Fact-Check: News Outlets Share Stock Photo of a Young Boy as Visuals From Turkey

The photo is a stock image that we found on Shutterstock and Adobe Stock's websites.

Aishwarya Varma
WebQoof
Published:
<div class="paragraphs"><p>Several media organisations published the photo as a recent visual from the earthquakes in Turkey.</p></div>
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Several media organisations published the photo as a recent visual from the earthquakes in Turkey.

(Source: Shutterstock/Altered by The Quint)

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Several social media users and news organisations shared a photo of a young boy sitting on rubble linking it to the recent earthquakes which hit Turkey and Syria on 6 and 7 February, claiming as many as 11,000 lives.

Who shared this photo?: News organisations such as Down To Earth, Lokmat Hindi, ABP Mazha, ETV Bharat, and News18 Hindi shared the photo.

(Note: Swipe right to view some of the claims.)

But...?: The image is a stock photo and doesn't show recent visuals from Turkey or Syria.

How did we find out?: We ran a reverse image search on the viral photo.

  • The results led us to Shutterstock – a stock image website – which had the same photo on its website.

  • It was published crediting the photo to one Zapylaieva Hanna.

We found the photo on stock image website.

(Source: Shutterstock/Altered by The Quint)

  • We looked for the photographer's social media profiles and came across one on Facebook.

  • Hanna had shared this photo mentioning that she had taken the photo in an old, destroyed building in Goloseevsky Park (in Kyiv) during Easter in 2018.

The photo was used in an article about the effect of childhood trauma in adult relationships.

(Source: Gulf News/Screenshot)

Team WebQoof has debunked several claims surrounding the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, some of which you can read here, here, here, and here.

Conclusion: The photograph of a boy sitting amid rubble is a stock image, and not related to the recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.

(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9643651818, or e-mail it to us at webqoof@thequint.com and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)

(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)

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