd Stuff Magazine featuring the original image. The title of the blog reads ''Funny Pictures'' and has a number of people wearing masks made out of different unconventional materials in the backdrop of the outbreak of COVID-19. The original image in this blog has a text 'Fort Styllo' written on the elastic of the underwear worn as a mask.
Additionally the image had been flipped.
We also found the original image with Fort Styllo written from as early as May 17 on Facebook.
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A search on Facebook showed several products of Fort Styllo, which produces undergarments, sold by Brazil-based users on the platform. See here, here and here.
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