Violence erupted across Manipur due to conflicts between the majority Meitei community and the Naga and Kuki tribes over the move to give Scheduled Tribe status to the Meitei. The violence has sparked a flurry of misinformation across social media. Within this surge of information across social media, a viral video of people crowding inside a clothing store and looting wares has been shared with claims that it shows looting in Manipur.
In March 2023, the Manipur High Court asked the state government to start working to include the Meitei community in the ST list. This decision faced harsh opposition from the Naga and Kuki tribal groups. The All Tribal Students Union of Manipur called a protest on May 2, which led to the ongoing violence.
Claim:
The video shows a crowd of people pushing open a closed shutter of a clothes shop. Some people stand on clothes racks to grab articles of clothing hanging from the ceiling. The Twitter image is captioned, “BJP is a failed govt in Manipur, its responsibility of govt to save property & lives of people? Shame on BJP.”
Fact Check:
We use InVid’s Keyframe Analysis tool to isolate the keyframes and conducted a reverse image search on the keyframes. This led us to a video posted by Vice News Japan on April 4, 2023.
The caption in Japanese read, “At the end of February, as soon as “#UkaiUkai” in Lucena City, #Philippines opened, customers flocked to the store like an avalanche. When announcing new arrivals, a large number of customers sometimes gather, but enthusiastic shoppers surprised Bundiaran, the owner of the store, he said. means “to dig” or “to look”. The name comes from the fact that you can search through the piles of clothes and miscellaneous goods on sale for things that you like and that fit your budget. This time shoppers were more excited than usual. Some climbed onto clothes racks and jumped to grab items hanging from the ceiling. To enter the store, some people prepare mats in front of the store and wait while sleeping.” One-fifth of the Philippines’ population of 113 million lives in poverty.”
Taking a cue from this, we conducted a keyword search and found a video uploaded by Vice News titled, ‘Watch Chaotic Scenes Unfold as a Clothes Store Opens in the Philippines’. The video was uploaded on March 3, 2023, and the description reads, “It was pandemonium when an “ukay-ukay” thrift store in Lucena City, Philippines, opened its doors on February 24. The owner, Mildred Garcia Bundialan, said she was used to customers’ excitement whenever she’d announce new arrivals, but even she was surprised at the frenzied shopping spree.”
We found the same video shared by Yahoo News in a report on March 1, 2023. As per this report, the video showed an incident in a secondhand goods store in Lucena City in the Philippines. Reportedly, a crowd rushed into a shop during a special sale on February 24.
We also checked for local news reports on the incident and came across a video uploaded on Facebook by DZRH News Television on March 3.
We also came across a YouTube video by News5Everywhere, uploaded on February 27, which reported on the incident.
Some of these organisations gave credits to a Facebook account Mildred Ukay Suki. On February 24, this account posted a viral video.
The location of the video in Mildred’s post was Lucena City. According to the information in her Facebook bio, Mildred owns a business called Ukay Suki. She repeatedly shares similar recordings of agitated customers at the same store.
Conclusion:
We found that the video in question is old and likely from the Philippines. The incident took place in Lucena City in the Philippines and not in Manipur. Thus, the viral video is circulated with false claims.
If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.
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Fact Check
2023-05-07 09:36:38.0
Does This Video Show Looting In Manipur Stores Following Violence? No, Viral Video Is From Philippines
