A video of a huge crowd gathered on the streets is being shared on the internet with users linking it to the recent protest rally led by the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
Who shared it?: News outlets like Free Press Journal, Asianet Newsable, and Amar Ujala shared reports using the same visuals. Along with other social media users, AIMIM Gujarat's Facebook page shared the same clip as well.
An archive of the report can be found here.
(Source: FPJ/Screenshot)
(Archives of similar such posts can be found here and here.)
Are these claims true?: No, the claims are false as the video is not related to India or Maharashtra.
It could be traced back to 12 September and showed visuals from Pope Francis' visit to Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor.
How did we find that out?: Using the help of a Google Lens search, we found the same visuals uploaded on a Facebook handle named 'Nguyễn Văn Hùng'.
The video was published on 12 September and its caption when translated to English said, "More than 600,000 people attended the Mass presided over by Pope Francis in Taci Tolu, Timor-Leste on the afternoon of September 10, 2024. People line up to wave to the Pope #proudtobecatholic."
At around the 0:14 timestamp, we noticed several posters of Francis in the background.
Other sources: On searching with keywords like "pope francis east timor" on YouTube, we found a video report by Reuters that showed visuals from Francis' visit to the country.
The video was uploaded on 10 September and it was titled, "Pope Francis draws nearly half of East Timor population to open-air Mass | REUTERS."
The video was posted on 10 September.
(Source: YouTube/Screenshot)
Comparing visuals: When we compared the posters seen in the Facebook video to the ones seen in the video published by Reuters, we found several similarities.
We found that both the visuals showed the same posters.
(Source: Facebook/YouTube/Screenshot/Altered by The Quint)
Details about Francis' visit to Timor-Leste: As per Vatican News, the Pope was on a three-day visit to the country. The visit saw Francis meeting with around 3,000 people at the Convention Centre in Dili.
It further mentioned that around six lakh people reportedly attended the Mass at the Esplanade of Tasi Tolu near Dili.
Geolocating the place: Taking the location mentioned above as the hint, we checked the route available on Google Maps.
Using the help of the 'street view' option, we found the exact location where the viral video was filmed.
The same graffiti of Francis can be seen in this view.
The available view is of September of this year and was shared by a user named 'KB'.
Conclusion: The video is not from AIMIM's rally in Mumbai. It is from a country named Timor-Leste.
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