CLAIM
A video of a man spitting on a fellow subway passenger’s face and then being beaten up is going viral with the claim that it shows a ‘jihadist spitting on a man’ right now in the context of the worldwide coronavirus outbreak.
The message with which the video has been shared is this: “New York, an islamic jihadi spits into a metro coach passenger just as the door closes. Unfortunately the low IQ jihadi picked on wrong person, he forced the train door open, thulped the jihadi to pulp and then made him fall on the ground and stomped on his head...This is the way to treat these spitting and lewd behavior jihadis.”
In the video, the man outside can be seen spitting twice at a man inside. However, as he begins to walk away, the man inside forces the door of the subway open and comes out and proceeds to beat him up.
“He’s livid! It’s over!” the person filming the incident can be heard saying.
The video has been shared by many with the claim that the man spitting is an ‘Islamic jihadi’, who is trying to spread coronavirus, which, as is known, spreads through droplets from an infected person.
Many people shared the video on Facebook with the claim.
The video was also shared by many people on Twitter.
TRUE OR FALSE?
The claim with which the video has been shared is fake. The video is from August 2019, in New York, before the outbreak of coronavirus and therefore has no link to COVID-19.
WHAT WE FOUND
On running a keyword search, we came across several reports about the incident. A report by Mirror, dated 4 August 2019, mentioned that the incident took place in Manhattan, New York.
According to a publication called Atlanta Black Star, the spitter was a white man who spat on a black man inside the subway. Multiple other publications like NY Post and The Sun reported on the incident but no one has the details of the incident or why that happened.
A video of the same incident was also uploaded on 3 August 2019 on YouTube.
The reports all said that there was no comment on the incident from the New York Police Department. A Twitter user had also shared the video on 4 August 2019.
The Quint was not able to independently verify the incident, but it is clear that the incident dates to before the outbreak of COVID-19, which was first witnessed in China in December 2019. Therefore, it does not show a Muslim man spitting at another man in order to spread the virus.
You can read all our fact-checked stories on coronavirus here.
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