Outdated Chicago looting footage misrepresented online
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on April 20, 2023 at 18:10
- 3 min read
- By Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA
Copyright © AFP 2017-2025. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.
"#Walmart's destruction this weekend," says an April 16, 2023 tweet sharing the video.
Two tweets featuring the same clip -- which spread after crowds of teenagers who had gathered downtown on April 14 and 15 turned violent -- were amplified by Twitter owner Elon Musk, who has repeatedly promoted misinformation since acquiring the platform in October 2022.
"A human disaster is unfolding right now in Chicago," podcast host Luke Rudkowski said in one such post, to which the billionaire replied with a reference to a post-apocalyptic video game: "Reminds me of Fallout."
Responding to another tweet sharing the video as though it were current, Musk wrote, "Wow."
Similar posts sharing the clip racked up hundreds of thousands of views on Twitter and other platforms, such as TikTok.
But while the US city experienced a weekend of unrest, the video from Walmart is nearly three years outdated.
"We haven't had any reports of damage to our Chicago locations," Charles Crowson, director of Walmart's press office, told AFP in an April 19 email. "The video in question isn't current."
Reverse image searches and a review of social media commentary revealed earlier iterations of the same video dating back to 2020, including one post from Grace Asiegbu, a journalist at Injustice Watch, a non-profit organization based in Chicago.
"Inside the Walmart at 47th street & cottage #chicago #chicagolooting," Asiegbu said in the June 1, 2020 tweet, referring to the retail chain's store in the city's Kenwood neighborhood.
Details from the clip spreading online match those in a Google Maps photo for the Kenwood Walmart, confirming Asiegbu's listed location.
Reached by AFP, Asiegbu said she filmed the video as part of her coverage of protests that flared up after the May 2020 death of Floyd, a Black man whose death at the hands of a white police officer in Minnesota sparked demonstrations throughout the United States.
"I filmed this video back in 2020, and it was pulled from a long thread on reporting in the immediate days following George Floyd's murder," Asiegbu said in an April 19 email. "It's disheartening to see my city constantly misrepresented by people interested in fearmongering and spreading disinformation."
Walmart stores closing
The Walmart in Kenwood temporarily closed after the looting in 2020, according to local news reports from the time.
On April 11, the retailer announced it was closing half of its Chicago locations -- with the Kenwood Walmart among the shuttered stores.
"We know the community will have questions about why we are closing these locations," the company said in a statement announcing the closures. "The simplest explanation is that collectively our Chicago stores have not been profitable since we opened the first one nearly 17 years ago -- these stores lose tens of millions of dollars a year, and their annual losses nearly doubled in just the last five years."
AFP has previously fact-checked other misrepresented looting videos, including here, here and here.
Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.
Contact us
