A video of a colourful fireworks display has been shared on social media as Holi celebrations. Some users went on to claim that the celebrations took place at the Atal Tunnel in Himachal Pradesh.
However, the video dates back to October 2018 and shows a daylight fireworks display for a ‘creativity event’, Tanween at the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (KACWC), also known as Ithra, in Saudi Arabia’s Dhahran city.
CLAIM
The video was shared by Vishva Hindu Parishad’s Spokesperson Vinod Bansal as a video of Holi celebrations, garnering over 32,400 views at the time of writing this article.
Facebook user Yashpal Singh Advocate also shared the video for Holi, garnering over 45,000 views at the time of writing this article.
A few users claimed that the video is of the newly constructed Atal Tunnel in Himachal Pradesh.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We cropped the building out of the viral video and ran a reverse image search, which led us to a website for a building contracting and trading company, SINAR, based out of Lebanon.
The website states that the building is an art centre, KACWC in Saudi Arabia’s Dhahran. It was built in October 2016 as a project by Saudi Arabian oil company, Aramco.
KACWC is also known as Ithra and holds a library, theatre, cinema hall and museums, according to its official website.
We then conducted a reverse image search of one of the keyframes of the viral video along with the keyword, ‘Ithra’, and found the same video on YouTube, dated 20 October 2018.
Further, we found a video on Ithra’s official YouTube channel, carrying visuals of the fireworks at Tanween 2018, an annual ‘creativity festival’ with workshops and expert-talks, held at the Centre.
A full video of the fireworks display can also be seen on its official Facebook page.
Further, we compared the structure of the building in the viral video with a photo of Ithra in Google Maps, and found that the two match.
Evidently, a video of an event in Saudi Arabia has been falsely shared as Holi celebrations in India.
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