This video shows shoppers at an Indonesian market during Ramadan 2021

This article is more than one year old.
Published on May 11, 2021 at 08:55
2 min read
By AFP Malaysia

A video has been viewed tens of thousands of times after it was shared on Facebook and Twitter alongside a claim that it shows crowds of shoppers at a mall in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan this year. The claim is false; while the video was filmed during Ramadan 2021, it shows shoppers at a market in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, not in Malaysia.

The 19-second video was posted on May 3, 2021 on Facebook here, where it has been viewed more than 160,000 times.

The post’s caption, written in simplified Chinese characters, English and Malaysian, reads: “Kuala Lumpur Pertama Complex and Sogo Mall Malays [at the] shopping mall to buy Eid goods now [Panic] AS RECEIVED
Where Is the Sop”.

Pertama Complex and Sogo are shopping malls in Kuala Lumpur, the biggest city in Malaysia.

Screenshot of the misleading post, taken on May 6, 2021

The video has also been shared on Facebook with a similar claim in Chinese here and here on Facebook, as well as in a mixture of English and Malaysian here. It has also appeared on Twitter with a similar claim in English here.

The claim, however, is false.

A reverse image search on Yandex, followed by keyword searches on Google, found a longer video report published on May 2, 2021 by Indonesian news site Liputan6.com.

The Indonesian-language report is headlined: “VIDEO: Almost Eid al-Fitr, Visitors Throng Tanah Abang Market.”

The caption reads: “Wholesale Market Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, was still full of people who went shopping ahead of Eid al-Fitr on Sunday afternoon, May 2, 2021. Crowds of people were shopping without social distancing.”

Tanah Abang Market is in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.

Below is a screenshot comparison between the video from the misleading Facebook post (L) and the Liputan6.com report (R):

Screenshot comparison between the video from the misleading Facebook post (L) and the Liputan6.com report (R)

The crowd at Tanah Abang Market was also reported by CNN Indonesia here. The video, posted on the broadcaster’s YouTube channel on May 3, 2021, shows the same scenes as the one in the misleading post, starting from the 60-second mark onwards.

The post’s caption reads: “Ahead of this year’s Eid, Tanah Abang Market is again full of visitors on Sunday. It was recorded that 100,000 people packed Tanah Abang Market on Sunday yesterday.”

In response to the crowd at Tanah Abang Market, the Jakarta provincial government said they would be implementing crowd control to prevent new clusters of Covid-19 cases.