CLAIM: Photos show children who were trafficked as “sex slaves” being rescued from tunnel systems beneath Central Park in New York City.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The images all show other events, mostly efforts to fight the spread of COVID-19 in March 2020, including at a field hospital in Central Park and a U.S. Navy hospital ship, also in New York City.
THE FACTS: A video spread online in recent days misrepresenting the early pandemic images as the supposed rescue operation.
Social media users shared a range of false claims this week. Here are the facts: A clip of President Joe Biden purportedly admitting to selling “state secrets” was edited to omit when he said he was joking.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Meat grown in labs is made using cells taken from animals, but those cells are not cancerous and there are many safeguards in place to ensure that the end product is safe to consume, experts told The Associated Press. The false claim stems from the fact that, like cancer cell
CLAIM: Rare malaria cases reported in Florida and Texas recently were caused by a disease-control initiative backed by Bill Gates that involved releasing genetically modified mosquitoes in the U.S.
As photos flash across the screen, a woman’s voice claims that “highly-equipped ships” had been sent to New York City “to take care of children rescued from tunnel systems under Central Park.”
She continues: “Children that were born into sex slavery in these tunnel systems, kept as sex slaves. They are deformed and completely shattered and broken.”
But the images largely show healthcare operations in the early days of the pandemic, mostly in New York City.
For example, an image of a large white ship with red crosses on it was taken by an Associated Press photographer on March 30, 2020. It depicts the USNS Comfort, a Navy hospital ship sent to New York City to treat non-COVID patients while hospitals focused on people with the virus.
Several other images are cropped versions of a photo taken by a U.S. Navy photographer that shows sailors treating what appears to be a young patient aboard the USNS Mercy, a hospital ship that was deployed in San Diego around the same time, also for non-COVID patients.
Three other photos in the video show an emergency field hospital set up in Central Park by Samaritan’s Purse, an evangelical Christian relief group. One was taken by an AFP photographer on March 30, 2020, while another was captured the same day by a photographer for Getty Images. The third was taken for Untapped New York, a tour company which publishes an online magazine about hidden gems in New York City.
Another image of military troops surrounded by empty portable cribs was taken by a Texas Air National Guard photographer on April 1, 2020, and shows a field hospital set up in response to COVID-19 at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, Texas.
The video also includes a screenshot of a Travel + Leisure article titled, “There’s a Secret Tunnel Under Central Park.” But the 2016 story is about an old subway tunnel under Central Park that was repurposed for an extension of one of the system’s train lines — not tunnels used to imprison children.
A short clip at the start of the video shows troops in a military plane, one of whom is rocking a baby in his arms. While the origin of the video is unclear, it has been online since at least late August 2021, with posts at the time suggesting it was taken near Afghanistan. This was around the same time the Taliban seized control of the country’s capital, leading to a withdrawal of U.S. troops and desperate attempts by Afghans to flee.
Asked whether there had been any reports of sex trafficked children being rescued from tunnels in Central Park, the New York Police Department wrote in a statement to the AP that it is “not aware of this alleged incident.”
False claims about child sex trafficking and other abuse are part of a common misinformation narrative that has spread in different forms for decades.
___
This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.
