The video below has been circulating online over the month of May with claims that it is from a frog sale in China after the ease of lockdown restrictions:
The caption, which is in Arabic as translated by Google reads:
# Sorry for the ugliness of theoretical the Chinese people seem that he will not rest until he wipes out all of humanity
The video clip shows a vehicle filled with frogs and people surrounding it as they put the frogs in plastic bags.
Other replicated claims of the video here and here say that the sale was after lifting of lockdown.
Background
COVID-19, which was first reported in China in December 2019, is thought to have passed from animals to humans. Research is however still ongoing to determine which one. The suspected animals so far have been bats, snakes and pangolins. Since then, there was a temporary ban on the sale of wild animals in China and closure of markets engaging in such activities.
China ended its lockdown of Wuhan on April 8, 2020, some 76 days after the novel coronavirus was first detected in the city. Although the country has now largely managed to contain the virus and is slowly easing restrictions, a lot of caution is being taken, as there are fears of the outbreak of a second wave.
As of the time of writing this, the figures in China stood at 82,995 confirmed cases, 4,634 deaths and 78,291 recoveries. Find up to date figures on our COVID-19 tracking page.
Verification
Close observation of the screengrab below from the beginning of the video shows the number plate of the vehicle being used to sell the frogs. At the bottom of the plate is the name ‘Khon Kaen.’
A search for ‘Khon Kaen’ shows that it is one of the 4 major cities in Thailand, which lies 450km north-northeast of Bangkok.
The number plate matches other Thai number plates as observed on the world license plates website.
Also, note that Thailand has no border with China as observed from the screengrab below from Google maps; hence the vehicle could not have been travelling between the borders of the two countries to sell the frogs.
Thailand borders 4 countries: Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Laos.
The video is definitely recent as all the uploads we found of this video are from the month of May 2020. The evidence however points to Thailand and not China as being the location of the frog sale.
Verdict
The video showing a frog sale in a vehicle did not take place in China, making the claim, FALSE.
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