Old video of Indonesia factory fire falsely shared as Rohingya refugees arson attack in 2024
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on January 12, 2024 at 14:56
- Updated on January 12, 2024 at 15:44
- 3 min read
- By AFP Indonesia
Copyright © AFP 2017-2025. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.
"Again and again news about the Rohingya," reads an Indonesian-language TikTok post shared on January 3, 2024.
Text overlaid on the video says: "Rohingya refugees burning down a warehouse in Aceh because they were angry at not being given money".
The 12-second clip has been viewed more than 16,600 views.
On December 27, 2023, hundreds of university students stormed a temporary shelter for Rohingya refugees in Indonesia's Aceh province, forcing them to leave in the latest rejection of the persecuted Myanmar minority.
The United Nations refugee agency blamed the incident on a "coordinated online campaign of misinformation, disinformation and hate speech against refugees".
More than 1,500 Rohingya refugees have arrived on the shores of Aceh province since mid-November 2023 in what the United Nations says is the biggest influx for eight years. Some of their boats have faced rejection by locals and in some cases have been returned to sea.
The video has racked a total of more than 156,000 times in similar posts on TikTok here and here, on Instagram here and here, and on video-sharing app SnackVideo.
However, the claim is false.
A combination of reverse image and keyword searches on Google found the video in an article about a fire at a textile factory in Indonesia's West Java province in 2020 (archived link).
According to the report, which was published by Indonesia's Tribunnews on May 8, 2020, the blaze tore through a building belonging to PT Sinar Pangjaya in the city of Cimahi.
The fire was allegedly caused by an electrical fault, it said.
Below is a screenshot comparison between the video in the false post (left) and the video in the Tribunnews report (right):
On Google Maps, the company "PT. Sinar Pangjaya Mulia" can be found in Cimahi (archived link).
According to its website, which is no longer online but has been archived here, the company specialises in elastic fabrics.
Further keyword searches on Google found a Cimahi-based TikTok account, which published the same video as the one shared in the false posts, and other footage from the blaze in May 2020, saying the incident happened at PT Pangjaya (archived links here, here and here).
The Cimahi Fire Department posted various photos of the fire on its official Facebook page, saying that the fire took place on May 7, 2020, and was allegedly caused by an electric short circuit (archived link).
One of the fire department's photos corresponds to the building seen in the footage shared on social media.
Below is a screenshot comparison between the video shared in the false post (left) and the fire department's photo (right), with similarities highlighted by AFP:
AFP found no news reports about Rohingya refugees burning a warehouse in Aceh, as of January 12, 2024.
AFP has also debunked other false claims targeting Rohingya refugees in Indonesia here and here.
Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.
Contact us
