Old video from Italy falsely shared as recent.
A video has gone viral on social media site X(Twitter) showing a woman severely beaten by some policemen. The video has been shared by several users with the captions like an American student is brutally beaten by the police for protesting against the war in Gaza
Sharing this video on X(Twitter), a user named Maria Benmeribi wrote:” This is #America, the mother of democracies and freedoms!!! The crime of this college student is that she peacefully and civilly protested against the war on Gaza”.
Moreover, other users also shared this video on X and made similar claims.
Fact-Check
Using the keyframes generated from the viral video, the DFRAC team found that that video has been available online since 2023. The video has been found on the X handle of Radio Genoa which was posted on May 24, 2023.
Upon investigating further, we discovered reports from La Voce di New York and L’unione Sarda published in May 2023. As per reports, a video of Milan police assaulting a Brazilian transgender with truncheons and pepper spray went viral in Italy as she had been found pestering kids at a school’s entrance. Four police officers tackled the transexual in the video, which several Bocconi University students recorded, before they handcuffed and removed her from the scene.
Conclusion
It is evident from DFRAC’s Fact-Check that the viral video is from may 2023, not a recent one. Moreover, the video shows a Brazilain trans woman who has severely beaten by the Milan Police, not an American woman for protesting against the war in Gaza.
Hence, the claim made by the users is false.
Analysis: Misleading
