Video Editor: Vivek Gupta
The death of an African-American man, George Floyd, in police custody in Minneapolis in the United States has triggered wide scale protests. And as protests simmer, misinformation is also making its way forward on the internet.
In one such case, several social media users are sharing a video with a claim that it shows protesters storming the White House in Washington DC. However, we found out that the video is from outside the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus.
THE CLAIM
The aforementioned video is being widely shared on Facebook and Twitter to insinuate that angry protesters stormed the White House building.
The claim shared along with the video reads: “The president escapes the White House for the first time in the US.”
At the times of filing this report, the video had 78,000 views and was shared around 6,900 times.
The video has also been shared on Instagram.
We also received the video on our WhatsApp helpline with a claim which stated that “protesters opened fire inside the White House after which President Trump escaped with his family to Kansas.”
WHAT WE FOUND
While it was reported that United States President Donald Trump was briefly taken inside an underground bunker, after protesters gathered outside the White House at night on Friday, 29 May, a careful look at the viral video helped us rule out the fact that it shows the White House building.
Next, a Yandex reverse image search helped us find out that the building in the viral video is the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio.
We followed this up with a Google search using keywords “Protests outside Ohio Statehouse” and came across several news reports carrying details of the incident.
According to a report by Newsweek, “The Ohio Statehouse had multiple windows smashed and American flags burned Thursday, 28 May, by crowds of people protesting the death of George Floyd.”
We found a bulletin which carried the video, by NBC4 Columbus – an Ohio based news TV channel.
Clearly a video of protesters demonstrating outside the Ohio Statehouse is being used to insinuate that it shows protesters storming inside the White House following which the president was forced to take refuge in an underground bunker.
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