A viral video claiming to show a pro-Palestine march filling up a city square in Spain has been shared widely on social media. However, fact-checkers have found that the video is not actually from a pro-Palestine demonstration, but rather from an anti-government protest in Spain regarding Catalan separatists.
The video shows thousands of protestors packed into a city square, shot from an aerial view to emphasize the scale of the crowd. Many social media users sharing the video claimed it depicted a massive pro-Palestine march flooding the streets of a city in Spain.
However, when fact-checkers investigated the origins of the viral video, they discovered it was not related to Palestine at all. Instead, the original video was from a demonstration in Madrid, Spain.
The large-scale public demonstration took place to protest acting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s decision to grant concessions to Catalan separatist leaders through political dialog.
Sánchez had met with Quim Torra, president of Catalonia, to discuss options for decreasing tensions over Catalonia’s independence movement. This included possibilities like more regional self-governance for Catalonia.
While Sánchez viewed the meetings as peaceful dialog, his critics saw the prime minister as making dangerous concessions that threatened Spanish national unity. As a result, right-wing and conservative groups organized the massive rally in Madrid’s Plaza de Colón to take a stand for Spanish unity.
The viral video likely gained traction from pro-Palestine supporters who mistakenly believed it showed global solidarity with Palestine spreading even in Europe. However, the political origins of the video were rooted in internal Spanish affairs, not international activism.
Ours fact-checker traced the viral footage back to its origins – coverage of the February 2019 rally from Spain’s public broadcaster TVE. When examined in proper context, they confirmed the video had nothing to do with Palestine-related protests.
Beyond the misleading social media captions tied to the video itself, some indications within the footage reveal it is not depicting a pro-Palestine march. For example, the signs and banners shown are largely related to Spanish national unity and against prime minister Sánchez.
Furthermore, fact-checkers noted the blue, red and yellow Spanish flags prominently displayed throughout the aerial shot of the crowd. These are symbols frequently associated with conservative and right-wing protesters in Spain, rather than Palestine solidarity colors.
The misleading captions attached to the video also claim it took place in Spain, when in reality there is nothing definitively Spanish shown in the aerial visuals alone. Without proper context, the location could be almost any city square.
Thus, the descriptive captions pushed the misinformation that Spain was flooded with huge pro-Palestine marches. But with factual reporting from fact-checkers, it becomes clear the political event had nothing to do with Palestine. See misleading video on X: https://x.com/FactualNarrator/status/1724161428318265467?s=20
This fact check once again demonstrates the importance of verifying the context around footage spread widely on social platforms. Videos and images often travel without vital background to correctly interpret them.
Both misinformation and disinformation can proliferate rapidly when visual media is shared without proper sourcing. Fact-checkers serve a crucial role in tracing viral content back to origins before taking online claims at face value.
Moreover, the capacity of political groups across the ideological spectrum to repurpose footage for their messaging goals shows media literacy remains critical. Even if the intention was not explicitly malicious disinformation, misrepresenting the Spanish protests as linked to Palestine spreads falsehoods.
The public should remain alert to the possibility of out-of-context videos, intentionally or unintentionally detached from their real meaning. Seeking trusted fact-checking sources can verify or disprove the narratives that often erroneously develop on social media.
Pro-Palestine activists also bear responsibility to confirm promotions of their cause are based in factual evidence from credible reporters before circulating more broadly. Though the initial sharing here may have been well-meaning, propagating misinformation typically does more harm than good.
Spain continues to balance tensions between central Spanish nationalism and regional independence movements like Catalan separatism. Yet reliable reporting confirms it has so far avoided massive solidarity marches tied to the Palestinian cause itself.
Fact-checkers carry out vital work by tracing viral interest stories back to their actual origins before misinformation becomes accepted truth through repetition alone. The public should turn to reliable verification fact-checking reports rather than just credulously re-share eye-catching videos without context.
In an era of too-often polarized politics and activism, commitment to accuracy, integrity and transparency serves the public better than sensationalist misrepresentations – even for an undeniably important humanitarian cause like Palestinian human rights.
