A photo of a billboard has gone viral, purporting that Indian-majority Canadian cities have posted Hindi-language boards on their parks and beaches urging Indian people to refrain from open defecation.
@T_A_backup tweeted “Municipalities across Canadian cities with high Indian population have put posters in hindi across the park and beaches asking indians not to defecate in the open. It is normal in india as Millions of them still don’t have the facility of a washroom and they defecate in the open” on March 19, 2024. The tweet has received an about 250.7k views on X.
Municipalities across Canadian cities with high Indian population have put posters in hindi across the park and beaches asking indians not to defecate in the open.
— Tanvir’s Backup account. (@T_A_backup) March 19, 2024
It is normal in india as Millions of them still don’t have the facility of a washroom and they defecate in the open pic.twitter.com/EDGStxpTqk
Several other accounts, including @imkhanarif, @Earthlings168, @victus_XVII made the same claim that Municipalities in Canadian cities with a large Indian population have placed Hindi-language banners in parks and on beaches, advising Indians not to defecate in public. The archive can be read from above.
What is the Actual Truth About this Incident? : Fact
The billboard has been digitally altered, and these assertions are false. It is unrelated to reality. After some investigation, we discovered that the billboard’s original image does not mention any references to Hindi language. The billboard’s original image is old and from Accra, Ghana, where it was first displayed to the public in 2018. It is unrelated to Canada or Indians.We visited shutterstock, which posted the original image with the caption “ACCRA,GHANA/MAY 1,2018: The billboard “Beaches are not toilets” on the street of Accra”. It is a picture from May 1, 2018, which is quite old. We also went to graphic.com, which wrote about this on August 1, 2018 with the headline “Canadian diplomats felt the need to justify spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a campaign aimed at reining in outdoor defecation in Ghana amid questions over the use of development money, internal documents reveal.” For further clarification, we also visited nationalpost.com, which wrote about this with the headline “Diplomats fretted about Canadian funding for Ghana outdoor defecation campaign” on July 31, 2018. It is clear from these posts that the circulated image of the billboard is digitally altered.
D-Intent’s Fact-Checking Results:
1749
— D-Intent Data (@dintentdata) March 19, 2024
ANALYSIS: Fake
FACT: An image of a billboard has been shared claiming that Municipalities across Canadian cities with high Indian populations have put posters in Hindi across the parks and beaches asking Indians not to defecate in the open. (1/3) pic.twitter.com/12W0hZFp3O
Intent:
Anti-India propaganda accounts are circulating digitally altered images from Africa claiming to be from Canada to set their racist Propaganda. An image of a billboard has been shared claiming that Municipalities across Canadian cities with high Indian populations have put posters in Hindi across the parks and beaches asking Indians not to defecate in the open.The truth is that these assertions are false, and the billboard was digitally altered. It has absolutely nothing to do with reality. After conducting research, we discovered the original image of the billboard, which does not include Hindi words. The source photograph of the billboard is old and comes from Accra, Ghana, where these billboards were spotted in 2018. It has nothing to do with Canada or Indians.
Conclusion:
Claim : A photograph of a billboard has been posted, stating that municipalities in Canadian cities with large Indian populations have placed banners in Hindi in parks and beaches advising Indians not to defecate in public.
Fact : The fact is that these claims are fake, and the billboard has been digitally altered. It has nothing to do with reality. Upon research, we found the original image of the billboard, which does not mention Hindi words. The original image of the billboard is an old and from Accra, Ghana, where these billboards were publicly seen in 2018. It has nothing to do with Canada and Indians.
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