As authorities in Pakistan tightened security ahead of a planned protest march by former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s jailed party, a video was shared in social media posts falsely claiming that thousands of protesters were marching on the capital Islamabad. The clip actually shows Christian worshipers leaving a Mass celebrated by Pope Francis during his visit to East Timor in September 2024.
The clipshowing a road full of people and vehicles, was viewed more than 114,000 times after it was shared on Facebook on November 24.
‘A sea of ​​people heading to D-Chowk in Islamabad’ read the caption in urdureferring to the public square in the city’s government enclave, which houses the presidential palace, the prime minister’s office, parliament and the Supreme Court (archived link).
Screenshot of the fake Facebook post captured on December 3, 2024
The same video was shared with similar claims elsewhere on Facebook, here and here, and on X here and here.
It emerged as supporters of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan marched on Islamabad. respond to his call for demonstrators to demand his release, and to protest alleged rigging in the February elections and a government-backed constitutional amendment giving it more power over the courts (archived link).
Despite a ban on public gatherings, convoys of pro-Khan protesters marched into the city, pushing aside roadblocks and skirmishing with police and paramilitary forces who fired volleys of rubber bullets and tear gas (archived link).
Police said on November 27 they had arrested almost 1,000 protesters after crowds were cleared from the city center in a sweeping security operation (archived link).
However, the video circulating online does not show the protesters.
AFP previously checked the facts and claims the same video showed rallies in the Philippines and India.
East Timor images
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to a higher quality version posted to TikTok on September 11 (archived link).
Hashtags in the caption suggested it was filmed during Pope Francis’ visit to East Timor, where he celebrated Mass for hundreds of thousands of faithful on September 10 (archived link).
About 600,000 people out of a population of 1.3 million attended the Mass, the Vatican said in a statement, citing local authorities, in the largest turnout for a papal event by population share outside the Holy See.
Below is one screenshot comparison of the wrongly shared clip (left) and the images shared on TikTok in September (right):
Screenshot comparison of the incorrectly shared clip (left) and the footage shared on TikTok in September (right)
An analysis of the images shared on TikTok shows the flag of East Timor on street lights and a poster of the Pope.
Screenshot showing the flag of East Timor on street lights and a poster of the Pope
The user who shared the footage, Rey Marques, a photographer based in the capital Dili, told AFP at the time that he did not know who filmed the video but identified the scene as being near Raikotu General Cemetery.
AFP confirmed the location of the images by comparing them with Google Street View images from the area (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison highlighting a house, street and tree in the TikTok video (left) and its associated elements on Google Street View (right):
Screenshot comparison highlighting a house, street and tree in the TikTok video (left) and its associated elements on Google Street View (right)
A livestream on the Facebook page of local media outlet TVET Entertainment shows a similar scene of crowds after Mass (archived link).
AFP has debunked other false claims regarding protests in support of Khan here and here.
