Fact Check: Viral video showing crowd bathing in swimming pool is from Sri Lanka, not Bangladesh
Protesters entered the PM’s residence following reports of Sheikh Hasina's resignation.
By Sibahathulla Sakib Published on 5 Aug 2024 1:59 PM GMT
Claim: Viral video shows protestors in Bangladesh bathing in the swimming pool in PM’s official residence.
Fact: The claim is false. The video is from Sri Lanka, showing protesters occupying president Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s residence in 2022.
Hyderabad: Amid reports of Sheikh Hasina resigning as the Bangladesh prime minister and protesters entering the Gono Bhaban (PM’s official residence) on Monday, a video has gone viral claiming to show people of Bangladesh bathing in a swimming pool inside the PM’s house.
An X user shared the video with the caption: “People of Bangladesh bathing in Sheikh Hasina Wajid's swimming pool #Bangladesh #BangladeshProtests”
A similar post can be seen here.
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The video is from Sri Lanka.
Upon analysing the video, we saw the watermark of BBC on the top left corner along with a news scrolling at the bottom. The text stated “Sri Lanka crisis - Protesters storm President Rajapaksa’s residence.”
A reverse image search led to a BBC report titled ‘Sri Lanka crisis: Protesters swim in president’s pool’ published on July 9, 2022.
The report contained the same viral video (the same man can be seen diving into the pool at 00:16 seconds in the BBC video and at 00:23 seconds in the viral video).
The text below the video report stated: “Thousands of protesters in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo have taken over the president’s residence. This footage shows demonstrators taking a swim in President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s pool. Demonstrators have been demanding his resignation after months of protests over Sri Lanka’s economic crisis.”
Further keyword searches led us to the same video reported by major news outlets like News18 and India Today on July 9, 2022.
Hence the claim that the video shows people in Bangladesh bathing in a swimming pool in Sheikh Hasina’s residence is false. The video is from Sri Lanka, depicting protesters swimming in president Rajapaksa’s pool in 2022.
