Videos have gone viral on Twitter, TikTok and Facebook claiming that zoo animals have been released in Paris over the past few days. But all of the videos are from incidents over recent years that have nothing to do with the riots that have disrupted life during the past week following the killing a 17-year-old by French police.
One video, which has over 1.8 million views on Twitter alone, has been shared by an account called Insane Reality Leaks. The account has a blue “verified” check mark, though Twitter stopped verifying the identity of users after Elon Musk bought the social media platform back in October 2022.
Anyone with $8 per month can buy a check mark to spread rumors and lies that get amplified by Twitter’s algorithms, like the one below which claims three lions have been released from the Paris Zoo.
In reality, this video dates from at least 2020, since it pops up around YouTube at that time, but it’s likely even older. As Newschecker points out, the video has been shared a number of times over the years, and it’s not clear who first posted the content, but we know one thing for certain: It has nothing to do with the riots in France.
Another video that’s being shared on Facebook and Twitter shows a zebra galloping through traffic, claiming that elephants and “other” animals have escaped ruing the civil unrest in France.
In reality, this video was also shot at least three years ago.
And still another video that’s been going viral on Twitter includes claims that goats are among the animals that are now roaming the streets of France.
It’s not clear precisely where this video was originally filmed, but was originally posted to TikTok back in January in French before spreading on Arabic-language social media sites before making it to English-language Twitter.
Why are people spreading these old videos? That part is unclear. But there have been a lot of fakes during these riots, including videos showing a fake sniper, a crowd in Mexico City and a stolen police van that’s actually from a Netflix movie. It seems every major news event brings out people who are trying to cause confusion, whether it’s intentional or not. And, sadly, it’s harder than ever to figure out what accounts to trust now that Twitter owner Elon Musk got rid of the old verification process.
Previously, Twitter users had a rough idea when someone was sharing information with a blue check mark that it was a real person who had a reputation they probably cared about. But now that Twitter verifies anyone with $8, it’s easier than ever for people who want to spread chaos to get help from Twitter’s algorithm.
And it doesn’t look like it’s going to be getting any better anytime soon. Musk spent Saturday trying to explain why users were now only allowed to read about 600 tweets per day, a number that’s been raised since. But the damage has been done. Many people who are longtime Twitter users have jumped ship, heading to places like Bluesky, a Twitter competitor that’s become so popular it had to temporarily halt new sign-ups on Saturday. And Bluesky isn’t even out of beta yet.
News also broke today that Facebook’s parent company Meta is launching its own Twitter competitor called Threads on July 6, earlier than planned. Does Meta smell blood in the water, with Twitter crippled by self-imposed crisis after self-imposed crisis? Almost certainly.
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