Viral Video of Spinning Motorcycles is From Indonesia, Not India
A video (here, here & here) of two motorcycles spinning together in the middle of a road is being widely shared on social media with the claim that this strange incident occurred in Jaipur’s Mansarovar area following an accident. Let’s verify this claim made in the post.
Claim: Visuals of two motorcycles spinning together in the middle of a road in Jaipur, India.
Fact: The incident occurred in the city of Pekanbaru, Indonesia. It is unrelated to India. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Our initial search using relevant keywords found that several Indian media outlets (here, here, here & here) had indeed reported the incident as having taken place in Jaipur.
However, a closer look at the viral video revealed a motorcycle with the licence plate ‘BM 3675 FC’. No Indian state or union territory uses the code ‘BM’. Our research (here & here) indicates that ‘BM’ is a vehicle registration code for the Riau province of Indonesia.
Using this clue, we searched for reports in Bahasa Indonesia and found local media reports (here, here, here & here) stating the incident occurred at Jalan Arifin Ahmad in the city of Pekanbaru.
We then located the exact spot at 124 Jalan Arifin Ahmad using Google Maps. A comparison of the viral video with Google Street View footage confirms the location is in Pekanbaru, Indonesia, not Jaipur, India.
To sum it up, the viral video of the spinning motorcycles is from Indonesia, not India.