By: Annet Preethi Furtado
May 9 2023
A video of 2015 French news report about a child sex abuse investigation in the U.K. has been misattributed to the current day
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Fact-Check
The Verdict Misleading
A clip from a 2015 French news broadcast that covered a child sex abuse investigation in the U.K. has been shared as a recent breaking news segment.
Claim ID e314f6bc
Context
In late April 2023, a Facebook user shared a video clip, announced as "BREAKING NEWS on French TV," reporting on a scandal in the U.K. involving a pedophile ring comprising 76 politicians, 43 artists, and 35 journalists, with 100,000 children being implicated. The video starts with footage of two French journalists and then proceeds to show clips of several suspects. Screenshots of the video were also shared on Instagram, accompanied by various hashtags calling for the protection of children and captions such as "It's happening! Nowhere to run, Nowhere to hide." On Twitter, the video received over 113,600 views.
However, the footage of a French news channel discussing a British child sex abuse inquiry is not from 2023 but from 2015.
In Fact
Upon conducting a reverse image search of the video keyframes, we found that the video was initially uploaded to French news outlet CNEWS's verified YouTube account on May 21, 2015. The video's caption is written in French and roughly translates to "Over 1,400 suspects in U.K. pedophilia case."
The video description states that the investigators identified 1,433 suspects involved in a pedophilia case that allegedly included multiple British personalities and politicians. It was claimed that thousands of children could have been victimized, and the crimes were said to have occurred between 1970 and 1990.
This footage of French journalists discussing the investigation was widely shared on social media in 2023, with captions and hashtags suggesting it was breaking news and a current event.
Reports from 2015 revealed that the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) established Operation Hydrant, a coordination hub investigating allegations of non-recent child sexual abuse in institutions or by public figures. The investigation aimed to probe the connections between child sexual abuse and "prominent public persons" and scrutinized 1,400 individuals, including politicians. This investigation garnered significant media attention as it delved into the issue of child sexual abuse in the U.K.
The Verdict
The video of a French news channel discussing a British child sex abuse inquiry is from 2015 and not 2023. However, this video has been extensively disseminated as depicting current events. Therefore, we have marked this claim as misleading.