AFP's fact-check service debunks misinformation spread online. Here are some of our recent fact-checks: A claim that India's Ministry of Home Affairs made it a "punishable offence" to publish posts on social media about the novel coronavirus has been shared repeatedly on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp. The claim is false. India's official Press Information Bureau said that the government has enacted no such law. A conspiracy theory that 5G mobile networks created the novel coronavirus has been shared widely on various social media platforms. The claim especially gained traction across Africa, where proponents have credited the absence of 5G networks to the continent's lower levels of confirmed cases. Experts, however, have refuted the claim, saying 5G is based on radio frequency and is not related to the viral outbreak. A video purportedly showing COVID-19 victims in body bags strewn across the floor of a New York City hospital was shared several thousand times on various social media platforms. The claim is false. The footage was in fact shot in Ecuador, not Manhattan. A hospital spokeswoman in New York told AFP that the claims were "deeply disturbing" and amounted to "abhorrent misinformation". A claim has been shared widely online that Muslims at a mosque in Sri Lanka reacted violently after authorities told them their gathering was in violation of the country's novel coronavirus curfew. Police and public health officials, however, said that locals were in fact asked to gather at the mosque to receive tests to detect the novel coronavirus. The scuffle that occurred at the event was sparked over fears that the testing site would make the village more susceptible to infections, they said. A photo of a young boy has been shared repeatedly on Facebook, Twitter and various websites alongside a claim that it shows a 13-year-old in the UK who died after contracting the novel coronavirus. The claim is false. The photograph has circulated in reports since 2017 about a teenager who died in Ireland 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. afp