A video which shows a digital billboard on a building saying "Stop Zelenskyy, Stop War" is going viral on the internet with users claiming that it was recently put up in Japan's Shibuya district.
What have users said?: Those sharing the video have uploaded it with a caption, "Japan is starting to wake up. An advertising banner appeared on a building in Tokyo, the Shibuya district: 'Stop war. Stop, Zelenskyy'."
An archive of the post can be seen here.
(Source: X/Screenshot)
A Canadian magazine, The Post Millennial, also shared the video on their official X (formerly known as Twitter) handle. Archives of more similar posts can be viewed here, here, here, and here.
Are these claims true?: No, the video has been altered to add texts against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The original video, which dates back to October 2020, featured different people on the billboard.
How did we find that out?: Taking Shibuya district as reference, we performed a keyword search on YouTube and came across a video on a verified channel called 'Virtual Japan'.
The video was titled, "4K HDR Night Walk in Tokyo Shibuya (東京散歩)."
It was uploaded on 19 October 2020.
The longer version also shows people wearing masks, which indicated a possibility of the video being recorded during the pandemic.
On going through the video, we found similar visuals at around the 21:20 timestamp.
We compared some visuals of the viral video to the one uploaded on YouTube and found that the former has been edited to add anti-Zelenskyy texts.
One can see pictures of different people being displayed on the digital billboard.
Similar cars, bikes, shops, people can be seen in both the videos.
(Swipe right to view all comparisons.)
A comparison clearly highlights the similarities between both videos.
(Source: YouTube/Screenshot/Altered by The Quint)
Geolocating the place: We took "Bic Camera" as a reference and searched for the store on Google Maps. Using the street view option, we were able to geolocate the place where the video was recorded.
It shows the digital billboard above the store which can also be seen in the viral video.
We did not find any credible news reports which suggested that billboards against Zelenskyy were recently put up in Japan.
Conclusion: A digitally altered video is going viral with a claim stating that it shows anti-Zelenskyy billboards being put up in Japan.
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