What was claimed
A screenshot from a video shows Hindus and Sikhs protesting illegal immigration in London.
Our verdict
The video actually shows a Hindu festival, the festival of chariots, and appears to have been filmed in East Ham in London on 4 August.
A screenshot of a TikTok video is being shared widely on social media with false claims that it shows Hindus and Sikhs protesting against illegal immigration in London.
One version of the post from 4 August, which has been liked 1,800 times on Facebook, has the caption: “Beautiful people…. Our Hindu & Sikh friends out on peaceful protest…. London right now.”
The screenshot shows a crowd that appears to be mostly Asian people, with text overlaid which says: “The Hindus and Sikhs, out en masse to protest illegal immigration in London right now. It’s a beautiful sight to behold #MEGA.”
But both captions are misleading. The event pictured has nothing to do with protests and riots which have been taking place across England and Northern Ireland since 29 July, following an attack which killed three girls in Southport. It actually shows a recent Hindu religious festival procession through London.
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It’s correct that the gathering pictured most likely happened on Sunday 4 August.
But it is unconnected to either anti-immigration demonstrations or counter protests.
The TikTok video which the screenshot appears to have been taken from, and the associated TikTok account, appear to have been deleted.
But Full Fact has confirmed it actually shows a moment during an annual Hindu festival, the Rathayatra, a chariot festival procession. This specific procession took place in Ilford and East Ham in north-east London and started at London Sri Murugan Temple.
We have matched the location in the screenshot to a point on High Street North in East Ham, which can be seen here on Google Street View.
Although the procession takes place annually, the footage appears to originate from the most recent event on Sunday 4 August. Other videos of the procession on YouTube from 4 August also show the same point on the street with the chariot procession going past.
The chariot in these videos, with orange, red, white and purple garlands and greenery at the corners, can also be seen in the corner of the screenshot being shared online.
We have checked through full videos of the procession and event, and haven't found any evidence of any demonstration or political protest taking place.
Full Fact has seen many examples of misinformation circulating on social media since the stabbing attack in Southport and during the subsequent days of disorder.
It’s especially important during unfolding news events to verify information, including images and videos, shared on social media with official and reliable sources. We have written a number of relevant guides, including help on how to spot misleading images and videos, and created a toolkit to help identify misinformation.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because the screenshot is from a video of a Hindu festival in east London, not of a march protesting illegal immigration.
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