Sanjeeb Phuyal is the Nepali Editor of Newschecker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He brings over a decade of experience writing and editing news. In his previous stint, he worked as online editor for The Kathmandu Post. With the growth of social media platforms—and the ever-growing competition amongst media outlets to churn out breaking news, he feels that fact-checking every piece of information has become more essential today than ever before.
Claim
People chanted slogans against former King Gyanendra Shah
Fact
Viral video shows people enthusiastically welcoming ex-King in Bhaktapur
A viral video allegedly showing people chanting slogans against former King Gyanendra Shah is going viral on TikTok.
King Gyanendra Shah, who was removed from the Narayanhiti Palace after a specially elected Constituent Assembly voted to abolish the monarchy in May 2008, had visited Taleju Bhawani temple in Bhaktapur on September 24. Huge crowd turned out in Bhaktapur to accord a warm welcome to the deposed king.
Against this backdrop TikTok user @khagendra_karkii posted a video showing people carrying Nepal’s national flag and former King Gyanendra Shah being escorted amongst a crowd of people and talking to people on his way. Text superimposed on the video reads, ”Suddenly people started chanting slogans against monarchy. What does Aryaghat [crematorium of Hindu people] say? Down with murderer Gyanendra. Full video of the unified red army official TikTok.”
In the background audio, people are heard chanting slogans, “What does the Aryaghat [crematorium at Pashupatinath temple] say? Bring Gyanendra and Paras [son of deposed king Gyanendra Shah]. Down with murderer Gyanendra; Stop police suppression. Long live Prachanda Path [ideology of Nepal communist party Maoists]. Long live Nepal Communist Party Maoists.”
The archived version of the TikTok video can be seen here.
The video posted on September 27 has garnered 817 likes, 34 users have shared it and 136 people have commented on it.
Newschecker found the claim to be misleading.
Fact Check /Verification
To check the veracity of the claim made in the viral video, Newschecker split the video into several keyframes and conducted reverse searches on them. The results pointed us to a recent visit of former King Gyanendra Shah to Bhaktapur.
We, then, conducted a search on YouTube and found a video, dated September 24 2023, published on the YouTube Channel of Deshsanchar online. On checking the video, we found that the footage from the 3.26-minute timestamp onwards exactly matched the viral video. However, the people were greeting the former king by offering flowers and no one was heard chanting slogans against the deposed monarch and his son.
Further, Newschecker looked up news articles on Shah’s recent visit to Bhaktapur and found a photo story published on Annapurna Express online. The image carried in the article resembled the frames from the viral video. The article also noted that the people gathered to welcome him chanted slogans in his support. Neither did we find anything verifying that the people chanted slogans in support of Prachanda Path.
Thus, our findings clearly show that the viral video actually shows people enthusiastically welcoming the former King in Bhaktapur, and the video is edited by laying a false audio on top.
Conclusion
The viral video purportedly showing people chanting slogans against former King Gyanendra Shah is misleading as the viral footage is edited by laying a false audio on top. The video actually shows ex-King Gyanendra Shah’s recent visit to Bhaktapur, where he was accorded a warm welcome.
Result: False
Sources
Deshsanchar/YouTube September 24, 2023
Annapurna Express September 24, 2023
My Republica September 24, 2023
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Sanjeeb Phuyal is the Nepali Editor of Newschecker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He brings over a decade of experience writing and editing news. In his previous stint, he worked as online editor for The Kathmandu Post. With the growth of social media platforms—and the ever-growing competition amongst media outlets to churn out breaking news, he feels that fact-checking every piece of information has become more essential today than ever before.
