Lighthouse Journalism found a video being widely shared on social media platforms, which showed children crossing river in styrofoam boxes. It was being claimed, along with the video that it was from Madhya Pradesh in India.
During the investigation, we found that the video is from Indonesia and not India. The viral claim is misleading.
Claim:
X user Ashok Bauddha shared the video with a misleading claim.
Other users are also sharing the video with a similar claim.
Investigation:
We started the investigation by running a reverse image search on the keyframes obtained from the video.
We found the screenshot of the video on the website worldofbuzz.com, in an article uploaded in 2021.
We also found the report on kompas.com. The report said: When confirmed, Head of Planning and Finance Affairs of Kuala 12 Village, Adi Perdana, said that this incident was commonplace for the village’s native residents. According to him, children in their village are used to using Styrofoam boxes as boats to go to school.
The article further said, “Adi admitted that in their village there was no bridge connecting the two sides of the river.”
According to Adi, with a river width of 120 meters, it is not enough to build a bridge using village funds alone.
“It could take 10 years if we use village funds. Furthermore, the river is a major transportation route for ships carrying vehicles and heavy equipment to the companies located there. So, if we were to build a bridge, it would have to be tall and would be expensive,” Adi said.
We also found a few more news reports about the same.
We also found the visuals of the viral video uploaded on the YouTube channel Bangka Pos Official over three years ago.
Conclusion: An old video from Indonesia of children crossing a river in styrofoam boxes to attend school is being shared as recent from India. The viral claim is misleading.
