A Fabricated Screenshot Attributed to TV5
The Claim
Tunisian demonstrators were 1.8 million in the last protests in support of Tunisian President Kais Said.
News posted on
Emerging story
Users on social media claimed that the French TV5 Channel estimated the number of those demonstrating in support of the Tunisian President Kais Said at one million and 800 000 citizens.
Some accounts have also attached a picture they claimed to be from the TV5 French channel, showing streets crowded with people to emphasize the enormous number of demonstrators.
Misbar’s Analysis
The circulating screenshot is fabricated. TV5 Channel did not estimate 1.8 million Tunisian citizens were demonstrating.
Photo description: A screenshot from the TV5 Channel’s website estimating there were 5000 citizens in the demonstration.
Misbar's team also found out that the picture used in the fake news is old since we noticed the same picture posted on the 22ndh of July on some Facebook accounts. Furthermore, the French TV5 Channel will not miss putting an acute accent on the letter "e" in “démonstration.” It will not add an "s" to "million" as written on the fabricated screenshot, which makes us dealing, in this case, with a fabricated story in addition to a picture attributed to a wrong time and context.
Photo description: The same photo of the crowded street used in the fabricated screenshot was posted on July 22, 2021.
Thousands of citizens took part in a demonstration defending and celebrating the Tunisian President's decision of suspending the parliament and dismissing the prime minister two months ago after national protests against the government failing in the Coronavirus crisis.
