Amidst the unrest in the neighbouring country Bangladesh, visuals of thousands of protestors storming the residence of Sheikh Hasina, walking with her personal belongings flooded on the internet. Lighthouse Journalism came across one such post, where protestors were seen enjoying in a swimming pool. The claims suggested that the visuals were from the residence of former PM Sheikh Hasina. Viral claims are misleading, the video is old and from Sri Lanka.
Claim:
X user Hafiz Usama Abubakar shared the viral video on his profile.
Check the archive version of the post here.
Other users too are sharing the video with the same claim.
Investigation:
We started the investigation by running a reverse image search on the keyframes obtained from the video.
This led us to a video posted on YouTube channel, The Independent. The video was posted two years ago.
The video was titled: Sri Lankan protesters swim in president’s pool after storming official residence
The description mentioned: Scores of protesters jump into the president’s swimming pool after storming his house, while others roamed across the overlooking balcony.
We also found the visuals being carried in an article on CNN.
Since the video had a watermark of BBC, we checked the social media channels of BBC.
We found the video on the website of BBC.
The description mentioned: Thousands of protesters in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo have taken over the president’s residence. This footage shows demonstrators taking a swim in President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s pool. Demonstrators have been demanding his resignation after months of protests over Sri Lanka’s economic crisis.
Conclusion: Old video from Sri Lanka when protesters in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo took over the president’s residence goes viral as recent from Bangladesh. Viral claims are misleading.
