Video From Barcelona Viral in India as ‘Police Action in France’

The video in question is from Barcelona when people were protesting against the new coronavirus restrictions.

A video of protests in Barcelona was falsely claimed to be from France.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A massively viral video on Facebook claims to show police action in France. However, Spanish fact-checkers and local journalists confirmed to The Quint’s WebQoof team that the video in question was shot on 30 October and shows people protesting against the new coronavirus restrictions in Barcelona.

CLAIM

The claim along with the video reads: “Police action in France.”

The video shared by Facebook account ‘Proud to be an Indian’ had garnered as many as 14 million views and was shared over 49,000 times at the time of publishing the article.

You can view the archived version here.(Source: Facebook/ Screenshot)

Several social media users shared the video on Facebook and Twitter with the same claim.

You can view the archived version here.(Source: Facebook/ Screenshot)

You can view the archived version here.(Source: Twitter/ Screenshot)

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

While going through the comments of the video on Facebook, we found a user had mentioned that the video is from Barcelona.

We, then, searched on YouTube with keywords “Barcelona police” and came across videos uploaded by Ruptly, The Telegraph, among others that showed visuals of people protesting in Barcelona on 30 October against new coronavirus restrictions.

We could find similar elements in the videos uploaded by news outlets and the viral video which suggested that the latter is from Barcelona. For instance, we could see ‘Bus, Taxi’ written on the road in both the cases.

Left: Viral video. Right: Ruptly video.(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

GOOGLE EARTH SHOWS VIDEO IS FROM VIA LAIETANA STREET

With the help of shops seen in the visuals shared by news organisations, we were able to find out that the video is from Via Laietana street in Barcelona. The exact street in Barcelona on Google Earth can be seen here.

We were also able to match several elements in the viral video and the Google street view.

The below comparison shows similar physical structures in both the cases in terms of the positioning, design and shape.

Left: Viral video. Right: Google street view.(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Same blue signboard along with the text written on the road can be seen in viral video as well as Google street view of Via Laietana street.

Left: Viral video. Right: Google street view.(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

While this was one side of the road seen in the viral video, it then pans to show the other side of the road. We matched the other side too and found similar demarkation on the road.

Left: Viral video. Right: Google street view.(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

LOCAL JOURNALISTS, FACT-CHECKERS CONFIRM THE LOCATION

Speaking to The Quint’s WebQoof team, Nacho Doce, visual journalist at Reuters who had covered the Barcelona protest, said that the viral video is indeed from Via Laietana street in Barcelona.

Doce added that it’s from 30 October and shows demonstrators throwing fences at police vehicles to protest against new coronavirus restrictions.

Joaquin Ortega from Spanish fact-checking website Newtral and Clara Jiménez Cruz from fact-checking portal Maldita.es also confirmed to us that the video is from Barcelona.

Spanish media outlets such as La Vanguardia and and El Periodico had also reported on the protests against new coronavirus restrictions. The new restrictions reportedly include a curfew and ban on leaving the city over the then holiday weekend.

Evidently, a video of protests in Barcelona was falsely claimed to be from France.

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