Image contains a 2015 photo of Tom Hanks and the ball in the movie ‘Cast Away’.
The caption states: “Tom Hanks has #Coronavirus He also has a cracking sense of humour. Gold Coast Hospital Staff Roll In A Volleyball To Keep Tom Hanks Company In Quarantine.”, Hollywood star Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson\xa0were being treated at the Gold Coast University Hospital after they were diagnosed with the new coronavirus in Australia, AFP reported here on March 12., Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:, The photo was shared with an identical claim here, here and here on Twitter, here on Facebook, as well as here, here, here and here on Instagram., It was also shared in other languages, for instance here and here in Chinese, here in Spanish, and here and here in Portuguese, alongside a similar claim., The claim is false; the composite image was created using a 2015 photo of Tom Hanks\xa0and a separate one of a hospital ward., A reverse image search on Google using the part of the photo that shows Hanks found this video\xa0posted on\xa0the official Instagram account of ice hockey team New York Rangers on February 6, 2015., ICYMI at the #NYR game last night Tom Hanks and Wilson were finally reunited! #BFF, A post shared by  New York Rangers (@nyrangers) on Feb 5, 2015 at 10:05am PST, , In the footage, Hanks waves at the camera before receiving a volleyball identical to the ball which\xa0Hanks’ character "befriends" and names\xa0 Wilson\xa0in the 2000 movie Cast Away., Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo in the misleading posts (L) and a keyframe extracted from the New York Rangers video (R):, Subsequent reverse image searches found the original hospital ward photo in this January 31, 2020, BBC report., The article is headlined:\xa0“Australia coronavirus: Evacuees criticise Christmas Island quarantine plan”, credited the photo to EPA, the European Pressphoto Agency., Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo in the misleading posts (L) and the EPA photo (R) with corresponding features circled in red by AFP:, While some online commenters indicated they believed\xa0the misleading claim, others pointed out it originated in this satirical article published by the Betoota Advocate. The media company is described as a satirical site in this article published by Australian broadcaster ABC on November 22, 2019., The misleading claim was also debunked by BuzzFeed News, Mashable and Snopes., , 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 doctored image contains a 2015 photo of Tom Hanks and the ball in the movie 'Cast Away' | AFP Fact Check