An unrelated video from a protest in Indonesia is falsely shared as the September 2025 Nepal protest
On 04 September 2025, the Nepal government banned 26 major social media platforms, sparking nationwide youth-led protests that turned violent from 08 September 2025 onwards, leaving at least 19 people dead and hundreds injured as demonstrators clashed with security forces and targeted government properties, including the residence of the President. Despite lifting the ban on 09 September 2025, anger persisted, with protesters demanding Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli’s resignation over corruption and inequality. Oli stepped down the same day along with several ministers. At the same time, the army was deployed to restore order as Nepal grappled with its biggest political and social crisis in recent years, fuelled by high youth unemployment, corruption, and resentment against entrenched elites.
Amidst this, a video is circulating on social media (here, here, and here) claiming to show a protest against the government in Nepal. In the video, a violent mob is seen attempting to break the main gate of a government building, while police try to control them using water cannons and tear gas. Let’s verify the claim made in the post in this article.
Claim: The video shows a September 2025 protest in Nepal where a mob tries to break a government building’s gate as police use water cannons and tear gas.
Fact: The viral video is not from Nepal. It shows a violent protest on 13 August 2025 in Pati district, Central Java, Indonesia, against Bupati Sudhevo’s tax hike, where demonstrators attacked the Regional Secretariat of Pati Regency and clashed with police. The tax hike was later cancelled, but calls for Sudhevo’s resignation continued. Hence, the claim made in the post is Misleading.
A reverse image search of keyframes from the viral video led to several social media posts from August 2025 showing the same visuals from different angles (here, here, and here). These posts claimed that the visuals show protests on 13 August 2025 in Pati district of Central Java, Indonesia, after Bupati (district chief) Sudhevo increased land and building tax.
We then conducted a Google keyword search using relevant keywords, which led to several media reports (here, here, and here) about the protest. According to these reports, on 13 August 2025, thousands of residents staged a massive demonstration against Sudhevo’s decision to raise land and building taxes by 250%. The protest turned violent, with clashes between protesters and police. Demonstrators tried to storm the Regent’s Office, hurled water bottles and broken tiles, and even set a police vehicle on fire. Police responded with water cannons and tear gas. Although Sudhevo later cancelled the tax hike, protesters continued demanding his resignation. Notably, the protests in Nepal began on 08 September, making it clear that the viral video is not from Nepal but from Indonesia.
We also traced the location of the viral video on Google Maps and identified it as the Regional Secretariat of Pati Regency, Pati, Central Java, Indonesia. A comparison is shown below.
To sum up, an unrelated video from a protest in Indonesia is falsely shared as the September 2025 Nepal protest.