WEBVTT

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- What does this logo look like to you?

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It might not look like
much at first glance

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but it did cause quite a stir online.

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This logo was found on the side of

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a mobile COVID-19 testing truck.

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The photo is real and so is the logo.

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A viral post on Facebook claim that

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this logo represents Anubis,
the ancient Egyptian God

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of death and the afterlife.

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The rumors circulated
among groups tied to QAnon,

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the once fringe conspiracy
theory that has made its way

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into the mainstream.

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QAnon members said the logo revealed

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a deep state plot against Americans.

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They shared fears that
these testing trucks

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were up to something nefarious.

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- Of course it turns out the
logo is actually an aardvark.

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- An aardvark?

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- Yes, an aardvark,

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which I learned is an African
mammal who is nocturnal

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and feeds largely on bugs.

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- Sarah Spencer, a journalist
with factcheck.org,

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ventured down the virtual rabbit hole

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to figure out where this logo came from

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and how it ended up linked
to an Egyptian death deity.

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- [Sarah] We initially were presented

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with this meme on Facebook.

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Why does COVID-19 testing
facility have a logo

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of Anubis, the God of death?

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The first step would be to do just

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a basic reverse image search.

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It can kind of give you
a starting off point

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and give you a sense of maybe
how widespread something is.

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You can see obviously where
the person who put together

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this meme shows to select in red,

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indicating what they think
is interesting about it.

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That will often skew an image search

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but you can also click and download

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and then put it into any
photo editing software.

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In a picture like this, I
would crop it like that,

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so that you get part of an actual picture.

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Then you can plug that picture

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into your standard reverse image search.

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Here in TinEye you can
select your cropped version.

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In TinEye, unlike in Google,

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you can sort by newest to oldest.

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So in this case, it was used in

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a Philadelphia business journal story

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about this area business
that gad started retooling

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its trucks to be used

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as mobile testing units during COVID-19.

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They identify the name of the
company as Aardvark Mobile.

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So then just a simple, very
simple internet search,

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a pretty obvious first result

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is the Aardvark Mobile Tours website

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that shares the same logo
that you see on the truck.

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You see they have a
mobile health care unit.

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- [Hari] Oh, that looks pretty close.

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- [Sarah] Very similar setup,
yeah, very similar setup.

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One thing that TinEye is really good at

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is finding where images first
started showing up online.

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One of its first iterations showed up

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on 8Kun, which is a message
board that often is home

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to conspiracy theorists threads.

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It's where a lot of
conspiracy theories develop

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and then bubble up before
they start showing up

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on Facebook and Twitter.

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- So your tip to a general reader,

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if they see an image that
makes these kinds of claims,

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what's the first thing they should have

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in the back of their mind?

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And then what's the first
thing they should do?

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- If you're scrolling
through your social media,

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you see something that
really speaks to you

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and really feels right,
and you think, yes,

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that really solidifies what I think,

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that should be a warning to you

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that it might be questionable.

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Often you'll find that the
facts that are included

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in memes that feel the most
right, are actually wrong.

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- The world feels scary right now

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and the future feels unknown.

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Reading something on the internet

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and assuming the worst,
seems almost reasonable.

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But as Sarah said, if it feels right,

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you might wanna check first.

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And if something requires
an elaborate explanation,

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maybe there's a simpler answer.

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Sometimes a logo is just a logo.

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Sometimes an aardvark is just an aardvark.

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And why by the way,

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is this truck company
named after an aardvark?

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- The owner of Aardvark
Tours chose the name aardvark

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because it starts with
AA and way back when,

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when there were yellow
pages and the phone book.

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- Sure, we had AA carpet
cleaning, AAA carpet cleaning.

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- An aardvark starts with two A's.

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So, that's how that came to be.

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- Until next time don't spread
fake news, keep it real.

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I'm Hari Sreenivasan and
this is take on faith.

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(upbeat music)

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Thanks for watching.

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