Thread by @mediawise

Shoutout to our follower @bibleviz for getting our attention on this tweet. Let’s fact-check it!

https://twitter.com/Travelito24/status/1241684250031783938

Let’s figure out who posted this. @Travelito24 is a travel account that shares high-quality photos from unique places around the world. FYI they don’t claim ownership to all of the content they post. See their bio 👀👀

Given what we know about this account, it’s kinda weird that they’d share photos like this, but not weird that they’re unattributed since they don’t claim to own all the content they post.

Let’s do a reverse image search 🔎 Each image returned several results all reporting that health workers have been sharing photos of their bruised faces amid the pandemic. Let’s look at this article from TIME that was in our results.

The images from the tweet are included in the article as an embedded Instagram post on account that shares nurses’ stories in the time of COVID. Its caption doesn’t have any info about the people in the photos though. Meaning, we can’t be sure when these images were taken 😬

However, this photo in the article and tweet is embedded directly from the Facebook account of Nicola Sgarbi. A google search of his name tells us he’s an Italian doctor whose photo has been circulating among other healthcare workers’ who are fighting coronavirus.

This article from CNN is one that appeared in our search. It shows us the original photo of Dr. Sgarbi. cnn.com/2020/03/21/wor…

The article says since Sgarbi’s selfie went viral, other photos and videos of healthcare workers out of protective gear have been posted across social media.

Look at the original photo published by CNN compared to the photo in the tweet. Notice anything different? We can clearly observe the bruising in the photo included in the tweet looks more pronounced and dramatic.

The other 3 photos are making their rounds online without original credit. They appeared in several articles from our image search, but nothing concrete on who they belong to.

We rate this claim MOSTLY LEGIT. We confirmed one of the photos is from an Italian doctor. Given how popular it’s become for doctors and nurses to share these kinds of photos, it’s plausible that they are from people treating COVID patients.

However, the photo of Dr. Sgarbi is edited to make his bruising look more dramatic which can affect someone’s perception of the image and be misleading. 🚨

In the future, if you want to share photos to bring awareness to an important issue, it’s best to find an ORIGINAL social media posting rather than screenshots because those can be taken out of context. #THINKBEFOREYOUSHARE 😎