On Monday, 29 June, CNN News18 aired an old video from Malaysia with a false claim that it is from a recent incident where a Chinese engineer was caught on camera beating a Pakistani driver in Karachi.
However, The Quint found that this video is as old as 2016 and contrary to the claim, was shot in Malaysia.
THE CLAIM
In their news bulletin, CNN News18 anchor claimed that the Chinese engineer was working for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and was caught on camera beating up his Pakistan driver in Karachi. She further added that the driver was beaten up for submitting a “fake petrol bill”.
The video has now been taken down.
Among others who shared the video is Zee News anchor Sudhir Chaudhary who while wanting to know the veracity of the claim tweeted, “If this is true Pakistani Govt should arrest this Chinese national. Do they have the courage? (sic)”
The video is also widely circulated on Facebook with the same misleading claim.
WHAT WE FOUND
We fragmented the video into several keyframes using the InVid Google Chrome extension and then followed it up with a Yandex reverse image search. We found several Facebook users from 2016 users sharing this video with a claim that it is from Malaysia.
A Google advanced search using keywords “Foreign national beaten in Malaysia” directed us to a YouTube video uploaded in 2016 by Kwong Wah Yit Poh光華日報, - Malaysian daily.
The caption shared along with the video translates to: “A video of a severely beaten foreign worker circulated on social networks, arousing the anger of netizens. In the video, a man wearing a net T-shirt 5.0 T-shirt watched the abuse of foreign workers.(sic)”
While the report identified the aggressor as a Chinese national, the nationality of the victim was not mentioned in the caption.
We also found a report by The Straits Times which stated that the video was uploaded by Malaysian politician Datuk Huan Cheng Guan from the Parti Cinta Malaysia party.
Clearly, a 2016 video from Malaysia is being shared with a false Pakistan and China spin.
(With inputs from SM HoaxSlayer)
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