A video of a crowd protesting outside the BBC Broadcasting House, the headquarters of BBC in London, is being shared with the false claim that the demonstration is against the BBC's latest documentary, 'India: The Modi Question'.
BOOM found that the video is a demonstration led by an anti-vaccine group 'Truth Be Told' and has nothing to do with the documentary.
The BBC, in a two-part documentary, held the then Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi "directly responsible for a climate of impunity” that led to the riots in 2002 in the state. A harsh criticism of the administration's failure to assuage the riots, the documentary has been called "propaganda" by the external affairs ministry of India. The government has also instructed Twitter and YouTube to take down any clips from the documentary that are circulating online. Read more here.
Amid this, the video of an anti-vax demonstration outside BBC's Broadcasting House in Portland Place, London is going viral. The video shows a large crowd chanting slogans such as "Shame on BBC" and "Take down the BBC". This video is being falsely shared as a demonstration organised against the BBC's documentary.
Shared by Amar Prasad Reddy, State President of Youth Development and Sports Cell of the BJP in Tamil Nadu, the caption reads, "British Public chanting SHAME ON YOU to the BBC at a demonstration outside BBC Broadcasting house in London. Hated in their own country & spreading FAKE PROPAGANDA in other countries esp. India.... BBC."
Click here to view the tweet and here for an archive.
Click here to view the tweet and here for an archive.
The video is also circulating on Facebook.
Click here to view.
Click here to view.
FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the video is from an anti-vax demonstration in London, that took place on January 21, 2023.
A reverse image search of keyframes from the video led us to a news website called USSA News that had a detailed report of the anti-vax demonstration outside BBC Broadcasting House. The demonstration was organised there by Truth Be Told, an anti-vax conspiracy group that claims to create awareness and fight for people who have "suffered because of the Covid-19 vaccine".
The group accused the BBC of not covering the supposed harmful effects of the Covid-19 vaccine and censoring them.
The USSA News report includes the same viral video of the demonstration. Along with this, it included videos of other speakers at the event, such as Andrew Bridgen, a member of the conservative party in UK and families of people who had allegedly died because of the vaccine.
Taking a cue from the watermark on the video, we found the official page of Oracle Films UK on Twitter where the same viral video was uploaded.
Truth Be Told was protesting the supposed harmful effects of the Covid-19 vaccine and their demonstration had no links to the BBC's documentary on the Gujarat riots and PM Modi.
There are no reports of any demonstrations taking place in London against the BBC's documentary so far. However, a report by Firstpost suggests that the Indian diaspora in England is planning to organise a demonstration soon to protest the documentary.