**Viral News Snippet: "Meta’s ‘Eid Mubarak 2026’ Filter Sparks Outrage – Users Claim It’s Written in ‘Fake Arabic’"**
**What’s Going Around:**
A screenshot is flooding WhatsApp groups and Instagram stories claiming that Meta released an official “Eid Mubarak 2026” augmented reality filter for Facebook and Instagram. The caption reads: *“Just used Meta’s new Eid filter and it auto-generated a crescent moon with ‘Eid Mubarak 2026’ in Arabic calligraphy – except the letters don’t make actual words. It’s gibberish.”*
**The Viral Claim:**
Users allege the filter writes the phrase “Eid Mubarak” using a broken, nonsensical script that resembles Latin letters painted to look like Arabic. One viral post says: *“Meta released this for millions of Muslims, and they didn’t even run it by someone who reads Arabic. This is embarrassing.”*
**Fact Check: ✅ / ❌**
**Verdict: FAKE (Misleading Context)**
- **No official launch:** As of March 2026, Meta has not released any standalone “Eid Mubarak 2026” AR effect. The viral screenshot is likely an old, third-party filter from 2023 that was incorrectly captioned.
- **The “fake Arabic” is actually real calligraphy:** Arabic-language experts have identified the script as a stylized, overlapping *Diwani* calligraphy. It reads “Eid Mubarak” correctly, but the placement of dots and diacritics appears unusual on low-resolution screenshots.
- **Origin of the myth:** A prank page called *“AI Eid Greetings Gone Wrong”* posted the image on February 15, 2026, as satire. The post was screenshotted, stripped of its disclaimer, and shared as fact.
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