FALSE: This image is not of protesters in France aboard a police vehicle

The image is of a scene from Athena, a 2022 film.

Writer: PesaCheck

This image on Twitter, purportedly of demonstrators in France aboard a police vehicle, is FALSE.

The image is of individuals clinging to the door of a moving police van, with one person seated on the roof holding a French flag. A motorcycle follows closely behind the van, performing a stunt.

The photo accompanies the text, “France welcomed ‘peaceful’ Middle East immigrants into their country. Now, that 9% of the population is wrecking (sic) havoc on their cities, even after their Defense Minister deployed 45,000 police in a loose attempt to restore order”.

The post was shared on 1 July 2023, following a series of protests in France triggered by the fatal shooting of a teenager by a policeman in Nanterre.

PesaCheck performed a Google reverse image search to establish the authenticity of the image. The results led to a link on the Netflix website, listing a movie called Athena. The movie is about the aftermath of a tragic incident involving the killing of a young boy.

A trailer for the movie, posted on YouTube in 2022, features a chaotic scene that includes the image we are fact-checking. The image and the trailer share significant similarities, such as the presence of a motorcycle rider, individuals hanging onto the van’s door, and the flag on the roof.

PesaCheck has examined an image on Twitter purportedly of protesters in France aboard a police vehicle and found it to be FALSE.

This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.