Image of man with gun sitting in office doesnt show new governor of Afghanistan's central bank
Image of man with gun sitting in office doesnt show new governor of Afghanistan's central bank
(Reuters) - Social media users have misattributed an image, claiming it shows Haji Mohammad Idris, the acting governor of Afghanistan’s central bank.
The image shows a man sitting behind a laptop in an office with a gun placed upon the desk.
One individual who shared the image on Facebook said: “Meet Haji Mohammad Idris, the new Governor of the Afghan Central Bank. He will pursue a novel approach to defending the country’s currency.”
Another social media user who shared the image on Twitter said: “This is the new head of the Afghani central bank. Do you think he is long or short duration?”
— Gabbbar (@GabbbarSingh) August 18, 2021
One Reddit post of the misattributed image received over 62,000 upvotes.
The image does not show Haji Mohammad Idris, who was named the acting governor of Afghanistan’s central bank on August 23.
Following the announcement of his appointment, multiple Turkish news outlets published an image of Idris, (kronos34.news/tr/244176-2/).
The image of Idris published on August 23 by these news outlets matches the man who is seen in recent social media posts published on the Afghan central bank’s official social media accounts.
— Da Afghanistan Bank- Afghanistan (@AFGCentralbank) September 6, 2021
His features do not match those of the man in the photo circulating on social media.
Indian fact-checker Boom Live previously addressed the miscaptioned image by comparing the features of Haji Mohammad Idris to the man in the widely shared photograph (here).
Although Reuters was unable to identify the man in the original photograph, the flag in the background matches that of the Afghanistan Revenue Department (here) (ard.gov.af/english).
The image of the man with the gun sitting behind an office desk began circulating on August 17, with social media users sharing the image satirically.
— Gabbbar (@GabbbarSingh) August 18, 2021
— Abdulghaffar (@80sGhaffar) August 18, 2021
VERDICT
Miscaptioned. An image showing a man sitting behind a laptop with a gun placed on the desk is not the newly announced acting governor of Afghanistan’s central bank, Haji Mohammad Idris.
