Footage of Sri Lanka, Nepal protests misrepresented as Philippine anti-corruption rallies

Published on September 29, 2025 at 10:58
3 min read
By Jan Cuyco, AFP Philippines

Thousands of people have taken to the streets of the Philippine capital Manila to vent their anger in anti-corruption demonstrations, but two videos purporting to show the rallies that were shared on social media were in fact filmed in Sri Lanka and Nepal. The videos previously circulated during the 2022 economic revolt in Sri Lanka and the "Gen Z" movement in Nepal that toppled the Himalayan nation's government in early September 2025.

One video showing streets packed with people was shared on TikTok on September 22, 2025 -- a day after thousands of Filipinos rallied in Manila to vent their anger over a ballooning scandal involving bogus flood-control projects believed to have cost taxpayers billions of dollars (archived link).

The scandal has seen numerous lawmakers implicated, the Senate leader ousted and resignation of the House speaker (archived here and here).

The TikTok video's caption includes the hashtag "People Power", a reference to the bloodless 1986 revolt that ousted the dictatorship of current President Ferdinand Marcos's father (archived link).

Screenshot of the false TikTok video captured on September 28, 2025, with a red X added by AFP

A similar clip showing streets packed with people was shared on September 11 on Facebook, where it was viewed more than 1.5 million times.

Its Tagalog-language caption reads: "All of the taxpayers' money are being stolen. We are nearing a People Power."

Screenshot of the false Facebook video captured on September 28, 2025, with a red X added by AFP

The same videos were also shared in posts similarly claiming they showed protests in the Philippines.

But the videos were in fact filmed in Sri Lanka and Nepal.

Sri Lanka

A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the first falsely shared video led to similar clips shared in posts from July 2022 about protesters storming the Presidential Palace in Colombo.

The footage was used in X posts by Sri Lanka's NewsWire and the New Indian Express on July 9, 2022 (archived here and here).

"Video footage of Sri Lankan protesters taking over President's office in Colombo," reads the NewsWire video's caption.

Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (left) and a NewsWire post from July 2022 (right), with corresponding elements highlighted by AFP

AFP reported that hundreds of thousands of people massed in the capital Colombo on July 9, 2022 to demand the government take responsibility for mismanaging the nation's finances, and for crippling food and fuel shortages (archived link).

After storming the gates of the presidential palace, protesters walked through its rooms, with some among the boisterous crowd jumping into the compound's pool.

Satellite imagery of the area available on Google Maps also corresponds to the falsely shared footage (archived link).

Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (left) and Google Maps imagery (right), with matching features highlighted by AFP

Nepal

A separate reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the second falsely shared video led to the same footage published on YouTube and TikTok on September 8 (archived here and here).

The captions of both videos indicate it was filmed in Nepal during youth-led anti-corruption rallies that toppled the government (archived link).

A keyword search on Google Maps using one of the street's shop signs shows the video was filmed in Kathmandu, Nepal (archived link).

Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (left) and Google Street View imagery from Kathmandu (right), with matching features highlighted by AFP

AFP has also debunked other posts misrepresenting unrelated footage to the anti-corruption rallies in Manila.

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