A video showing uniformed men disposing of jars of cheese is viral with a false caption claiming that the video shows people of Kuwait boycotting French products.
BOOM found that the viral video shows the confiscation and destruction of rotten cheese products in Al Ahsa, eastern Saudi Arabia in May this year.
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The clip is viral in the backdrop of the beheading of French teacher Samuel Paty, outside his school on October 16, 2020, by a Chechen origin radical Islamist for showing a class caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed.
French President Emmanuel Macron, while defending the idea of free speech, had criticised Islamists and vowed not to "give up cartoons" depicting Prophet Mohammed. This had led to calls on social media by many Muslim users to boycott French products.
The 30-second-long video which has been shared in thousands shows a group of men dressed in red-and-white uniform disposing off bottles and jars in a garbage crusher. A caption with the viral video reads 'Kuwait Put All France Products In Garbage'.
Watch the video below and access its archived version here.
The video is viral from several Facebook pages and some Twitter handles with similar captions.
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Fact Check
BOOM did a reverse image search on screengrabs from the clip and found a report published in Arabic language website Al Marsd that had screenshot from the viral video.
According to the report, the video was recorded in Al Ahsa governorate of eastern Saudi Arabia. The report further mentions that the video shows government officials destroying cheese that had been 'spoiled'.
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BOOM also found a tweet from the verified handle of @NoRumors - an independent Saudi media platform checking and containing rumours - which mentions that the incident is from Saudi Arabia. The tweet is from May 14, 2020.
The Arabic tweet which shares a screenshot from the viral video translates to 'What is being circulated about the confiscation of Emirati products from cheese in Saudi Arabia that do not meet the specifications and carcinogens is incorrect, and the real video of the confiscation and destruction of cheese products due to the appearance of signs of spoilage due to poor storage, as confirmed by the Ministry of Commerce'.
(Arabic: مايتداول عن مصادرة منتجات إماراتية من الأجبان في السعودية غير مطابقة للمواصفات ومسرطنة غير صحيح, والفيديو الحقيقي لمصادرة وإتلاف منتجات اجبان بسبب ظهور علامات التلف بسبب سوء التخزين كما أكدت ذلك وزارة التجارة.)
We compared the screenshot shared in the tweet with one from the viral clip and found them to be the same.
BOOM also searched the internet with relevant keywords and found a report published in Gulf News on May 14 this year which mentions about the same incident but doesn't share an image or a video.
According to the report titled Saudi Arabia says rotten cheese in video not cancerous, the video had been viral on social media with claims that cancerous material was found in cheese from Al Ahsa.
The report further states that 'competent authorities confiscated and destroyed 1,628 rotten cheese products in Al Ahsa'.
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