Media Check

False Claim of Ebola Virus mixed in soft drinks resurfaces again.

Written by Md Mahfooz Alam

An old WhatsApp message has been doing rounds again. It is being claimed in the message that a staff member of a company has mixed contaminated blood that contains the Ebola virus into the soft drinks. The most serious part of the message is the claim that this information has been given by the Hyderabad police to every citizen of India and it was also broadcasted by the news channel NDTV. Along with the message some disturbing photos are also being shared.

The message is viral in Hindi and it can be loosely translated into English as: “please forward this to all friends, this is being informed from Hyderabad police to all India. For the coming few days, please don’t drink cold drinks like Maaza, Fanta, 7up, Coca-cola, Mountain dew, Pepsi etc because the staff of a company has mixed contaminated blood of a virus named Ebola in cold drinks.  This news was also broadcasted by the NDTV channel yesterday. Please forward this message as soon as possible and help, please forward this message to your family and share it as much as possible. Thank you.”

(Photo Source: WhatsApp Forward)

1st Photo

(Photo Source: WhatsApp Forward)

2nd Photo

(Photo Source: WhatsApp Forward)

FactO News received the request on its WhatsApp helpline number for the verification of the claim.

FactO Check:

The claim being made is misleading and false.  Hyderabad police on July 12, 2019, called out this fake news on Twitter. They tweeted, “Fake news spreading on social media about cool drinks and a warning from Hyderabad city police is a fake one and Hyderabad city police never released any message regarding this.”

We reverse searched the photos on Google. The reverse search of the first photo led us to an article by a Pakistani website, MangoBaaz. The article was published on September 26, 2015, and it carries the viral photo of Coca-Cola bottles, the article says that fake Coca-Cola factories were raided in cities like Gujranwala.

The reverse search of the second photo led us to a report published in the Hindi news website by the name Antim Vikalp News. According to the report, a Tata Magic van crashed into a parked truck in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri area on April 28, 2018. The website carries the second photo.

Conclusion:

The viral message is fake and the photos shared along with the message are unrelated and misleading.

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About the author

Md Mahfooz Alam

Mahfooz is a multimedia journalist and regularly writes fact-check stories for Facto News. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and Mass Communication. He has worked as an intern fact-checker for The Quint. He specializes in research and fact-checking and aspires to do investigative reporting.

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