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| - Fact Check: Truth behind the emotional story of this boy selling masks
A photo of a kid selling face masks is going viral with the claim that he is giving them away for free to those who cannot afford them as his mother advised him to help the needy.
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India Today Fact Check
We could not find any such story associated with the boy. This is seven-year-old Uzbillah who along with his brother was selling masks at a street corner in Pakistan’s Karachi in March last year.
At a time strict Covid-19 protocols have been introduced to control the second wave of the pandemic, a striking picture of a child selling face masks is circulating on social media. The emotional claim with the picture says the boy is giving away masks for free to those who do not have money, as his mother asked him to help people in need.
Several Facebook users have shared the picture with a caption in Hindi which translates to, “Kid says, if you don’t have money, will give away masks for free, mom has said people need help”.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found no such emotional story attached to the picture. This is seven-year-old Uzbillah who along with his brother was selling masks at a street corner in Pakistan’s Karachi last year.
The archived versions of the posts are saved here and here.
What AFWA found
Using reverse image search, we found that the original picture of the boy and his brother was published on several international as well as Pakistani websites last year.
According to these websites, the picture was taken by news agency Reuters. We found the original picture on the Reuters website, with credits to photographer Akhtar Soomro.
The picture caption reads, “Seven-year-old Uzbillah stands with face masks on a stick selling them with his brother at the corner of a street during a lockdown after Pakistan shut all markets, public places and discouraged large gatherings amid an outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Karachi, Pakistan, March 31, 2020. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro”.
Neither Reuters nor any Pakistani media have mentioned any such emotional story that the boy was giving away masks for free to those who don’t have money as advised by his mother.
We did not find any excess information on the boy apart from what was mentioned along with the Reuters photograph. Therefore, it can be concluded that the Facebook claim about the child is misleading.
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