An image of a young man has been trending on Facebook following news of the terrible incident that caused the death and injury of some supporters of the Unity Party on Monday evening.
Facebook users sharing the image claimed that the person is one of the victims of the tragic incident. All of the posts did not identify the person but expressed deep sympathy for demise.
The Claim
Here Exact words were: “This is one of the victims. He’s dead. Rip and my sympathy to your family. You didn’t deserve this.”
Rating Justification
We check the image in these posts and found that the person is not a Liberian and was never involved in the accident.
To fact-check this claim, we first conducted an analysis of the image shared by Evon Maya Konate, and identified that the image is a well modeled and branded picture. We could not find no connection of the person in the photo to Liberia.
We furthered search to see posts from family members of the victim and found none.
We then sent a message to Konate through messenger to know her source of claim, and she responded that it was her friend who sent her the image.
“My friend sent me the image and she said it was one of the victims of the incident, if I’m not mistaken, they said his name his Kelvin, but I don’t know his full name. I asked her for the name she says she doesn’t know the person’s name”.
But, promised to get more details from her friend and would let us know, if incase she does, we will update this report.
We then conducted a reverse image search, using Google RIS and found that the image used was downloaded from Beth model Africa – a modeling and fashion agency’s website.
According to the agency’s website, they were founded in 2004, With partners in New York, London, Paris. Milan and Spain. The agency states that it focuses on discovering new talent and transforming them into superstars.
We then extended our search to identify the person in the picture and found that the person is a model who goes by the name Kelvin E. Kelvin E is an international model and is not a Liberian.
Conclusion
Therefore, we conclude that the image being shared as one of the victims of the incident that occurred on November 20 at the Unity Party headquarters is false and misleading. This image was downloaded from Beth Modeling agency and is being used as one of those who died in the incident.
This report was developed with the support of Internews through the USAID Media Activity project. The funder has no say in the editorial decision leading to the production of this content