A post is being shared on social media claiming that Arab nations are boycotting products of France and throwing them into the desert. In the post, a video of people throwing a bunch of boxes in the desert can be seen. In October 2020, France President Emmanuel Macron took a stance against radical Islam and made a statement that they are not going to give up their cartoons on Prophet Muhammed. Following these statements from the French President, massive protests took place in many Muslim-Majority countries against France and their President Macron. Let’s verify the claims made in these posts.
Claim: Video of Arab nations throwing France products in the desert.
Fact: The video shared in the post is an old one. The people in the video are burying spoiled chicken cartons in the Municipality cemetery, not the French products. In 2016, Al-Qassim Municipal Corporation destroyed 800 thousand spoiled chicken cartons by burying them in the Municipality cemetery. The video has nothing to do with the recent protests of people in the Muslim nations against France. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On reverse image search of the screenshots in the video, similar visuals were found in a YouTube video posted by an Arabic news channel on 18 November 2016. In the video, it is mentioned that the Al-Qassim Municipal Corporation buried 800 thousand spoiled chicken cartons in the desert.
On searching for more sources using the keywords, we found an article published by an Arabic news website about this incident. In the article, it is mentioned that the Municipality of AL-Qassim province destroyed the contents of 25 seized trucks loaded with rotten chicken cartons by burying them in the Municipality’s cemetery. It is mentioned in the article that the 25 trucks were carrying 800 thousand cartons of rotten chicken which were not suitable for human consumption. Reporting the same, the ‘Alriyadh’ news website published an article on ‘20 November 2016’. From these pieces of evidence, it can be concluded that the video shared in the post is an old one and not related to the recent protests of Muslim nations against France.
To sum it up, 2016 video falsely shared as the recent video of Arab nations destroying France products in the desert.
