An image of a people commandeering a police van is from a Netflix movie, not protests in France #image #people #commandeering #police #van #Netflix #movie #protests #France

CLAIM: An image shows protesters in France leaning out of a police van as it speeds down a road during recent unrest in the country.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The image is a screenshot of a French movie called “Athena” which premiered at the Venice Film Festival and was released on Netflix in 2022.

THE FACTS: Amid protests in France in the wake of a fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old, some social media users are misrepresenting images and footage of other events, falsely claiming they show the unrest.

CLAIM: A video shows protesters in France storming and looting a Louis Vuitton store in 2023.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False.

A voter drops off a ballot in a drop box in Portland, Ore., on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022. Registered voters in Oregon receive their ballots by mail and have until Election Day to drop them in a ballot box or mail them back. Oregon has conducted its elections by mail for more than 20 years, but registered voters can also vote in person at their county elections office on Election Day. (AP Photo/Claire Rush)

CLAIM: Oregon has more registered voters than state residents.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The population of Oregon is more than 4 million, according to the most recent U.S.

FILE - An election worker verifies a ballot on a screen inside the Maricopa County Recorders Office, Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022, in Phoenix. On Friday, Dec. 2, The Associated Press reported on stories circulating online incorrectly claiming Arizona’s Maricopa County announced that more than 540,000 voters visited voting centers on Election Day and that only 248,000 Election Day ballots were counted. Therefore, the county “lost” some 292,000 votes. (AP Photo/Matt York, File)

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False.

FILE - President Joe Biden speaks with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and American and Indian business leaders in the East Room of the White House, Friday, June 23, 2023, in Washington. On Friday, June 30, The Associated Press reported on a video clip being shared online that shows Biden talking about selling “state secrets” but omits when he made clear that he was joking. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Social media users shared a range of false claims this week. Here are the facts: A clip of President Joe Biden purportedly admitting to selling “state secrets” was edited to omit when he said he was joking.

While it’s true that the protests have grown violent, an image appearing to show people leaning out of a speeding police van is pure fiction.

The image shows three people in the open doorway of the van, with another leaning out of the window holding a firearm, and someone sitting on top of the vehicle, flying the French flag. Alongside the van, someone is performing a wheelie on a blue motorbike.

Social media users in recent days have shared the photo on Facebook and Twitter, falsely suggesting it’s from the recent protests, with one tweet racking up more than 25,000 likes on Monday.

But the image is a screenshot from the French film “Athena,” which began streaming on Netflix in September 2022. The scene is from the opening sequence from the film and can also be seen in the trailer for the movie.

The film, directed by Romain Gavras, does share similar themes with the current protests, chronicling a siege in a fictitious housing project in a Paris suburb following the killing of a young boy.

The real protests in France, which appeared to begin easing Sunday night, were driven by teenage backlash in the suburbs and urban housing projects, according to reporting from The Associated Press.

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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

#image #people #commandeering #police #van #Netflix #movie #protests #France

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