Old Video from Germany viral as ongoing protest in France.

A multi-country backlash is building up following the French President Emmanuel Macron’s comment on terrorism-related incidents in Paris. Amidst this a video showing hundreds pf protestors on the street is going viral with the claim that thousands of people are protesting in France. The post is followed by hashtags such as #फ्रांस_माफी_मांग, #boycottfrance, #boycottfrenchproducts. 

The video is going viral after French president’s recent remarks defending free speech following the death of Samuel Paty – a high school teacher who was decapitated by a radical Islamist. Samuel Paty was beheaded outside his school on October 16th, 2020 by a Chechen origin radical Islamist for showing his class sketches of the Prophet Mohammed that were deemed to be offensive by some.

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Fact Check-

We started our investigation by running a reverse image search on one of the key frames given by InVid-We Verify tool which led us to the same video which was uploaded on 13th January 2020 by a Youtube user with the caption “The German city of Hamburg yesterday”. This clarifies that the video is not from the present times. 

Next we started a keyword search on Google to find a similar procession in Hamburg, Germany which led us to the similar image on Getty Images which says that the image of from 11th January 2020. The description also states that the image is from Hamburg dated 11th January 2020 when people were protesting against the oppression of the Uygar Muslim minority in China.

According to the caption of the image “11th January 2020, Hamburg: Behind a banner with the inscription “Stop Genocide! Concentration camp #MadeinChina” people demonstrate against the oppression of the Uyghur Muslim minority in China, they are accompanied by stewards. The Hamburg Office for the Protection of the Constitution had declared that the rally was being organized by Islamists. Behind the organizer “Generation Islam” hides the banned organization Hizb ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation). Photo: Markus Scholz/dpa (Photo by Markus Scholz/picture alliance via Getty Images)”

Below you can see a comparison of the location shown on the scene shown in the video and the pictures available on Getty Images, this shows that the image and the video is from Hamburg.

We also found a tweet by Documenting Oppression Against Muslims (DOAM) Twitter account on 12th January 2020, where we found another angle of the viral video. Tweeting this video, DOAM wrote that “Yesterday thousands of people participated in the demonstration in #Hamburg, #Germany with solidarity for the #Uyghur Muslim people.”

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Apart from this, we also found a live video of the same protest on Facebook on 11th January 2020, with the title “Demonstration Hamburg” written on it. In this video also, we can see the poster and banner of “Stop Genocide” which is being carried by people.

Fact Crescendo has previously debunked misinformation after the killing of the French teacher in Paris as unrelated videos and images have been shared with false claims.

Conclusion- Fact Crescendo has found the viral video to be False. The video is not from France neither is it related to the recent ongoing protest in France. The video is originally from a protest in Hamburg, Germany which was held on 11th January 2020 against the oppression of the Uyghur Muslim minority in China