Thread by @brechtcastel

😲116K people watched this video of a collapsed football player on #Twitter. ⚽️

No #context is given, so #rumours start.

What happened? Let's find out! 👇👇👇 1/...

#OSINT🔎
#Verification 🎥
#HowToOSINT 🧐

The video is also shared on #Facebook where people link it to "side effects" of #COVID19 #vaccines. 💉🤔

Could there be a link? 2/...

We take screenshots of the video and use them for Reverse Image Search with Google, Bing and TinEye, but no luck. 😢

#Yandex does give a result and leads us to a video on #YouTube 🟩! 3/...

The video () has the same length (29 s.) and shows the same images in better quality. ✅

Remarkably, the upload date is 23 August 2019 🟥: so the footage predates the covid crisis. No link possible. 🚫

What happened? We copy the Arabic caption🟪. 4/...

And paste that text 🟪 into #Google #Translate.

The footage allegedly shows 🇸🇾 Syrian footballer Mahmoud Al-Mawas playing for the 🇶🇦 Qatari team Umm Salal and feeling ill in a match against Al-Rayyan from Doha. 5/...

We google the name of the footballer and found his profile on the football site transfermarkt.com.

From the profile picture 🟨, we see that he has the same hairstyle as the man in the video. This is our man. 6/...

We see that he effectively played for Qatari team Umm Salal FC in 2019 and is still active as a footballer 🟥👆.

So his football career did not stop after that incident.⚽️🥳

We are trying to find out what we do see on the footage. To do so, we copy his name in Arabic🟪. 7/...

We google his name 🟪, but limit ourselves to search results from 22 August 2019 to 24 August 2019 🟥, the period when the original video came online.

This is how we end up with an article 🟨 from the 🇸🇾 Syrian news site Enab Baladi: enabbaladi.net/archives/323150 8/...

I don't speak Syrian or any Arabian language, but Deepl or Google Translate 🟥 is your best friend. (Not 100% reliable, but it gives you a good idea.)

We read that Al-Mawas scored in that match and then became unwell due "to lack of salt" 🟩. 9/...

That is what the player himself said after the match: 'I was short of breath and felt cramps. The staff didn't let me finish the match as a precaution. Thanks to God, everything is fine. The team doctor assured me that a lack of salt was the cause [...].' 10/...

It wasn't too bad, because he even gave a TV-interview directly after when this all happened:

Mahmoud Al-Mawas is doing fine. No need to share this video again in 2022 without any #context... 🙅 Facts matter.
11/...

Reports of alleged #vaccine damage to footballers are circulating on social media. Lists of recently deceased athletes are associated with the vaccine, while in most cases no link has been established. Check your facts. 12/...reuters.com/article/factch…

What have we learned? 👩‍🏫

1) Often #Yandex gives the best results for Reverse Image Search. 🇷🇺
2) Even if you can't read a language, don't be scared. Try to seperate one piece (f.e. a name) and continue your search. 🈵
3) Narrowing down your search results is crucial. ⏳ 13/15

Did you like this #OSINT for #FactChecking?

Follow me (@brechtcastel) and check out my channel on #YouTube: youtube.com/channel/UCMBPt…

Older 🧵🧵 underneath this tweet 👇:

https://twitter.com/brechtcastel/status/1390688405416198145

14/15

You can read ALL my factchecks here for FREE! 👇

If you don't speak Dutch, use Google Translate or Deepl. 😉

Thanks for reading, see you in the next one! 🙏
15/15 knack.be/nieuws/auteurs…

The full article (@Knack) with all sources used and some extra info is now online. 👇 It's in Dutch 🇳🇱/🇧🇪. 16/16

knack.be/nieuws/factche…