Unrelated old photo of an injured woman breastfeeding her child falsely linked to the ongoing violence in Manipur - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
June 22, 2023
A photo is being shared on social media claiming it is the latest picture of a severely injured woman breastfeeding her child in Manipur. Sharing the photo, the post claims that a big scale of cruelty and violence is taking place now in Manipur. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Recent photo of a severely injured woman breastfeeding her child in Manipur.
Fact: The photo shared in the post is being circulating on social media at least since October 2021. While many users shared the photo asserting that it was captured in Myanmar, a few news sites issued clarifications affirming that the photo originated from Thailand. The photo shared in the post is old and has nothing to do with the ongoing violence in Manipur. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
On reverse image search of the photo shared in the post, we found that the same photo is being circulating on social media at least since October 2021. A few of those old posts can be seen here, here, and here. Whila a writer from Bhutan used this photo as a reference image for her article on domestic violence, many other users and a few news magazines shared the image asserting that the photo was captured in Khayan township in Myanmar. A few news sites published articles sharing the same picture in 2021.
When we searched for further sources related to the photo, we found a clarification post published by the ‘MMU News Hour’ on Telegram. This news site affirmed that the photo had originated from Thailand and not from Khayan township in Myanmar. Boom Myanmar also published a fact-check article in October 2021, asserting that the photo shows a victim of domestic violence in Thailand. Though we could not ascertain the exact location from where the photo had originated, from all these pieces of evidence, it can be concluded that the photo shared in the post is old and has nothing to do with the ongoing violence in Manipur.
To sum it up, an old photo of a severely injured woman breastfeeding her child is falsely linked to the ongoing Manipur violence.