On November 22, a high-speed vehicle collided and caught fire on a bridge connecting the United States and Canada near Niagara Falls, resulting in the death of two people. The incident prompted heightened vigilance from the governments of both countries amid concerns of a potential terrorist attack. However, the FBI, United States’ domestic intelligence and security agency, later concluded that the crash was unrelated to terrorism.
Against the backdrop, a document photo with “The Islam Republic of Iran” written on it is widely shared on social media with the text, “BREAKING: Police have IDENTIFIED the driver of the Niagara Falls explosion from a passport found at the scene as 47-year-old Iranian-Canadian YouTuber by the name of Saman Heydari”.
Here’s the link to the above post.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the above claim, and found it to be FALSE.
Doing a simple Reverse Image Search, the NM team traced a blog post “aroundtheworldin800days.com,” with travellers Andy Smith and Emma Smart sharing a photo resembling the viral image. The blog details their experience obtaining an Iranian visa. Upon comparing the visas in the blog with the viral post, it was found to be Emma Smart’s Iran visa, but with the photo altered.
Conducting a reverse search of the visa photo, we located its GIF counterpart on the Tenor GIF library, titled “Sam Hyde Get Well Soon GIF.” Further investigation revealed the same image shared on Sam Hyde’s Instagram account on August 20, 2023.
View this post on Instagram
As reported by The New York Times, Sam Hyde is a comedian whose name has become associated with mass shootings, leading to the emergence of a meme stating “Sam Hyde is the shooter.” Hyde has been wrongly identified as the perpetrator in various incidents, including the false claims of being responsible for the death of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the Nashville mass shooting.
Thus, it is evident from the above information that the viral image is edited.
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