Authors
Vasudha noticed the growing problem of mis/disinformation online after studying New Media at ACJ in Chennai and became interested in separating facts from fiction. She is interested in learning how global issues affect individuals on a micro level. Before joining Newschecker’s English team, she was working with Latestly.
Claim
Dutch farmers are spraying government buildings and riot police with manure in response to the Netherlands government’s decision to seize privately owned farm land.
Fact
The video dates back to 2015, and shows protests by farmers in Belgium’s Brussels. Geo-location tools confirmed that the video was shot in Brussels.
A video of a machine disengaging what appears to be a mixture of hay and straw in the air, and people setting fodder on fire is going viral on social media platforms. Those who shared the video claimed that it shows Dutch farmers “spraying government buildings and riot police with manure” is going viral on social media platforms. They further alleged that the protest was in response to the Netherlands government’s decision to “seize privately owned farm land.” Newschecker found the claim to be untrue. Neither the video is recent, nor does it show Dutch farmers protesting against the Netherlands government.
The video purportedly showing protest by Dutch farmers is doing the rounds on Twitter and Facebook.
Such posts can be seen here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
Fact Check/Verification
On scanning through the comment sections of posts carrying the viral footage, we noticed several users pointing out that the protesters were spraying “hay ” or “straw,” and not manure.
Further, we spotted a board featuring the symbol of the European Union- golden stars on blue background- on one of the buildings. We looked up the same building on Google lens, and found it to be related to the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium.
Following this, we looked up “European Commission in Brussels” on Google Earth View, and could ascertain the exact location where the video was shot.
Hence the viral footage is actually from Brussels, and not Netherlands as widely claimed.
We continued our investigation to know more about the clip and looked up “protest,” “spray hay,” “Brussels,” & “EU building” on Google which led us to a report by Daily Mail, dated September 7, 2015. It featured images of a similar standoff between the authorities and the protesters, and stated, “The astonishing scenes in the Belgian capital Brussels this morning saw thousands of dairy farmers set light to haystacks, sprayed police with hay machines and threw eggs during angry protests. Thousands of farmers, driving hundreds of tractors through the city center, protested outside European Union headquarters to demand more aid and higher prices for their milk and meat.”
Further, a keyword search for “Farmers protest,” “Brussel,” “Hay,” on YouTube led us to a video by Associated Press, dated September 7, 2015. The description of the video read, “Protesting farmers on Monday used a tractor to spray straw at police during confrontations at a demonstration in Brussels to demand EU action to counter slumping prices.”
On comparing the keyframes of the viral footage with those of YouTube video, we could conclude that they both show the same incident.
Multiple news outlets had reported about the farmers’ protest against falling dairy and meat prices in Brussels in 2015. Such reports can be seen here, here, here and here.
Conclusion
We could thus conclude that an old video from Brussels is falsely shared to show the Dutch farmers spraying government buildings with manure to protest against their decision.
Result: False
Sources
Google Earth View
Report By Daily Mail, Dated September 7, 2015
YouTube Video By Associated Press, Dated September 7, 2015
Self Analysis
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Authors
Vasudha noticed the growing problem of mis/disinformation online after studying New Media at ACJ in Chennai and became interested in separating facts from fiction. She is interested in learning how global issues affect individuals on a micro level. Before joining Newschecker’s English team, she was working with Latestly.
