A video has been shared repeatedly on WhatsApp in Nigeria that Apple’s iPhone 13 series requires vaccination before it can be used.
The video, which has been in circulation a few days after the introduction of the iPhone 13, is shared with different captions.
One caption states: “You can’t use iPhone 13 without being vaccinated!”; another insinuated that the phone secretly vaccinates its user.
It reads: “Here’s iPhone 13, it can secretly vaccinate you once you have it in your hands. It can dictate if you are vaccinated or not, report you to the police if you’re not vaccinated and it won’t work if you’re not vaccinated. Let’s be ready, we are in the end time”.
THE CLAIM
The iPhone 13 requires vaccination to unlock and can secretly vaccinate its user.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is FALSE.
A search on the internet using frames from the video and keywords from the captions showed that the clip in circulation originated from a video posted on the YouTube channel of ‘The Babylon Bee’.
The Babylon Bee is a satirical content platform. Its motto is ‘Fake news you can trust’. This can be seen in its description on all its social media handles.
On the ‘About us’ page on the website archived here, the platform explicitly stated it is satirical.
“The Babylon Bee is the world’s best satire site, totally inerrant in all its truth claims. We write satire about Christian stuff, political stuff, and everyday life,” it reads.
Oregon State University’s guide to literary terms, which is a series of lessons by the lecturers described satire as a literary genre or device that makes someone or something look ridiculous, raising laughter in order to embarrass, humble, or discredit its targets.
It also states that satire when used effectively and appropriately can be a powerful weapon. But it is also a risky one, as there is always the risk it be will read “straight” or superficially.
Apple, when it unveiled the iPhone 13, listed numerous features, but the ability to detect vaccination status, administer vaccination or report unvaccinated persons to the police were neither part of it nor was needing vaccination to unlock the screen stated.
However, Apple stated that the iOS 15 which the phone uses allow users to download and store verifiable digital copy of COVID-19 vaccination and test result records in the health app.
THE VERDICT
The claim in circulation in Nigeria that iPhone 13 requires vaccination to unlock and can secretly vaccinate its user is FALSE. The claim originated from a satirical site.
