This video of a Black Lives Matter protest in the US has been manipulated to add an Indonesian song

This article is more than one year old.
Published on June 10, 2020 at 11:15
2 min read
By AFP Indonesia

A video has been viewed tens of thousands of times on Facebook alongside a claim that the footage shows American protesters dancing to an Indonesian song. The claim is false; the footage has been manipulated to add an Indonesian song.

The 31-second video has been viewed more than 1,100 times since it was published on Facebook here on June 3, 2020.

The footage shows dozens of African-American protesters dancing in the street while carrying banners.

The Indonesian-language post translates to English as: “Indonesian song accompanies the dance of American demonstrators at the town square”.

Screenshot of misleading post

The post circulated as protests continue to roil the United States after an African-American man, George Floyd, was killed by police in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020, as AFP reported here.

The footage was also viewed more than 24,000 times alongside similar claims on Facebook here, here, here and here.

The claim, however, is false.

A Google reverse image and keyword search found that the audio of the Indonesian song was digitally added into the video.

The original footage was published on Twitter here on May 31, 2020. The tweet reads: “Put this on the news”.

The next day, the Twitter user wrote: “This is Newark, New Jersey for those wondering.”

Put this on the news. pic.twitter.com/YfXB2x6bcz
— Frosty (@FrostyTheSkid) May 30, 2020

Below is the screenshot comparison between footage in the misleading post (L) and the original video (R):

Screenshot comparison between footage in the misleading post (L) and the original video (R)

NJ.com, a local news outlet in New Jersey, also uploaded a video of the dancing protesters on its YouTube channel on May 31, 2020, here. The video is titled: “Protesters in N.J. dance in the streets during march.”

The text superimposed in the clip reads: “This is how protesters in Newark, N.J., stopped traffic… Demonstrators danced to the Cupid Shuffle… during a march to protest police brutality and racism.”

“Cupid Shuffle” is a 2007 song by artist Cupid.

The Newark protest was also reported by NBC New York on May 31, 2020, here.

The dancing protest took place on Broad St. in Newark, New Jersey, which can be seen on Google Maps here.

The song heard in the footage in the misleading Facebook posts is an an Indonesian song called Gemu Fa Mi Re by musician Nyong Franco, and it is not heard in the original video.

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