Fact Check: Pak’s Dawn News misleadingly shared a 2023 old footage as recent.
A video is going viral on the social media platform X, which shows protesters in Istanbul, Turkey burning down the Israeli Consulate building in May 2024.
On May 28, 2024 Pakistani news channel Dawn News, on it’s Youtube channel can be seen spreading misinformation claiming that it shows Istanbul Protesters Set Fire To Vicinity of Israeli Consulate, the footage depicts large flames and plumes of smoke, asserting that angry protesters managed to burn the diplomatic mission to the ground destroying the entire consulate structure.
At 3 AM on May 28, 2024, A user on the social media platform X, with the name of @Dr. Anastasia Maria Loupis circulated a video commenting that, BREAKING PROTESTERS BURN DOWN THE ISRAELI CONSULATE IN ISTANBUL . Another identical tweet by Lou Rage gained public attention stating the same comment, BREAKING – TURKEY: PROTESTERS BURN DOWN THE ISRAELI CONSULATE IN ISTANBUL
Many other users can be seen circulating homogeneous videos on social media.
Fact Check:
DFRAC’s team fact-checked the claims made by these social media users on X by executing a reverse image search. On investigating it was revealed that these claims made by the users are fake. The viral video appears to be the footage depicting the protests that occurred back on October 18, 2023 outside the Israeli diplomatic mission in Istanbul. On that day in October 2023, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to voice outrage over Israeli military actions in Gaza that had killed numerous Palestinian civilians.
In Istanbul, a sizable crowd amassed in front of the Israeli consulate. While the protests grew raucous, with some protesters hurling fireworks and other objects at the consulate premises, authorities confirmed the building itself was not burned down as the viral claims suggest.
A post by @Mojostory dated on October 18,2023 nullifies the claim that the video is captured lately.
On X, A username @SprinterFactory posted the video on 18th October 2023, This posting date invalidates the claim that the video is recent.
Conclusion
It is clear from the fact check that the viral claim that while the footage is real and does capture a genuine protest incident from 2023, it has been quite misleadingly presented out of its original context from 7 months ago. Claims that this video shows the Israeli consulate being burned down in Istanbul just this May 2024 are simply not true and should be disregarded.
