Since the beginning of May this year, social networks across Africa and its Diaspora have been saturated with photos and videos showing horrified people demonstrating the presence of plastic in food items, like rice and eggs. Yet most of these videos don\u2019t have a grain of truth (or plastic) in them.<\/p>\n
Alexandre Capron, a French journalist and member of the Observer Team of France24 (OTF), has looked into the origins of these conspiracy theories and how their propagation has led to calls for increased protectionism and conflated nationalism in different countries across the continent.<\/p>\n
This article is the first in a two-part series in which Capron takes a look at three popular videos and show how they seek to manipulate viewers into believing this plastic rice conspiracy.<\/p>\n
For the past month, videos purporting to show rice made out of plastic have been circulating on social media in numerous African countries including Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Gambia. Some of these videos seem to show these food items being manufactured. In other videos, people film themselves performing tests on suspicious food items to show that they are really made of plastic.<\/p>\n
The Observers team has identified at least 16 different videos about plastic rice that have surfaced online in the past five weeks. However, some of them are easy to recognize as hoaxes. We take a closer look at three videos debunked by our team.<\/p>\n
One of the most widely shared videos purports to show plastic rice being manufactured in a factory. First, the camera focuses on two men feeding transparent sheets of plastic into a machine, which spits out long, thin ribbons, which enter another machine. The camera then focuses on the supposed result: tiny, almost translucent pellets, which, according to the many people who shared this video, look just like rice.<\/p>\n