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We often see false claims surface in the wake of major news events, well-intentioned or not.
With the situation in France, multiple posts have spread across social media, creating uncertainty about what has been happening.
We know that people use videos and posts they see online to understand what is happening in real time, help identify those affected, or make an informed judgement about world events—it’s important that good, reliable information cuts through the confusion.
You can help by sharing our toolkit on how to spot and challenge bad information online.
We all have a part to play when it comes to the information we see and share online.
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FRANCE FACT CHECKS
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Multiple posts on social media have incorrectly claimed that the Foreign Office advised people not to travel to France. But this is not true. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has advised people to avoid areas where riots are taking place, monitor local media and follow the advice of local authorities and travel operators. It has not advised against travel to France.
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Videos claim to show that rioters in France released animals including zebras and lions from Paris Zoo, but there is no evidence to support these claims. At least two of the clips being shared online are old, and there is no information from credible sources to suggest that animals have been released from the zoo.
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A post on Facebook features a photo of people, many of them with their face covered, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower next to a burning pile of rubbish. The post falsely claims that this is from a riot taking place near Paris’ Eiffel Tower in recent days. But the photo was actually taken in 2016.
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A post on Twitter with over 3,000 shares claims to show a high rise building on fire, apparently in France. The same video has also been shared a number of times on Facebook, often alongside claims that social media and other forms of reporting are being censored by authorities. Despite the French flags overlaid on the video, it actually depicts a fire at a residential building in Ajman in the United Arab Emirates that happened on 27 June.
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A tweet shared more than 6,500 times claims that an 80-year-old French priest was “stripped, beaten and left fighting for his life after an attempted lynching by Islamic race rioters in Saint-Étienne”. This is false. The Diocese of the French city of Saint-Étienne has said that although a priest, Father Francis Palle, was attacked and robbed on 29 June, it did not appear to be because he was a priest or related to recent protests and rioting in France.
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Posts have spread online showing a fake screenshot of a ‘Guardian’ opinion piece supposedly by lawyer Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu. They suggest she supports looting in France because it is “reparations” for slavery. This is not a real article published by the Guardian. Dr Mos-Shogbamimu has confirmed that she has not written any such opinion piece.
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An image widely-shared on Facebook contrasts what it claims is a photo of a pro-refugee banner at a protest in France in 2016 with a picture of recent riots in the country. The picture of the pro-refugee banner was actually taken in Brussels, Belgium, in 2015. The second picture is from the recent riots in France.
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A photo shared on Facebook shows a riot taking place recently near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. The photo instead comes from a “gilets jaunes” (yellow vest) protest that took place in 2019.
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A video claims to show the burning of the Alcazar library in Marseille during the recent riots in France. The video actually shows a fire that severely damaged the Manila Central Post Office in the Philippines in May.
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FACT CHECK
A Facebook post about alternative medicine falsely claims that eating a grapefruit a day will lower your blood pressure so effectively that you won’t need medication.
Any effect of grapefruit on blood pressure is subtle at best. It generally isn’t able to reduce blood pressure to the same level as most prescribed blood pressure drugs.
False information about health and medications can cause harm, especially if people use it to make decisions about their treatment. We have written many times regarding false claims about alternative treatments for disease and about conventional medications.
A systematic review and meta analysis from 2015 did find that overweight and obese patients had some reduction in their systolic blood pressure from eating grapefruits, but noted serious limitations in the three studies included. In any case, the reduction in blood pressure found was small, at 2.43 mmHg (millimetres of mercury, the unit used to measure blood pressure).
For context, most prescribed blood pressure medications lower it by about 10 mmHg.
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MORE FACT CHECKS
Also this week...
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Stop the spread of bad information
Find these updates useful? We'd be incredibly grateful if you could share our fact checks and help more people access good information.
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All the best,
Team Full Fact
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