Old video from Turkey falsely shared as 'Muslim dairy worker contaminating milk in India'
A video filmed in Turkey in 2020 has resurfaced in Hindu-majority India ahead of the April 2024 election with a false claim it showed a Muslim man "contaminating a tub of milk" by bathing in it. The original video was shot in a dairy plant in Turkey. Turkish media reported the man -- along with the person who uploaded the clip -- were arrested over the video, but were later acquitted after a court was told the tub was filled with a mix of water and milk residue, not milk.
"In Kerala... Look at the action of this jihadi. Bathing in a tub of milk, spitting and urinating in it before selling the same milk to Hindus," read the Hindi-language caption of a Facebook post shared here on April 15, 2024.
"Find out if milk companies like Amul, Mother Dairy have employed jihadi employees. If yes, then it's clear that you are drinking the same type of milk."
English-language text overlaid on the video read: "Muslim man takes bath in milk. He wants to make it Halal. Kerala."
A voice-over in the Malayalam language could also be heard saying the video showed "an employee taking a bath inside a tank filled with milk in a dairy plant".
"After the video went viral on social media, both the person taking the bath and the one recording got arrested," the voice-over went on to say. "As a consequence, the dairy unit was temporarily closed."
The video showed a man sitting in a tub filled with a white liquid.
"Jihad" is frequently translated as holy war, but Hindu hardliners in India use the word as a pejorative term for Muslims.
The false claim surfaced ahead of general elections in India, where voting began on April 19 and would last for six weeks. Analysts have expected Prime Minister Narendra Modi to triumph against a fractious alliance of more than two dozen parties that have yet to name a candidate for prime minister.
Muslims have often been the subject of false claims in Hindu-majority India. AFP reported much content was staged to gain views and income from platforms such as Facebook and YouTube.
The video was shared with the false claim elsewhere on Facebook here and here, and on social media platform X here.
However, the video was filmed in Turkey in 2020. Turkish media reported the man -- along with the person who uploaded the video -- were arrested for allegedly spoiling milk on purpose, but were later acquitted after a court was told the liquid in the tub was not milk.
Video from Turkey
A keyword search on Google found the same video published by Turkish news organisation Hurriyet Daily News on November 6, 2020 (archived link).
The English-language report was titled: "Worker's milk bath causes a dairy plant to close down."
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video shared in the false post (left) and the footage uploaded on the news outlet's website (right):
Other news outlets also reported on the video and included screengrabs showing the same scene here and here (archived links here and here). The reports did not mention the man's religion.
Hurriyet Daily News reported the man in the video -- Emre Sayar -- was arrested after the video spread online. Ugur Turgut, who uploaded the clip on his TikTok account, was also detained.
The outlet also reported the dairy plant's owner said the liquid in the tub was a mix of water and cleaning material, not milk.
Turkish news agency DHA said the men were cleared of wrongdoings after the court was told the liquid in the tub was a mix of water and milk residue, not milk (archived link).
Another court ordered the Turkish state to pay Sayar 1,150 liras (35 dollars) in compensation after he sued the authorities for wrongful detention over the case, according to a separate report (archived link).
