Another rape hoax about an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) is making the rounds in social media less than a month after Vera Files debunked at least 43 similar stories.
This time, the undated story was published by website ofwfiles.makibalita.info and claimed an OFW was raped by Saudi Arabians after they cut off his genitals. It bore the headline, “KALUNOS-LUNOS! Lalakeng OFW sa Saudi, PINUTOL muna ang ARI Bago Ginahasa ng Siyam na Arabo. 00:32 Maselang Panoorin (Tragic! Male OFW in Saudi, whose genitals were cut off, is raped by nine Arabs. 00:32 Explicit content)!”
The story follows the same modus as several death, sex scandal and rape hoaxes Vera Files has fact checked over the past months: it carries a video of the supposed “crime,” cut by a ” Facebook security check” after playing for two to three seconds.
Ofwfiles.makibalita.info’s video content is actually five years old — an Aug. 12, 2013 GMA News report about a man whose wife had cut off his genitals in a crime of passion.
The report was pirated and re-uploaded Aug. 30 by Youtube channel Boybalat Kayo, and wrongly used as its thumbnail a photo of a Filipino worker in Riyadh who was reported hospitalized in July after being beaten up by unknown assailants.
Similar to previously fact-checked hoaxes, the report also carried at least 20 ads that took up more space than the content.
The hoax, which could have reached more than 1.48 million people, was circulated a few weeks after an OFW was found dead in Saudi Arabia.
Social media traffic to the story largely came from the group OFW4DU30 Global Movement Association Cooperation International, and the pages Bayanihan People’s Power and Arci Munoz.
Ofwfiles.makibalita.info was created Aug. 16; Youtube channel Boybalat Kayow, which re-uploaded the GMA report, was created last May.
(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
