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QAnon Conspiracy Theories: Investigating a Viral Meme

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    ماذا يشبه هذا الشعار بالنسبة إليك؟
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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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    Want more tips and
    tricks for becoming
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    a better fact checker?
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    Subscribe to our channel
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    and let us know what you
    think in the comments below.
Title:
QAnon Conspiracy Theories: Investigating a Viral Meme
Description:

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Video Language:
English
Team:
Amplifying Voices
Project:
Misinformation and Disinformation
Duration:
04:37

Arabic subtitles

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