Video From 2020 Shared As Alcohol Distributed At Farmers' Protest
BOOM found that the viral clip dates back to April 2020 and pre-dates the Farms bills and the ongoing farmers' protests.
An old clip dating back to at least April 2020 is being shared with the false claim that free alcohol is being distributed to farmers protesting in Delhi.
In the viral video, a person in a car is seen pouring alcohol from a bottle, with a crowd of people clamouring to get their share.
The clip is being shared as protesting farmers blocked several key roads on February 6, 2021, across states, in a planned three-hour 'chakka jam'. The blockade was called by the farmer unions agitating against the Centre's new farm laws.
The farmers have been demanding the repeal of three farm bills passed by the central government last year in September 2020.
The 31 second clip was shared by Twitter user Renuka Jain with the caption, "Farmers protests. Free liquor distribution"
Click here to view, and here for an archive.
BOOM has previously debunked misinformation tweeted by Renuka Jain (Read here)
Viral on Facebook
On searching with the same caption on Facebook, we found that the clip was shared with the false claim
Also Read: Photo From 2018 Fuel Hike Protest Viral As Farmers' March
FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral clip dates back to April 2020 and is not from the ongoing farmers' protest as being falsely claimed. The clip predates the passing of the new farm laws passed by the central government in September 2020, following which the farmers' protests started.
Additionally, the three new farm bills were approved by the Lok Sabha on September 17, 2020, and the Rajya Sabha on September 20, 2020. The President of India, Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent on September 27, 2020, for the three bills passed by the parliament. The first instance of the video on social media is from April 2020, months before the bill was passed.
We broke the viral clip into key-frames and ran a reverse image search using Google Images and found Facebook posts with the viral clip dating back to April 11, 2020. In these clips from April 2020, we can see the same sequence of events occur.
BOOM could not independently verify the incident, however, we could confirm that the viral clip is old and not related to the ongoing farmers' protests.
BOOM has previously debunked misinformation around the farmers' protests. Several false claims had gone viral to target the protesting farmers and old photos, videos being shared as recent.
Follow BOOM's thread on misinformation around the farmers' protests.
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