A photo of vendors maintaining social distancing in a market is being shared widely on social media with a claim that the photo was taken in Manipur. Some users have shared (archived) that the photo was taken in Mizoram. Let’s try to analyze the claim made in the post.
Claim: Photo of social distancing in a market was taken in Manipur (India).
Fact: The photo was taken neither in Manipur nor in Mizoram. It was taken at the Kalaw market in the Shan state of Myanmar. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Below the photo, a user has commented that the photo was taken at ‘the Kalaw market in the Shan state of Myanmar’.
So, when searched with keywords, many tweets and news blog articles were found saying that the photos were taken in Myanmar (not in any Indian State). As the photos are being shared in both the countries, let’s look for some clues to confirm the location of the photos.
Clue 1:
When searched for the Kalaw market photos on Google, a photo similar to the location in the posted photo was found.
Clue 2:
On a hoarding, in the photo, an advertisement with the brand ‘High Class’ can be seen. So, when searched with the keywords, it was found that it is the advertisement of ‘Seagram’s High Class – Myanmar’. (Seagram’s High Class Whisky was launched in Myanmar in October 2018)
Also, other photos of the same hoarding taken at different times with different types of advertisements can be found here and here. (The location of those photos was mentioned as Kalaw market, Myanmar).
Clue 3:
Some more latest photos of the same market were found on Twitter. In those photos, the vendors are sitting under the umbrellas of ‘mytel’. ‘mytel’ is a mobile network company in Myanmar.
To sum it up, with all the clues found, it can be concluded that the market photos were taken in Myanmar, not in India.
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