Video shows football fans celebrating Africa Cup win in Paris, not migrants making violent threats

This article is more than one year old.
Published on February 23, 2023 at 10:21
Updated on February 23, 2023 at 10:27
4 min read
By Clara IP, AFP Hong Kong

A video has been viewed tens of thousands of times in multiple social media posts that falsely claim it shows immigrants in France threatening to "rape and behead" people as "Europe now belongs to them". The clip, which has circulated since at least July 2019, in fact shows football fans celebrating in Paris during the Africa Cup of Nations tournament and speaking about how peaceful the crowd was.

The video, which has been viewed more than 18,000 times, was shared in a tweet here on February 14, 2023.

It appears to show several men being interviewed among a crowd of people, some of whom have wrapped flags around their shoulders.

The tweet, written in simplified Chinese characters, reads: "Immigrants in Paris, France, threatened Le Pen: 'We want to stay, we want to rape all the white women in Europe, behead all the men, we now occupy Europe!'"

Le Pen appears to refer to Marine Le Pen of France's far-right, anti-immigrant National Rally party.

A screenshot of the false tweet, captured on February 15, 2023

The same one-minute, 13-second video was also shared elsewhere on Twitter in English and German, and a shorter version of the video was shared in Chinese here.

The video, however, does not show migrants making violent threats; it shows football fans celebrating in Paris during the Africa Cup of Nations tournament.

Africa Cup of Nations

A keyword and reverse image search on Google found the same video was shared on Twitter here on July 15, 2019.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the false tweet (left) and in the tweet from 2019 (right):

A screenshot comparison of the video in the false tweet (left) and in the tweet from 2019 (right)

The French-language caption of the 2019 tweet reads: "An Algerian supporter: 'We did it faster than the Germans, we took Paris in 3 hours.'"

At the nine-second mark, one of the men being interviewed says in French: "I'm Tunisian, this is a great Africa Cup, even if we've all got different roots, we're all French."

"Look, turn the camera around. There are Algerians, Tunisians, Moroccans, Senegalese... the cops are one metre away. There isn't a single punch-up, there's no trouble, nothing's on fire," he adds.

At the video's 47-second mark, the man claps back at the anti-immigrant Le Pen, saying: "Marine, we're here! We did it faster than the Germans, we took Paris in 3 hours. In 1940, the Germans took 24 hours. We're here, we haven't smashed anything up. I love you, Marine Le Pen."

An Algerian flag can be seen in the background at the 28-second mark of the video.

Comparison between the Algerian flag seen in the false tweet (left) and as seen in an AFP photo (right) taken in Algeria’s capital Algiers on September 18, 2021

The 2019 tweet was published after the Algerian football team booked their place in the final of that year's Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt by beating Nigeria 2-1.

The victory was met with riotous celebrations in France, which has large Algerian-origin communities, but there were also hundreds of arrests in the capital Paris after clashes between football fans and police on the Champs-Elysees.

The celebrations -- which coincided with Bastille Day -- irked nationalist politicians in particular who worry about the effects of immigration.

The location shown in the video corresponds with Google Street View imagery of the Arc de Triomphe, the imposing war memorial at the top of the Champs-Elysees.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the false tweet left) and the same location as seen in Google Street View (right) with similarities highlighted by AFP:

A screenshot comparison of the video in the false tweet left) and the same location as seen in Google Street View (right) with similarities highlighted by AFP.

A large French flag can be seen flying at the Arc de Triomphe in the video circulating on social media.

According to US-based media outlet Politico, the national flag is only flown at the monument on special occasions, such as the national holiday on July 14.

An AFP photo of the Arc de Triomphe on July 14, 2019 also shows the French flag was flying from the memorial.

A screenshot comparison of the video in the false post (left) and an AFP's photo (right) with the French national flag circled in red

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