Old video of anti-hijab protests shared as Paris riots spreading to London

Context

Social media continues to be flooded with misleading content portrayed as violence in France. One recent video shows a clash between the police and protesters in London with the claim that the protests from France have spread to London. The footage shows a man being forcibly taken to a police van and his face bloodied from objects thrown at him by the protesters.

A Twitter user shared the video with the caption, "Riots are now spreading into London." The video has been viewed by more than 2,500 people. Archive of the post can be accessed here.

In Fact

We performed a Google reverse image search on the keyframes of the video and it led us to a report by an Australian website news.com.au dated September 28, 2022. The report had screenshots of the same video and mentioned that it was recorded near Kilburn in northwestern London. The clash in the video actually happened during an anti-hijab protest in London following agitations worldwide after the death of an activist in police custody in Iran on September 16, 2022.

We did a keyword search and found that the video was shared on Twitter by multiple users on September 26, 2022. Among these users, ‘@yazdhip’ posted the video along with the caption: "Yesterday evening, a violent mob, purportedly associated with the Iranian regime, unleashed an attack on innocent civilians and police officers on the streets of London. #IranProtests2022." This indicated that the video is not recent, but has been online since 2022.

On 25 September 2022, The Telegraph shared a video on their YouTube channel about the same incident and the accompanying title read: "Clashes Erupt Outside Iranian Embassy in London as Dozens of Protesters Confront Police." Notably, the location shown in The Telegraph's video matches that of the video shared by Twitter users, both of which were filmed at Princes Gate in London. In both videos, the protesters can be seen displaying Iranian flags, and the police officers wearing black uniforms with green jackets.

We found multiple sources from September 2022, including The Telegraph and BBC, that reported on the protests held outside the Iranian Embassy over the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old woman who died after being detained by morality police in Iran for allegedly breaking the country’s strict hijab rules. 

London’s Metropolitan Police said that twelve people were arrested on suspicion of violent disorder offences, and at least five officers were seriously injured.

The Verdict

The video does not show Paris riots spreading to London, but rather an anti-hijab protest in London in September 2022. Hence we rate this claim as false.