Busting the top 3 fake news of the week
BD FactCheck attempted to investigate the claim
Rumors of Barrister Moudud's death on social media
Rumor hit social media on Wednesday claiming that the BNP leader Barrister Moudud Ahmed had died. Hundreds of Facebook pages and groups belonging to party supporters posted the news of the veteran leader's demise and expressed condolences. BD FactCheck attempted to investigate the claim and contacted the press wing of BNP.
Shairul Kabir Khan, one of the press wing officials of the BNP chairperson, refuted the claim and said party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir met with Moudud on the same day and his health condition had improved. Also, BD FactCheck was forwarded a photo of Mirza Fakhrul and others' visit to the capital's Evercare Hospital where Moudud is being treated.
BD Factcheck Post: https://www.facebook.com/bdfactcheck/posts/1238156133252046
Fake news of Goerge Bush's daughter converting to Islam
"Geroge W Bush's daughter embraced Islam after the satirical caricature saga of Prophet Muhammad in France", a statement in different versions, attached with a video clip spread, through Facebook and Youtube. The video shows a hijab-wearing girl pronouncing Shahada, words of verbal admission into Islam, has been watched more than 2 million times and shared by some 80,000 users from a single Facebook page.
BDFactCheck debunked the claim made in the video and discovered that the girl is not the daughter of George W. Bush, former president of the US. Rather the hijab-clad lady is from Romania and her conversion to Islam was featured in a video that was uploaded on YouTube in 2014.
George W. Bush has twin daughters named Jenna and Barbara Bush whose facial features do not match with that of the woman in the viral video. Furthermore, BDFactCheck failed to find any clue in any reliable newspapers regarding the twin daughters' conversion to Islam.
BD Factcheck Post: https://www.facebook.com/bdfactcheck/posts/1238143549919971
A false statement attributed to Health Minister
A fabricated statement attributed to the health minister Zahid Malek was circulated on social media last week claiming that he excluded the supporters of BNP and Jamaat-e Islami as recipients of the Covid vaccine. Some online portals carried news stories with headlines like: "BNP-Jamaat won't get the vaccine: health minister".
Though they used such headlines, they mentioned nothing of the sort in the body of the news. BD FactCheck found that a press briefing of the minister on January 2 on the Covid situation was manipulated to make such headlines. However, Zahid Malek said nothing like this, as reported in mainstream media on that day.
BD Factcheck Post: https://www.boombd.com/fake-news/false-claim-of-health-ministers-saying-...
