Poor and tasteless construction is rampant in Malta. So it is no surprise that many Maltese believed that a particular image published on Facebook showed a local building.
A reverse image search on Google quickly shows that the building is not in Malta. Search results show that it first went viral in October 2023 in Kenya, although the photo was in circulation at least one month before that. The photo has resurfaced from time to time over the years, each time attributed to somewhere new, from Saudi Arabia to Brazil, Lebanon and Romania.
This time, the image was shared by a Maltese Facebook page named “Din Malta Tagħna” (This is our Malta), leading readers to believe that the photo to believe that the photo was snapped locally.
At the time of writing, the image’s caption on Facebook reads ‘8th Wonder of the World – (Not Malta)’. The bracketed phrase seems to have been added after several users commenting under the post believed the image to have been taken in Malta.
Interestingly, comments expressing sadness and outrage at the ‘fact’ that this was a local development – ‘Only in Malta!’ some wrote – continued even after ‘(Not Malta)’ was added to the post. This once again illustrates the rapidity with which people react to shocking or striking content without checking its veracity.
Moral of the story: read beyond the headline – or in this case, the image.
Disinformation about construction is common in Malta. Usually, narratives are constructed to defend the impunity of the industry. If you are interested in reading more, see our ‘Building Falsehoods’ report.
Economy, Politics, Uncategorized
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Originally published here.
