Old Video of ‘Kiss of Love’ Movement Goes Viral Again With False Claim

We found out that the video dates back to 2014.

A video of people hugging and kissing each other is being shared on social media, falsely claiming to show a recent incident of 'communist students' protesting at Jadavpur University.

(Source: X/Altered by The Quint)

A video of people hugging and kissing each other is being shared on the internet with the claim that it shows a recent incident of 'communist students' protesting at Jadavpur University, West Bengal.

• The post is captioned, "Ultra communist students are protesting in Jadavpur University, India for Gaza, LGBTQ rights & to implement the communist ideology in the world."

• The claim has gone viral following a dispute that broke out between Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and Students’ Federation of India (SFI) at Jadavpur University.

An archived version of this claim can be found here. 

(Source: X/Screenshot)

Is it true?: No, the claim is false.

• The video dates back to 2014 and shows the 'Kiss of Love' movement.

How did we find out?: The Quint had fact-checked the same video in August 2023 when it was shared, claiming it showed a then-recent 'Kissing festival' at Jadavpur University.

• We ran a reverse image search on the video using Google Lens and found a YouTube video posted by Zee 24 Ghanta, carrying similar visuals.

• The video was uploaded on 5 November 2014.

• It was titled "Jadavpur Kiss protest".

(Source: YouTube/ Screenshot)

• We ran a keyword search and found a video from ABP Ananda with visuals similar to the viral video. 

• The video was uploaded to YouTube on 6 November 2014 with the title "public kissing to protest moral policing at Kolkata".

• Economic Times published an article, reporting that the movement was carried out by students in Kolkata "to protest moral policing and promote gender sensitisation."

Preview of the article

(Source: Economic Times/ Screenshot)

• The 'Kiss of Love' protest started in 2014 in Kerala as an act of protest against moral policing.

• The protest was started by a Facebook group in response to the vandalism of a cafe in Kozhikode, Kerala, over reports of public display of affection.

Conclusion: The video dates back to 2014 and shows the 'Kiss of Love' movement.

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