Fact-Check: Coca-Cola Will Not Be Sold as a Cleaning Liquid in China!

Content similar to the claim was posted by a Russian website which produces satirical stories in 2018.

Fact-Check: We traced that the contents of the claim were also posted by a satirical news website in 2018. 

(Source: Altered by The Quint)

A long post on social media platforms has claimed that China has ordered the sale of the American beverage brand, Coca-Cola as a "sewage cleaning liquid."

• The post also read that the Chinese authorities have withdrawn Coca-Cola from all grocery stores in the country due to "scientific research" on its health effects.

• It said that 500 Chinese prisoners were involved in experiments involving the drink, leading to 75 deaths and 150 infections.

• The decision was based on the findings, which also highlighted its positive properties in plumbing.

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot) 

(Find archives of similar claims here, here and here.)

Is this true?: The claim is false. We found an article from 2018 on a Russian news satire website, Panorama that included similar content as the viral claim about China and Coca-Cola.

• Further, we did not find any credible reports that could prove the sale of the beverage as a cleaning liquid.

How did we find out?: We ran a relevant keyword search and came across a Russian website called Panorama.

• It published an article in 2018 with the headline, "Coca-Cola will be sold as a drain cleaner in China." (translated from Russian to English)

• Upon reading the piece, we noticed that the contents of the article were the same as the viral claim.

Here is the link to the article. 

(Source: Panorama/Screenshot) 

• At the bottom of the article, there was a note that read "All texts on this site are grotesque parodies of reality and are not real news."

Here is a close-up of the note. 

(Source: Panorama/Screenshot) 

• To verify further, we came across a profile of the founders of Panorama News by Russian news website, Meduza.

• First, it read that Panorama publishes "fictitious news." It also compared it to the United States of America's The Onion.

• Even Panorama's 'Support Us' page notes that they are a satirical media site.

Here is the link to their 'Support Us' page.

(Source: Panorama/Screenshot) 

• Further, we also came across a couple of claims from 2018 on Facebook that also have similar contents as Panorama's article. Archives of those claims can be found here and here.

• These were posted after Panorama published their article.

• Additionally, we did not find any credible reports to verify that China has listed Coca-Cola as a cleaning liquid.

Conclusion: It is clear that the viral claim is false. A satirical news website posted about this in 2018.

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