On November 20, 2020, a video appeared on the Georgian TikTok and Facebook, claiming that Italians had stormed a mall and, in this way, protested the demand for green passports.
One of the sources of the video is a Georgian user, who published the video with hashtags #nocovidfascism #nogreenpassports #nocovidpassports #nodiscriminationagainstnon-vaccinated #nocovidterror #nogreenpass.
A video posted on TikTok claims that the Italians protested against the green passports and stormed the mall.
The green passports came into force in Georgia from December 1, 2020. Fully vaccinated individuals, individuals recovered from COVID-19 and those with negative rapid and PCR test certificate conducted within the last 24 and 72 hours respectively can comply with the “green status”. Without this status Georgian citizen cannot enter hotels, food facilities, cinemas, theatres, concert halls, entertainment centres, spa, and centres, etc. This policy was followed by protest in individuals with anti-vax sentiments, as well as disinformation on social media platforms.
According to the author of the video, the video was shot in October 2021 and depicts the protest of the population against green passports. The video shows footage of several hundred people entering an unknown facility. The author of the video does not specify in which city the footage was taken.
In the comments of TikTok, one of the users questioned the authenticity of the video and paid attention to the clothes of the people participating in the video. According to his comment, people in Italy would not wear summer clothes in November. The author of the fake video replied that green passports were introduced in Italy in October, at a time when it was hot.
In the comments, the author of the video claims that green passports were approved in Italy in October when it was hot in Italy. With this, the author tries to explain the inconsistency of the season and the clothes of the people participating in the video.
Using search terms we also found a suspicious account on Twitter that shared the same video with an identical description. The video was posted on November 5 and has 434 retweets and 816 likes as of December 1.
We analyzed the Twitter video in In VID. Reverse Image Search of the keyframes revealed that the video was shot in Italy, Rome, in 2011, long before the Coronavirus pandemic began. This video is searched on the YouTube channel of the online football editorial In de Hekken. The video actually shows football club Napoli supporters coming to the Olimpico Stadium to watch a football match.
The video is searched on YouTube from 2011 and shows Napoli supporters.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the video circulating on TikTok is false. The author tried to discredit the policy of green passports in Georgia by demonstrating that the same policy was met by mass protest and storming of the building in European country as well. In fact, the video appears to be much older than COVID-19 and depicts football fans.
RESEARCH | ARTICLE © Goga Nizharadze
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