This photo shows a brothel in Europe where people have been quarantined.
The\xa0simplified Chinese-language\xa0caption of the post translates to English as: “86 people in Italy have been asked to quarantine in a brothel for 14 days”., Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:, Italy has imposed a national lockdown due to the novel coronavirus epidemic, which had\xa0killed more than 4,000 people and infected more than 110,000 others worldwide, as reported by AFP here and here., The photo was also shared here, here, here and here on Weibo alongside an identical claim., The same image was also shared here, here, here and here on Twitter alongside a claim that the 86 people were quarantined in a brothel in Valencia, Spain., A similar claim about the Spanish brothel also circulated in other languages, including\xa0here and here in German;\xa0here in Spanish and here in Portuguese., Both claims are false; they emerged on\xa0a satirical website based in Malaga, Spain., , Some of the social media posts included a link to this Spanish-language article published by the Cerebrother website on February 26., Translated from Spanish to English, the article states\xa0in part: “A brothel is in quarantine with 86 clients after a prostitute tested positive for Coronavirus, “Agents of the National Police have been guarding the club ‘The Black Forest’ of Valencia where this morning a girl who worked there was tested positive for Coronavirus following orders from the health authorities, as reported by various police sources., “The girl’s test result obtained earlier today has forced the quarantine of 86 customers who were inside the building at that time. The employee, who is now admitted to the University Hospital, had slept with several clients that same night.”, Below is a screenshot of the Cerebrother article:, The website, which is based in Malaga, Spain, states in its disclaimer: “The portal ‘CEREBROTHER’ is a satirical newspaper whose sole purpose is entertainment. All its content is fiction and does not correspond to reality. All references, names, brands or institutions that appear on the web are used as contextual elements, as in any novel or fiction story.”, A reverse image search on Google found the photo in the misleading posts published\xa0in this article in May 2019 by Marbella Confidencial, a news site based in the southern Spanish city of Marbella., "The\xa0images caption translates to English in part as: “Interior view of Milady Palace Club in Marbella”.", Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo in the misleading posts (L) and the Marbella Confidencial image (R):, , Copyright © AFP 2017-2020.  All rights reserved.  Users can access and consult this website and use the share features available for personal, private, and non-commercial purposes.  Any other use, in particular any reproduction, communication to the public or distribution of the content of this website, in whole or in part, for any other purpose and/or by any other means, without a specific licence agreement signed with AFP, is strictly prohibited.  The subject matter depicted or included via links within the Fact Checking content is provided to the extent necessary for correct understanding of the verification of the information concerned.  AFP has not obtained any rights from the authors or copyright owners of this third party content and shall incur no liability in this regard.  AFP and its logo are registered trademarks.
This false claim about a brothel quarantined in Europe originated on a satirical website | AFP Fact Check