This round-up of claims has been compiled by Full Fact, the UK’s independent fact checking charity which works to give people access to reliable information they can trust.
Government wrong to claim over 14.5 million children used free bus scheme
The Department for Transport (DfT) has corrected a statement that wrongly said “over 14.5 million children used the bus for free this summer, thanks to the Government’s Great British Summer Savings scheme”, after Full Fact queried the claim.
The “over 14.5 million” figure, which the department said comes from the Confederation of Passenger Transport and participating operators, actually refers to the number of journeys, not the number of children.
In fact, there are estimated to be only about 7.5 million children in England aged 5-15, which is the age group the offer was open to. The chief executive of the CPT even referred to this in a comment in the DfT’s statement.
The original statement was corrected after Full Fact got in touch to explain the problem. It now says: “Over 14.5 million free bus journeys were taken by children this summer.”
The error was repeated widely before it was corrected, however, with politicians and the media citing similar figures.
The Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander MP, told the Labour Party conference last week that there had been “free bus travel for kids this August, used by 14 million children”.
And the Labour MP for Hyndburn, Sarah Smith, said on Instagram that “over 14.5 million children used the bus for free this summer”.
We’ve seen similar claims in a number of media outlets, and the figure has also been shared widely on social media.
Full Fact approached Ms Alexander and Ms Smith for comment.
Video shows women queuing for a clothing sale, not free childcare
A video being shared widely online wrongly claims it shows “a queue of all Muslim Women waiting to enroll their children for FREE Daycare” in the Netherlands.
The clip shows sped-up footage of a person walking past a long queue of women outdoors, who are mostly wearing hijabs, lining up to enter the doors of a large building.
It has been shared with a caption which says European governments are giving free state welfare to “Africans and Muslims outside the EU”, and suggests the video shows Muslim parents waiting to sign up for subsidised childcare in a Dutch neighbourhood.
But this isn’t accurate.
Full Fact found the same video was originally shared by modest clothing brand Oemaayah, thanking people for showing up to its recent sample sale in Amsterdam. This was the earliest version we could find online, posted to Instagram on September 20.
Oemaayah told Full Fact that the video was taken at its sample sale on September 19 and shows a queue of visitors waiting to enter the event.
Earlier posts on the clothing brand’s social media said that the sale would take place at an event space in the Amsterdam-West area. Google Street View images of the venue also appear to match up with the large building shown in the miscaptioned video.
Before sharing content like this it’s important to consider whether it comes from a verified and trusted source. Our Full Fact misinformation toolkit contains tips and guides on how to spot misleading information.
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