Switzerland footage misrepresented in false posts about foreigners, California fires
- Published on January 24, 2025 at 17:34
- 4 min read
- By Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA
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"Nothing to see here! Just some California newcomers living off the taxpayer dime celebrating the destruction of Los Angeles!" says a January 14, 2025 post on X.
"Let’s remember this when the Mass Deportations start," another post sharing the same video adds. "There will be no mercy for any of these Foreigners."
The clip shows young men and women dancing as a fire rages outside their window. They are singing along to "A venit politia," a song by Romanian actress Theo Rose, with the music video playing on a TV.
Similar posts -- many claiming the video showed foreigners, migrants or Israelis -- ricocheted across X and other platforms as several wildfires razed large sections of America's second-largest city, leveling structures and killing more than two dozen people.
Far-right internet host Stew Peters, who has repeatedly spread conspiracy theories and disinformation, amplified the clip to his more than 770,000 followers on X.
"There's always ONE group that seems to be dancing during every American tragedy," he wrote.
The posts came shortly before President Donald Trump began his second term with a flurry of executive actions aimed at overhauling immigration into the United States. He has since signed orders declaring a "national emergency" at the southern border and announced the deployment of more troops to the area while vowing to deport "criminal aliens," moves that have spread fear across many communities.
The footage circulating online, however, is unrelated to the California wildfires.
Reverse image searches surfaced the same clip posted to TikTok as early as December 23, 2024, with a caption placing it in Switzerland (archived here).
The user also uploaded three other videos of the same fire, including a second clip of his crew dancing to the same tune (archived here, here and here).
According to the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, a 100-year-old wooden bathhouse on Lake Constance in the northern Swiss town of Rorschach burned down early the morning of December 23, 2024 (archived here). The house had been covered in scaffolding at the time because the roof was under renovation, the article said.
Searching Google Maps for a Rorschach bathhouse along Lake Constance, AFP found a photo from December 2024 of what appear to be the charred remains of the structure, surrounded by scaffolding (archived here).
Google Maps Street View imagery shows similar lampposts and other structures near the bathhouse, as well as a hotel across the street with windows that match the design of those in the video (archived here).
AFP has debunked other misinformation about the wildfires here.
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