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Shayan Sardarizadeh

@Shayan86

Jul 2 • 19 tweets • 13 min read Twitter logo

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Thread: Viral misinformation about the French riots

This video of several cars falling from a multi-storey car park is from the set of the action film Fast & Furious 8, and unrelated to the current French riots.

It was filmed in 2016 on Prospect Avenue East in Cleveland, Ohio.

This viral image, shared on Twitter and Instagram, falsely claims to show French protesters capturing a police van.

The image is from the set of the 2022 French film Athena. A video of the scene can be found on YouTube.

Community Notes have been added to some Twitter posts.

A headline claiming French protesters are targeting police with US rifles smuggled out of Ukraine has been shared on Telegram and Twitter by pro-Kremlin users.

There's no evidence for the claim. The image is taken from a 2022 workshop for trophy hunters in Hauts-de-France.

This video falsely claims to show fire engulfing a tower block in France. The clip was posted online last week, and is unrelated to the French riots.

It shows fire at a residential high-rise building in Ajman, United Arab Emirates.

Several videos claiming to show wild animals at large during the French riots have gone viral online.

This one, showing a zebra on a street at night, first appeared online in April 2020. A Le Parisien article explained at the time that the zebra had escaped from a nearby circus.

This video claims to show several lions at large in the Paris district of Saint Denis at night during the current riots.

An earlier version of the video, dating back to Februray 2020, can be found on YouTube. A Libération fact-check piece confirms the footage is from 2020.

This video, showing what appears to be a sniper on the roof a building in Paris, has been widely shared on Twitter and TikTok.

An earlier version of the video, filmed in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, was posted online in March 2022.

Fact-checked by @hoaxeye and @SamDoak5.

Britain First's Ashlea Simon falsely claims this video shows a man "waving at Afircan Muslim rioters" from a balcony in Paris during the current riots.

A search on TikTok shows the video is from April, and was taken during a protest against President Macron's pension reforms.

Correction: The location appears to be the roof of a residential tower block in an eastern suburb of Paris, here: 48.8293413,2.539027

A video, shared by Britain First leader Paul Golding and others, claims "French rioters freed" a goat onto a street, overruning a city with animals.

The video was posted to TikTok in January, months before the current riots.

This video, once again shared by Britain First leader Paul Golding, claims to show "armed rioters showing their arsenal of weapons in France".

The clip is from the 2020 Dijon riots, showing a Chechen gang in Dijon calling for revenge after a teen was assaulted by a rival gang.

This video has been shared on both Twitter and TikTok, claiming to show French protesters armed with AK-47s.

The video shows the deadly 2015 terror attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

Yet another viral video of wild animals at large during the French riots claims to show a gorilla spotted on a rooftop.

Not only was the video posted to TikTok back in February, but it actually shows the statue of a gorilla on the roof of a building in Valence, not a real one.

This TikTok video, viewed 9.5 million times, claims to show a large crowd in Nanterre, where Nahel M was shot dead by police.

The video was posted to TikTok in early June, and shows a live concert by Argentinian band Los Fabulosos Cadillacs in Mexico City's main square Zócalo.

A video of a horse running on a pavement and knocking over a cafe table has racked up over five million views on Twitter.

The video was filmed in St Petersburg in 2022. The horse was reportedly frightened by firworks in the city.

A former Brexit Party candidate claims this image shows riots now breaking out in Belgium by migrants looting and burning cities. It has 11,000 retweets and 20,000 shares.

As the Community Note clarifies, the image shows a riot in Amsterdam after a 2022 World Cup game.

A video of burning cars has been shared on Twitter and TikTok, claiming to show French rioters set the cars on fire in Marseille.

The video is from Perth, Australia, and shows dozens of cars aflame at the Pickles auction yard; fact-checked by @snopes.

https://t.co/PQVqycfjqjsnopes.com/fact-check/new…

This image, shared by a notorious far-right account, is unrelated to the current French riots.

It shows football fans rioting near the Eiffel Tower on the day of the Euro 2016 final between France and Portugal; fact-checked by @ArbiterOfTweets.

A video of people dressed in Batman costumes getting off a van has been widely shared in the context of the French riots on both Twitter and TikTok.

But it shows a bar crawl in Florida State University in April, as several TikTok videos of the same van from other angles prove.

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Shayan Sardarizadeh

@Shayan86

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Shayan Sardarizadeh

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