Old video of protesters vandalising police cars in Paris shared as recent

Context

Users on social media have shared a video of a police car being destroyed by protesters, claiming it to be from the recent protests in France triggered by the killing of 17-year-old Algerian Nahel M by a police officer. The caption of the post reads, “Images like this are the ones that are being censored in the media in your country, like a banana dictatorship, and you have to go to Twitter to see them. Put on the TV and check it out. One month before the elections, the media of the system are not interested.” The post also contains the viral hashtag “#FranceRiots.” At the time of writing this story, the post had gathered 94,400 views. Archive pf the post can be accessed here.

However, this video is old and unrelated to the recent protest and violence happening in France.

In Fact

The viral video contains a watermark of Euro News. With this, Logically Facts found a longer version of the viral video on YouTube uploaded by Euro News on May 19, 2016, with a title that read, “Paris protesters set a police car on fire with 2 officers inside.” We also found reports on the incident from 2016 that carried a similar video. According to a report by France 24 dated April 18, 2016, police vehicles were attacked by anti-government protesters. 

Associated Press uploaded the same video on their official YouTube channel in May 2016. The video caption reads, “Protesters in Paris attacked a police car with two officers inside with iron bars and set it alight in an unleashing of anti-police violence, as officers across France took to the streets to denounce violence they say has been directed at them.”

Unrest unfolded across France in early 2016 as France's Senate approved a bill reforming labor laws. Hundreds of people were arrested for inciting protests and violence in French cities in 2016. According to a 2016 report by the BBC, the protesters opposed the law that “made it easier for employers to hire and fire workers and relax the limit on working hours.”

Therefore, this video is old and unrelated to the current unrest in France. 

The Verdict

This video is unconnected to the recent riots in France and was taken in Paris in 2016. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.