A video has been viewed thousands of times on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube in March 2020 alongside a claim that it shows police in Spain detaining people during a lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Below is a screenshot of the misleading Facebook post:, The post’s Hindi caption translates to English as: “If you think that COVID-19 lockdown in India is very stringent then see the situation of lockdown in Spain.”, On March 24, 2020, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day lockdown to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19., The Spanish government imposed a near-total lockdown for the country in mid-March., The video was also shared here and here on Facebook and here and here on Twitter, with a similar claim., The video was also shared here and here on YouTube and here and here on Instagram, alongside a\xa0claim\xa0it shows police in the US., The\xa0claims\xa0are\xa0false; the video has circulated in reports about\xa0an anti-government protest in the\xa0Azerbaijani capital of Baku., A keyword search found the original video published here\xa0on October 21, 2019 on the YouTube channel of a Berlin-based Azerbaijani news network Meydan TV., The video’s Azerbaijani-language title translates to English as: “Images of police violence and insults to protesters”., "The videos caption\xa0translates to English as: “Authorities and YAP officials claim that police did not use violence during the October 19 rally. We have collected images of violence for you during the action. Follow, decide for yourself. Share it so that it reaches the official bodies, maybe they took measures.”", YAP is the name of the ruling political party in Azerbaijan., Below is a screenshot comparison of keyframes extracted from the video in the misleading posts (L) and the Maydan TV video (R):, Protesters in Azerbaijan were detained\xa0after several demonstrations in late 2019. The rallies were staged over issues including pay and political freedoms. US-based campaign group\xa0Human Rights Watch subsequently issued this statement condemning instances of police violence at the protests., , , Copyright © AFP 2017-2020.  All rights reserved.  Users can access and consult this website and use the share features available for personal, private, and non-commercial purposes.  Any other use, in particular any reproduction, communication to the public or distribution of the content of this website, in whole or in part, for any other purpose and/or by any other means, without a specific licence agreement signed with AFP, is strictly prohibited.  The subject matter depicted or included via links within the Fact Checking content is provided to the extent necessary for correct understanding of the verification of the information concerned.  AFP has not obtained any rights from the authors or copyright owners of this third party content and shall incur no liability in this regard.  AFP and its logo are registered trademarks.
This video has circulated in reports about an anti-government protest in Azerbaijan in 2019 | AFP Fact Check