An old video from Germany has been revived by social media users with the claim that it shows people protesting in front of France President Emmanuel Macron’s house.
The video actually shows demonstration held in January against the alleged suppression of the Uyghurs ethnic group in China.
This comes in the backdrop of outrage against the beheading of a school teacher in Paris after he allegedly showed controversial caricatures of Prophet Mohammed to his students.
CLAIM
The claim along with the video reads: “PROTEST IN FRONT OF FRENCH PRESIDENT HOUSE!!! TAKBIR. WE ALL LOVE PROPHET MUHAMMED (PBUH) (sic).”
The video uploaded by one Facebook user Hahiru Muhammed had been shared over 3,500 times and had garnered 95,000 views at the time of publishing the article.
The video was shared by several Facebook users with the same narrative.
The Quint received a query on the claim made in the video on its WhatsApp tipline as well.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We divided the video into multiple keyframes using InVid and reverse searched each frame which led us to a YouTube video uploaded on 14 January that showed the same visuals at that in the viral video.
The YouTube video mentioned that the visuals are from “Uiguren Demo in Hamburg (sic).”
Further, we found that Hamburg-based media outlet NDR had reported the incident on 11 January and mentioned that thousands of people had gathered in Germany’s Hamburg-St Georg to hold a demonstration against alleged suppression of Uyghurs ethnic group in China.
With relevant keyword searches, we found another YouTube video that stated it showed the said demonstration and a part of the video carried visuals showing the same physical structures as that of the viral video.
The below comparison shows the buildings and hoardings that are similar in both the videos.
We found another set of similarities in both the videos.
VIDEO SHOWS ‘KZ #MadeInChina’ POSTERS
Since, the YouTube video is a clearer version, we could identify that people held posters that read: “KZ #MadeInChina.”
We also found that the images from the said demonstration in Hamburg were also uploaded on Getty Images.
A part of the description along with the image uploaded on Getty Images reads: “11 January 2020, Hamburg: People demonstrate with posters "KZ #MadeInChina" against the oppression of the Muslim minority of the Uigurs in China. (sic)”
A comparison between the two visuals shows that same posters can be seen in both of them.
GOOGLE STREET VIEW SHOWS SAME BUILDINGS AS IN VIRAL VIDEO
To further establish the location of the video, we found that a store called ‘Sultan Bazaar’ can be seen in the viral video. We could find out the exact name of the store because of the YouTube video since it showed the same frame as that of the viral video.
We then located the store with the help of Google Earth and the street view of the said location in Hamburg helped us in identifying same buildings in the viral video and in the street view.
With the help of aforementioned comparisons and similarities, it is evident that the viral video is from Hamburg in Germany and has been falsely used to claim that it shows a protest in front of house of France’s president.
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