Video of Fireworks From Taiwan Passed Off As 'Tokyo 2020 Olympics'

The 5-minute firework at Taipei 101 skyscraper was a tribute to Taiwan's frontline medical workers.

A 2:46-minute video of fireworks is being circulated on Facebook with the claim that the visuals are from the inauguration ceremony of Tokyo 2020 Olympics that is underway in Tokyo, Japan.

However, we found that the video is of the New Year's celebrations in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, which is an annual event.

CLAIM

The video has been shared by a Chandigarh-based radio jockey and the video has garnered over 7,000 views at the time of writing this article.

Several social media users have shared similar claims on Facebook and the archived links can be accessed here, here, and here.

WHAT WE FOUND

Using Google Chrome's InVid extension, we extracted several keyframes from the video and conducted a reverse image search.

The results showed us a video on Instagram with hashtags '#happynewyear #2021', and '#Taipei'.

Taking cue from here, we used relevant keywords on 'YouTube' and found a video that showed the fireworks in 'Taipei 101', which is Taiwan's tallest skyscraper as the city celebrated new year 2021.

The video was uploaded by Taiwan News, a news portal and a former English daily on 31 December 2020. The 5-minute fireworks display was a tribute to Taiwan's frontline medical workers, it reported.

The video of the New Year's celebration at 'Taipei 101' tower has also been uploaded by several media houses on YouTube.

Meanwhile, the Tokyo Olympics 2020 is taking place at the newly built National Stadium in Tokyo and it doesn't resemble the Taipei 101 tower.

We looked for the photos of the 2020 Olympics opening day photos.

The caption of the photo on Getty Images read, "Fireworks light up the sky over the Olympic Stadium during the opening ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, in Tokyo, on July 23, 2021."

Earlier, too, in 2020, The Quint's WebQoof team has debunked misinformation of a simulated video from 2015 that was circulated as ‘Tokyo Olympics Fireworks Show’.

Clearly, a video of firework celebrations in Taiwan is being falsely shared as that of the inaugural ceremony of Olympics 2020 that is underway in Tokyo, Japan.

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