A collage of two screenshots claiming to show CNN news tickers praising the Taliban for wearing masks to protect themselves from COVID-19 and for a 'peaceful transfer of power' while taking over Afghanistan's capital city Kabul, are fake and were created as satire.
The city of Kabul fell to the Taliban on August 15, 2021, with the militant group taking control of the country and the Afghanistan government collapsing. The offensive by the hardline Islamic militants saw provinces falling one after another just weeks after the withdrawal of United States-led coalition troops. The fall of Kabul on Sunday led to the evacuation of the US embassy with several nations scrambling to get their citizens out of the country from Kabul airport.
The set of two photos show CNN news tickers that says, "Taliban fighters responsibly wearing masks" and the other news ticker reading - "Violent but mostly peaceful transfer of power" with a reporter in the background of a photo of a Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter flying over the US embassy in Kabul during the evacuation on Sunday.
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The viral photo was also shared by flimmaker Vivek Agnihotri. When pointed out by Twitter users that the image was satirical, Agnihotri claimed he knew it was satire.
The image was also shared by Ashoke Pandit and BJP MP Varun Gandhi
Viral on Facebook
The same set of photos was shared on Facebook with the misleading caption
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral screenshots of CNN news tickers praising the Taliban were morphed and created as satire.
The first photo showing a reporter in the background of a Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter flying over the US embassy has been morphed. The original photo is taken from August 2020 coverage of the Wisconsin protests after the shooting of Jacob S. Blake, a 29-year-old black man, who was shot and seriously injured by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin on August 23, 2020.
CNN was then cricticised by right-wing handles for running the news ticker - "Fiery But Mostly Peaceful Protests After Police Shooting" while covering the protests. In the broadcast, we can spot that there is no news ticker reading, "Violent but mostly peaceful transfer of power" which has been edited in and even the photo of the Chinook helicopter flying has been photoshopped in the viral photo.
Comparison
We can spot that the background and news tickers have been photoshopped in the viral image.
The second photo showing the CNN news ticker reading - "Taliban fighters responsibly wearing masks" has been taken from the Christian conservative satire website The Babylon Bee that had published a satire article headlined - "CNN Praises Taliban For Wearing Masks During Attack" with the same viral image.
The about section of The Babylon Bee clearly states that it is a satire website.