An image has surfaced on social media platforms purportedly showing members of the Taliban in a vehicle resembling Tesla’s Cyber truck.
A Facebook user shared the image with a caption, “Elon Musk and his Teslaban.”
The image is doing rounds on Twitter with a similar claim.
Similar posts can be found here, here, and here.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the viral image and found it to be digitally altered.
On performing a Reverse Image Search, we found the image of Taliban members riding a truck in an article published by the Associated Press on August 17, 2021.
The original photo was taken by Associated Press photographer Rahmat Gul in August 2021. The caption with the image reads, “Taliban fighters stand guard in front of the Hamid Karzai International Airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Aug. 16, 2021,” read the caption of the undoctored photo. “Thousands of people packed into the Afghan capital’s airport on Monday, rushing the tarmac and pushing onto planes in desperate attempts to flee the country after the Taliban overthrew the Western-backed government.”
In the edited version, the roof of the military vehicle has been altered to resemble that of the Cyber Truck. Below is a comparison between the original and the viral image.
Moreover, according to various news reports, Tesla’s Cybertruck production has been delayed to 2022. As per picture Tesla’s website, people will be able to “complete” their “configuration” of the CyberTruck “as production nears in 2022.” Hence, as the Cybertruck is officially delayed, it is not possible for the Taliban to have driven the Cybertruck.
Therefore, we can conclude that a morphed image is viral with a false claim.
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