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| - Fact Check: Sea of Brazilian soccer fans go VIRAL as pro-Palestine march in France
A video of football fans marching towards a stadium in Brazil was falsely presented as people protesting in support of Gaza in France.
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India Today Fact Check
This video is from Sao Paulo, Brazil, and dates back to October 5, 2023. It shows fans of the Palmeiras football club escorting their team to a stadium.
Despite the French government's October 12 ban ( https://bitly.ws/Z3qD ) on pro-Palestine protests, sporadic demonstrations have persisted in Paris and other parts of the country. Meanwhile, a video of thousands of people marching along a road has gone viral on social media, with claims that it shows a protest in France in solidarity with Palestine.
"HUGE DEMONSTRATION; In France, it is claimed over 1 million people were protesting in support for Palestine," read one X post containing the video.
The same was shared on Facebook as well, with the caption, "A protest takes place in France in support of Gaza." An archived version of such a post can be seen here.
India Today Fact Check found that the video is not from France but from Brazil. And, the crowd shows a group of football fans — not protestors.
Our Probe
A reverse image search led to an X post from October 6, 2023, that featured similar crowds and appeared to be shot at the same location. The Portuguese language post suggested that this large crowd showed Palmeiras fans. Palmeiras is a Brazilian football club based in S£o Paulo.
Taking a clue from this, an advanced search with Portuguese keywords led to a Brazilian news report from October 5, 2023, a couple of days before Hamas attacked Israel.
This report mentioned that Palmeiras fans in large numbers accompanied their team bus, singing and encouraging the football squad on the way to Allianz Parque stadium before facing the Boca Juniors club in the semi-finals of Copa Libertadores.
A subsequent search led us to the same video as the viral one shared on an X post on October 6. The text said in Portuguese, "The journey of Palmeiras fans to Allianz Parque." This makes it clear that the video has no connection to the Israel-Palestine conflict in any way.
Embed Video:
Geo-locating the video
Based on the many references to fans heading to S£o Paulo Allianz Parque Stadium above, we identified two flyovers near the stadium through Google Earth.
We found that the structure visible from one of these overpasses matched the one in the viral video precisely. Google Street View also confirmed that the skyscrapers and storefronts in the viral clip were present at the location.
Thus, it is abundantly clear that a video of football fans in Brazil was falsely linked to the Israel-Palestine conflict.
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