Clips of Indonesia protests misrepresented as Nepal demonstrations
- Published on September 18, 2025 at 10:44
- 5 min read
- By AFP Thailand, AFP Indonesia
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"The outcomes of tyrannical government," reads the Burmese-language Facebook post published on September 10, 2025.
The compilation video has been viewed more than 120,000 times and shows scenes of an ornately decorated building on fire, protestors in front of a gated building and various scenes of a damaged city taken from a motorcycle.
A voice can be heard saying, "Nepal’s youth made a point today that the ruins of these buildings are the faults of corrupt government which rule the country in tyranny."
The video was shared with similar claims on Facebook and TikTok after demonstrations in Nepal triggered by a social media ban boiled over into wider anger at government corruption on September 8 (archived link).
The unrest, the country's worst since the civil war and abolition of the monarchy in 2008, left at least 72 dead, parliament and key government buildings torched and ousted its veteran prime minister.
Former chief justice Sushila Karki, 73, was sworn in as interim prime minister on September 12, tasked with steering Nepal to elections within six months.
However, a combination of keyword and reverse image searches on Google found the circulating clips are in fact from Indonesia's mass protests weeks earlier.
Demonstrations in late-August were sparked by low wages, unemployment and anger over lawmakers' lavish perks, but grew after footage spread of a paramilitary police vehicle running over a delivery motorcycle driver (archived link).
The ensuing riots, which rights groups say left at least 10 dead and hundreds detained, were the biggest of Prabowo Subianto's presidency and the ex-general is now calling on the public to restore their confidence in his government.
Indonesia protest clips
The first clip of a building on fire was published by Indonesian online news portal Suara NTB on its official Facebook page on August 30, 2025 (archived link).
"Mass demonstration at the West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) Province's regional representative council building (DPRD) on Saturday (30/8/2025) afternoon. Fire can be seen engulfing the DPRD building in Udayana Street, Mataram City. Some parts of the building appear to be burned," reads the video's Indonesian-language caption.
The scene corresponds to Google Street View imagery of the local government building in Mataram City in Indonesia's Lombok island (archived link).
The second clip of protesters beating the ground with branches matches a TikTok video published on September 1, with Indonesian-language captions reading "Kebumen 24-hour demonstration" (archived link). Kebumen is a town in Indonesia's Central Java province.
The video's 8-second mark shows a smoking building, which corresponds to the town's parliament building and can be seen on Google Maps Street View (archived link).
The last series of clips of damaged infrastructure was found on TikTok shared on August 31, weeks before the Nepal protests began (archived link). The Indonesian-language post reads "recover quickly my country".
The video was taken along Jendral Sudirman road in the capital Jakarta and shows various landmarks and bus stops, which can be seen on Google Maps Street View imagery (archived here, and here).
The entrance to the Jakarta Police's Mobile Brigade headquarters and surrounding areas can also be seen at the 15-second mark of the TikTok video (archived link).
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