France has been witnessing massive protests since a week after the fatal killing of a 17-year-old teenager by the French police. French President, Emmanuel Macron has appealed to the public for maintaining peace amid heavy deployment of security personnel. Several videos related to France’s violence, are getting viral on social media platforms in which some of them are fake and misleading.
We found one such video related to France’s violence. Major Surender Poonia posted a video on Twitter while warning Indians: ”This is Republic Square Paris, Refugees crushed French Society. France has surrendered. Indian brothers and sisters, it will also happen to you if you do not adhere to equality!”
Moreover, a verified Twitter user by the name of Sheetal Chopra, who also claims herself as a member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), wrote: “Paris Republic Square is captured by Jihadis. They are claiming their rule in France. India remember, This happens when you elect an anti-national party.”
Fact Check
To examine the reality of this viral video, we analyzed this viral video deliberately. During this process, we found some people with Algerian flags, protesting on Paris’s Republic Square in the video. We searched some keywords on Google regarding this protest. We found a report of France 24 broadcasted on March 10, 2014, in which one can see the scenes, appearing in a viral video.
According to that report, thousands of people had taken out rallies in Paris and France against the Algerian president’s decision to fight the election in his fifth tenure.
🇩🇿Algerians in #Paris demonstrate against a 5. term as president of #Bouteflika. Via @RemyBuisine #Algeria #France pic.twitter.com/Sr6wWgsDNX
— Ali Özkök (@Ozkok_A) March 10, 2019
Conclusion
It is clear from Dfrac’s Fact-check that this viral video cannot be associated with current violent clashes in France. This viral video is misleading since it was posted four years ago.
