Vishvas News found this claim to be false in its investigation. The video of a boat accident in Congo is being made viral with the misleading claim that it is from Goa.
New Delhi (Vishvas News). A video is circulating widely on social media, showing a boat capsizing in a river. The accompanying post claims the footage is from Goa, where numerous lives were allegedly lost in the incident.
Vishvas News found this claim to be false in its investigation. The video going viral is of a boat capsizing in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Facebook user ‘Bannaram Saran Chaudhary’ shared the viral video (archive link) on October 10, 2024, and wrote “23 bodies recovered, 40 people rescued and 64 missing in the accident in Goa today. The greed of the boat owner, overloading, and overconfidence of the passengers. Very sad, sad.”
To start the investigation, we used a keyword search. We found no report regarding any recent boat accident in Goa. However, we did find a tweet from Goa Police in which this post was called fake. This tweet dated 5 October 2024 read “A video circulating on social media claims a boat capsized near Goa’s shores. This is false. The incident occurred in Goma, Congo, Africa. Please refrain from sharing unverified news.”
Taking a clue from here, we furthered our keyword search and found this video uploaded on 4 October on the YouTube channel of news agency Associated Press. The description of the video read “Footage filmed by a witness shows the moment an overcrowded boat capsized on Lake Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo, killing at least 78 people. “
We also found the viral video on the YouTube channel of China Global Television Network Africa. Here too it was said to be an incident that happened in Congo.
We reached out to North Goa SP Akshat Kaushal for confirmation. He verified that no such boat sinking incident has occurred in Goa.
The user Bannaram Saran Chaudhary who shared the viral picture with the false claim is followed by more than 7000 users on Facebook.
Conclusion: Vishvas News found this claim to be false in its investigation. The video of a boat accident in Congo is being made viral with the misleading claim that it is from Goa.
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