Claim
A massive crowd of fans, decked up in red, gathered on a street to celebrate RCB’s maiden IPL title on June 3, 2025, releasing balloons into the sky.
The archived version of the post can be seen here.
Fact
Newschecker ran a reverse image search of keyframes, which led us to a longer, uncropped and clearer version of the same video on Facebook, uploaded by China Marketing on January 1, 2025, stating, “Happy New Year From China”.
We can also see a digital billboard displaying the year, and Chinese text reading, “new year”, as per Google Translate, indicating that the video shows new year celebrations.
Another Youtube post sharing the same video can be seen here, dated January 1, 2025, further confirming that it predated RCB’s title triumph on June 3, 2025. “Thousands gather in Nanchang city centre releasing balloons to celebrate the New Year,” read the description. An Instagram post by shanghai.explore, dated January 2, 2025, too, shared the video, identifying the location as Nanchang, China. We also came across this similar video on Chinese social media platform Douyin, dated December 31, 2024, stating that the celebrations are from Zhongshan Road, Nanchang.
Taking a cue, a relevant keyword search led us to these locations on Zhongshan Road, Nanchang, on Google and China’s Baidu Maps, further confirming that the viral video is being shared with a false claim.
A comparison of the Rainbow Department Store on Zhongshan Road, as per Google, to the viral video (right).
A comparison of the CRD Department Store on Zhongshan Road, as per Baidu Maps, to the viral video (right).
Sources
Facebook post, China Marketing, January 1, 2025
Douyin post, December 31, 2024
Google Maps
Baidu Maps
