Supporters of ex-Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte held protests in the Netherlands after he was handed over to the International Criminal Court to face a crimes against humanity charge in March. But a video viewed millions of times in posts claiming it shows one such rally was actually taken at US Senator Bernie Sanders’ “Fighting Oligarchy” tour in Colorado.
The TikTok video of a protest in front of a white building was viewed 1.4 million times after it was shared on March 25.
A man’s voice can be heard saying in English: “In the hundreds of rallies that I have done, we have never ever had a rally as large as this!”
“Only Father Digong is capable of doing this, even in the Netherlands,” says sticker text on the video, referring to the ex-leader using his nickname.
The video surfaced elsewhere on Facebook and TikTok with a similar claim as hundreds of Duterte’s supporters held protests in parts of Europe to call for his release after he was handed over to the International Criminal Court for his brutal war on drugs (archived link).
Duterte stands accused of the crime against humanity of murder over his years-long campaign against drug users and dealers that rights groups said killed thousands (archived link).
But the clip in fact shows a rally by US Senator Bernie Sanders in the western state of Colorado.
Reverse image searches using one of the video’s keyframes found it was shared on March 21 on Facebook by a user based in Denver, Colorado, who credits the quote about the size of the rally to Sanders (archived link).
Read the full story on AFP Fact Check.