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As Rohingya crisis continues, images of children are being misused to spread fake news

Sandy is a 12 year-old Brazilian girl, suffering from multiple health problems including a liver condition. The Facebook page of Garrafão do Norte, the place where she lives, has shared her story of strength and perseverance and made an appeal for help. In the video posted on the page, you can see little Sandy talking from her hospital bed. You can also see that her medical condition has caused an enlarged belly. It must take a sick mind to lift this photograph of an ailing child and share it as a pregnant Rohingya girl.

The photograph was shared on twitter by Prashant Umrao Patel, an advocate. He added that “she is in UN clinic, going to give birth to a child soon”
 


Here is the original video from the Garrafão do Norte page, showing Sandy. After this fake news was busted by Boom Fact Check, Patel quietly deleted the tweet without a word of apology.

Here’s a video of the little girl.

 https://www.facebook.com/jeanne.santos.562/videos/1011657392279253/

 This is not the first time that Patel has been called out for sharing fake news. He had also shared a fake image to shame the victim of the Chandigarh stalking incident. He was also at the forefront in rumor-mongering and polarizing over the Utkal Express derailment.
Another fake news using the image of a child was started by Ravinder Sangwan.

 https://twitter.com/Shanknaad/status/911804744095748096
https://twitter.com/Shanknaad/status/911804744095748096
 s://twitter.com/Shanknaad/status/911804744095748
 Using an image from a BBC video, Sangwan fabricated the story of a 14 year-old with two kids and a 56 year-old husband who has six wives and 18 children.

 https://youtu.be/XFDoFC0Sw0A

Despite being repeatedly called out for his fake post, Sangwan refused to accept or delete it. The fake story is still doing the rounds with BJP leader Raman Malik also sharing the same.

https://twitter.com/ramanmalik/status/911839586384412672

It also made it to a fake news website called coveragestimes.com and was tweeted by one Neetu Garg who is followed by both PM Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah.

 We have noticed that a large percentage of fake news and rumors originate from a small set of websites and social media profiles. These are habitual offenders who quietly delete the original post without any apology after the objective of starting the rumor has been achieved. Beware of news originating from such accounts.
 

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