Satirical video of man pretending to insult Klaus Schwab in Davos shared out of context

Published on January 26, 2024 at 15:54
2 min read
By Ede ZABORSZKY, AFP Kenya, AFP France, AFP Hungary
Translation and adaptation James OKONG'O

The world’s business and political elite met in Davos, Switzerland from January 15-19 for the World Economic Forum (WEF), with wars in Gaza and Ukraine casting long shadows over the annual event. During the forum, a video emerged online claiming to show a delegate hurling insults at Klaus Schwab, the WEF’s founder. But this is misleading: the clip was edited to make it look like the man was in Davos. It was originally labelled by its creator as satire but has since been taken out of context.

The video, originally posted on YouTube, was shared on Facebook in South Africa on January 17, 2024.

The clip shows a man supposedly speaking at the WEF and insulting Schwab onstage.

“And I appreciate the World Economic Forum providing me the opportunity to be on this stage and say f**k you Klaus Schwab and f**k your new world order…” says the man in the video.

Screenshot showing the post sharing the video, taken on January 25, 2024

The video then cuts to Schwab who stands up and walks offstage.

The same claim was also shared elsewhere on Facebook in Africa as well as on social media in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

The WEF brings together leaders from politics, business and culture to discuss global challenges (archived here). This year’s event was attended by French President Emmanuel Macron, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen, among others.

The forum has in the past been targeted by false information and conspiracy theories. AFP Fact Check has previously debunked posts targeting the WEF and Schwab here, here and here.

The man hurling profanities in the clip, who we identified through a reverse image search as Damon Imani, was not featured as a speaker at the forum.

Satire

AFP Fact Check first debunked the claim when it was shared in French-language posts; you can read our French debunk here.

Imani is an Iranian social media influencer based in Denmark (archived here). He originally posted the clip on X on January 16, 2024, and on Truth Social the next day.

Responding to his initial video post on X, Imani stated that the clip was "satire".

Satire but true. This video is also available on Rumble here and Klaus Schwab can go f himself.https://t.co/22B6TawQ4r
— Damon Imani (@damonimani) January 16, 2024

In another X post, Imani said that he had clearly marked the clip as satire.

He also published the clip on his Instagram account where he wrote: “New WEF participant does the unthinkable at 2024 Davos Meeting. Satire but true.”

Imani regularly shares skits that show him edited into TV shows, acting like a pundit commenting on political or social issues (see also here and here).

In his latest video, the original unedited footage that Imani inserted himself into was taken from a live feed of the opening remarks of this year’s WEF on January 16, 2024 (archived here).

The clothes worn by Schwab are the same as in Imani’s video, and the clip of him walking off stage can be viewed 27 minutes and 8 seconds into the footage.

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