What was claimed
A video shows a ‘pro-Palestine’ march in Chicago in response to events in Israel and the Gaza Strip in October 2023.
Our verdict
The video predates recent events and seems to show a rally that took place in May 2021 in Chicago.
Video of ‘pro-Palestine’ march in Chicago is from 2021
10 October 2023
A video circulating on social media shows a ‘pro-Palestine’ march that appears to be a response to recent events. However, the video predates last weekend and seems to come from a march in 2021.
The video shows thousands of people marching through the streets of Chicago with a Palestinian flag visible in the crowd. It has been shared many times on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok in the last 24 hours, following the outbreak of conflict in Israel and the Gaza Strip over the weekend.
Many posts have the caption: “Pro Palestine March in Chicago now…. THIS IS GETTING REAL FOLKS… Stay awake!!…. [sic]”, and one post says: “Palestinian Americans gathered Sunday at the Israeli consulate for a rally and march”.
Other posts do not specify the date of the march and so the video may give the impression that it relates to recent events. For example, one post, which has more than 1,700 views on Facebook, says: “Thousands of people are out on the street in Chicago, United States to support Palestine and Palestinian” [sic].
However, the video does not show a recent protest and was posted online with the caption: “#Chicago for #Gaza and #Palestine” on 17 May 2021. Large crowds reportedly gathered in Chicago on a number of occasions in May 2021 to support Palestians amid what was reported to be the worst fighting in the region since 2014.
Misinformation like this can spread quickly online during large-scale news events. Full Fact has written about a number of other online claims about recent events in Israel and the Gaza Strip. This includes a video filmed in 2020 in Syria supposedly showing a recent rocket attack on an airport in Israel, footage of helicopters which is actually from a video game, and posts wrongly claiming the Brighton manager Roberto De Zerbi had expressed support for “the Palestinian cause” on Instagram.
We’ve also written about misleading videos and images relating to other global events, such as the floods in Libya, earthquake in Morocco and wildfires in Maui.
It's important to consider whether a post shows what it claims before sharing it online. We have tips on how to do this in our How to spot misleading images online and How to fact check misleading videos guides.
Image courtesy of Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz
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 missing context because the video predates recent events and seems to show a rally from 2021.