A Facebook (FB) Reel currently circulating among thousands of netizens falsely implies that Metro Manila has been placed under a heightened alert level to combat COVID-19 transmission. The misleading Reel used an old news report.
On May 2, an FB user reposted a short video originally published by TikTok user @niwrenewstv. It was captioned “#alertlevel3” and carried a 24-second clip featuring a 24 Oras news report where broadcast journalist Vicky Morales said the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) had placed Metro Manila under Alert Level 3 on Monday.
The report was aired not recently but on Dec. 31, 2021.
The excerpt in the circulating Reel even showed a news ticker stating that the new alert level status would cover Metro Manila from Jan. 3 to 15, 2022. The area was placed under Alert Level 3 at the time due to local transmission of the then-emerging Omicron variant of the virus.
As of May 11, Metro Manila remains under Alert Level 1.
Some criticized the publisher of the misleading Reel for spreading disinformation while others fell for it and in anger, accused the government of “taking advantage” of the people.
This erroneous video emerged a week after the Department of Health reported the first case of infection with the Arcturus variant, detected in Western Visayas. The patient was asymptomatic and has already recovered, according to news reports.
The FB netizen’s video has garnered over 5,300 reactions, 300 comments, 1,200 shares and 684,000 views. TikTok user @niwrenewstv’s video has reached over 12,800 interactions and has been viewed over 916,600 times.
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(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
