A video from a protest in Colombia is being shared with the false claim that the Taliban are wrapping Christians in plastic bags to suffocate them to death.
BOOM found that the video is from a demonstration in Medellin, Colombia to protest the disappearance and deaths of people who have been protesting against the Colombian government's new tax proposals.
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The video is being shared in the backdrop of the Taliban coming back to power in Afghanistan. Member of minority communities in Afghanistan have been living in fear of the Taliban. Multiple news reports have stated that the Taliban have killed members of the Hazara community, a religious Muslim minority.
The Washington Post reported that the Taliban are cracking down on Christians in Afghanistan since coming back to power. According to an Afghan Christian living in exile, the Taliban arrested a man who attended mass via a live-stream and are also conducting door to door searches to find Christians.
A UN threat assessment reported that the Taliban are also conducting door to door searches to find people who helped US and NATO forces during the War on Terror.
The video is being shared on social media with the caption: "Christians in Afghanistan are wrapped in nylon rubber to die slowly.....we have the chance to worship god without any harm....see how we are messing up yourselves....repent now!!... Judgment await for us all..."
Other claims viral with the video state that Christian nuns and missionaries were sexually abused by the Taliban before they were wrapped up in plastic bags to die.
An archive of the tweet can be viewed here.
An archive of the tweet can be viewed here.
An archive of the video can be viewed here.
The video is also viral on WhatsApp and is being shared with a Malayalam audio message. The speaker in the audio says, "What you are seeing in the video is the prosecution of true Christians in Afghanistan by Taliban. Taliban told Christians there to stop worshiping Jesus Christ but the Christians refused. They tied them inside large air tight plastic bags and eventually they die due to lack of oxygen. God should save those who pray to him. So everybody in the prayer group kindly pray for these people."
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BOOM received the video and the audio message on it's WhatsApp helpline.
Fact-Check On Taliban Wrapping Christians In Plastic Bags
Using InVid's video verification tool, we broke down the video into keyframes and ran a reverse image search. We found this video on YouTube titled "31 de maio de 2021". The description, in Spanish, stated that the video was from a performance titled "Empaquetados" held at parque del Poblado on 26 May 2021.
Taking cue from there, we searched for news articles as well as social media posts about protests at Parque del Poblado on May 26 2021.
We found a longer video of the protest posted on Facebook on May 27, 2021. The viral video has been clipped from the 1.11 mark.
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We found an article in the May 27 2021 edition of ADN Medellin which reported on the demonstration.
The article, headlined "Empaquetados" por los desaparecidos ("Packed" by the disappeared), stated that a group of people carried out a demonstration by wrapping themselves in plastic bags to protest against people who have disappeared during protests in Colombia since April 28.
The protests mentioned in the article refers to an ongoing protest in Colombia against tax reforms to shore up a COVID-19 pandemic-hit economy. Tens of thousands of people have since protested against corruption and health care reform in the country.
We were also able to identify the location of the protest on Google Street view. In the top left-corner of the video, a black pillar-like structure can be seen. The pillar can be seen on Google Street View.
The pillar can be seen clearly in the longer video around the 9.35 minute mark.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the viral video (L) and the Google Street View image (R).