Video shared on WhatsApp claiming to be of East Malaysians protesting support for PN is fake

Malaysian community-driven fact-checking platform, Faqcheck Lab, posted about a video circulating on WhatsApp regarding what was claimed to be of Christians in East Malaysia protesting against GPS’ support for Perikatan Nasional. The video has been debunked by the Faqcheck Lab team, and the clip turned out to be demonstrators protesting in Indonesia earlier this year.

“The video is from a public consultation event that took place in Karawang, Indonesia on 1 September, 2022. It shows demonstrators protesting the event because they deemed it not in the best interest of the people of Karawang,” wrote the Faqcheck team.

In the 31-second TikTok video, two men are seen yelling in the direction of the stage at the speakers. Faqcheck also screenshotted the TikTok video’s comments, showing that there are Malaysians who were convinced that these protests had recently transpired in Sarawak. Some even referred to the language spoken as “Sarawakian”.

However, there are some comments pointing out that the video happened in Indonesia. The comments also showed users mentioning “Karawang”, indicating that the event likely took place in that location.

The video was first posted on TikTok by user nurdinsyam at a public consultation event in the Karawang. Demonstrators at the event argued that the issue discussed was not in the best interest of Karawang, and the event itself was eventually shut down.

Social media, including TikTok, has been a breeding ground for racially and politically charged content lately. Twitter users have posted that they found plenty of videos encouraging and threatening violence with weapons after the GE15 election. 

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