Posts resurface old video of violent demonstrations to fan anti-immigrant sentiment
South Korea acceptance of more immigrants In recent years, the drive to address its rapidly shrinking workforce has also fueled anti-foreigner sentiment in the country, but images circulating on social media purportedly showing a recent immigrant “riot” in Paris are several years old. Paris police told AFP that no such demonstrations had taken place in the French capital in recent months. These are in fact extracts filmed in December 2022, during furious demonstrations triggered by the fatal shooting of three Kurds in the French capital.
“Today, 31 French police officers were injured during the Kurdish riot that broke out in Paris,” we can read in the caption in Korean of an X-rated video shared on April 7, 2026.
“French citizens are expressing their frustration and demanding that these groups be returned to their country of origin. The whole world seems to be grappling with the immigration conundrum. »
The video includes two clips. The first shows several cars overturned and set on fire, in a street strewn with debris. The second clip shows a group of people smashing the glass panels of a bus shelter.
Screenshot of the fake post captured on April 23, 2026, with a red X added by AFP
The video was also shared elsewhere in similar X-rated publications.
South Korea has welcomed increasing numbers of immigrants in recent years as it seeks to combat a rock-bottom birth rate and a shrinking labor pool, but demographic changes in the country — which has long remained ethnically homogenous — have also fueled anti-foreign sentiment (archived here and here).
According to a survey of 16,000 South Koreans by the National Human Rights Commission in 2021, more than 54% of respondents said immigrants face hatred or discrimination in the country (archived link).
Although the video shows protests in Paris involving the city’s Kurdish population, it was not filmed recently as the articles claim.
“No event of this type has taken place in the Paris region in recent months,” Paris police told AFP in an email dated April 16, 2026, adding that the police “strongly denounce this false information.”
2022 events
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video revealed that the first clip was previously shared by French journalist Rémy Buisine on X on December 24, 2022 (archived link).
AFP reported at the time that thousands of people had gathered at Place de la République, in central Paris, to commemorate three Kurds killed in an attack near a Kurdish cultural center a few days earlier by a man who had confessed to a “pathological” hatred of foreigners (archived here and here).
Many expressed anger at French security services for not doing enough to prevent the shooting, and frustration flared at the rally as furious protesters clashed with police. AFP journalists present on site told at least four cars were overturned and one was burned.
AFP also released a photo and video showing the same overturned car.
Comparison of screenshots of the falsely shared video (L) and the December 2022 clip, with matching characteristics highlighted by AFP
The clip had also previously been shared alongside false claims linking it to protests against pension reform in France in 2023 and another bout of violence in Paris in January 2026.
A separate reverse image search revealed that the second clip was shared by a Turkish-language website on December 25, 2022 (archived link). Another Turkish-language website published the clip in a December 26, 2022 report on the same protests (archived link).
AFP contacted both websites for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publication.
The images also match Google Street View images taken near Place de la République, where protests broke out (archived link).
Comparison of screenshots of the falsely shared video (left) and Google Street View images, with similarities highlighted by AFP
Additionally, a female protester wearing a yellow scarf seen 31 seconds into the falsely shared video can also be seen in the protest footage. broadcast on the French television channel CNEWS (archived link). The sequence was uploaded to the YouTube channel of a French user and its authenticity was verified by the channel in an email sent to AFP on April 21, 2026.
The AFP has previously debunked other false claims about anti-immigration and anti-Muslim sentiment in South Korea.
