An elderly man is eating thrown-out food from a pile of garbage on the footpath. A photo with such an image has gone viral on the social media.
Posting the photo with captions like ‘Bangladesh famine’ and ‘Situation in Bangladesh’ it is being claimed that the photo has been taken recently.
Fact checking platform in Bangladesh, Rumor Scanner says the photo is not taken recently. Rather this is an old photograph from 2023.
This information came up in the investigation of Rumor Scanner. A report has been published on this matter on the Rumor Scanner website today, Tuesday.
Fact Check
The investigation carried out by the Rumor Scanner team showed that the exact same photo was published on the Facebook page of photographer GMB Akash on Sunday, 8 December. The photo has been shared on his Instagram handle as well.
Akash mentioned in the captions of those posts that the photo had been captured on 17 November of 2023.
Questions have been raised regarding the authenticity of the photo as well. Some have also claimed that the photo is created using artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
In this context, the Rumor Scanner team has contacted photographer GMB Akash and collected the original photograph.
Analysis of the metadata on the original photograph confirmed that the photo was authentic and it was snapped on 17 November 2023.
That means an old photograph of an elderly man eating thrown-out food has been circulated on the social media claiming it to be a recent snap, which is misleading.