Some say video footage of the fire is from May 2023.
QUICK FACTS:
- After videos depicting a burning building reportedly in France went viral, media outlets are saying the footage is not from ongoing riots in France but in the Philippines.
- Social media users posted videos of what was presumed to be a library in Marseille, France, but has since been reported as being a post office in Manila, Philippines.
- Conservative host of The Stew Peters Show, Stew Peters, tweeted footage of the fire but was fact-checked by Twitter.
- “Video is not in France,” the fact-check report read, noting the location of the video is the Manila Post Office.
- The fact-check notice also noted libraries in Marseille have been “set on fire by rioters, but their collections appear to have escaped the flames.
- A Twitter profile from Ethiopia offering “communications and intelligence” from the African Union, CEWS, and CISSA posted, “The Alcazar Library’s collection contained almost a million documents, 350,000 of which were in the public domain. In particular, medieval manuscripts and unique editions, works of great thinkers and philosophers were kept here.”
- The account did not appear to be fact-checked.
- A report from French website Archimag said libraries in Marseille, Neuilly-sur-Marne, and Rillieux-la-Pape have been set on fire by rioters, supposedly confirming the previously fact-checked information.
- “The violence and damage caused last night in the city center, to shops and to our Alcazar library, a place of life for all Marseillais, are unacceptable,” according to Marseille Mayor Benoît Payan.
- Following the library riot, the library updated its website with the message, “Following the events of last night, the library of the Alcazar is closed today. Thank you for your understanding.”
- While the video may not be footage of a location in the Philippines, it has been confirmed that there have been riots in Marseille.
FACT-CHECKERS CLAIM ‘MISINFORMATION’:
- “Events like the unrest in France are often a breeding ground for misinformation, including misleading images and videos,” according to Full Fact.
- The organization maintained that the widely-circulated videos portray the Central Post Office in Manila, not a Marseille library, although it noted that the Alcazar library has been vandalized in the wake of French unrest.
- The Associated Press similarly reported that a spokesperson for France’s National Library confirmed that the viral videos did not show the French library.
BACKGROUND:
- American Faith reported that the riots in France as a result of a police shooting have amounted to €1 billion, roughly $1,090,000,000 U.S. dollars.
- “Two-hundred shops completely looted, 300 bank branches destroyed, and 250 tobacconists affected,” according to the head of the Movement of the Enterprises of France (MEDEF) Geoffrey Roux de Bézieux.
- The costs and damages from the riots have led to ongoing debates about immigration, with some saying mass immigration presents more disadvantages than benefits.
