In the midst of raging wildfires in Los Angeles, a video showing individuals carrying goods including a television from a fire-ravaged house is viral on social media. Users are sharing this footage with a racist claim that Black people took advantage of wildfires and looted deserted homes. The video has also been given a communal twist. Many have compared those in the video with "infiltrators" and that such sheltering individuals threatens to wreck the social order of civil society.
The video was amplified on X (formerly Twitter) by several users, including Deepak Sharma (@SonOfBharat7) and IND Story's (@INDStoryS). In a post in Hindi, Sharma refers to the Black people in the video as "infiltrator Jihadis," adding that the entire community (implying Muslims) is full of thieves. "Giving them refuge spells ruination of one's home, state and country," this person adds. (Archive)
At the time of writing this, the post had already garnered over 200,000 views and was reshared at least 2,700 times.
It's important to mention here that Alt News has busted misinformation shared by this account several times.
IND Story's (@INDStoryS) also shared the video with a similar claim. (Archive)
Below are screenshots of similar posts by other X users.
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Fact Check
A reverse image search of some of the key frames from the video led us to an Instagram video posted by Los Angeles Chronicles (@la_chron), which describes itself as a news and media website. The video posted by this account is same as the one that went viral and the caption specifies that the video is actually from footage aired on KTLA News and shows a woman's family and friends helping her with her belongings during the wildfires. KTLA is an LA-based local news outlet, which focuses on coverage in and around southern California.
We then looked at footage from KTLA's coverage of the wildfires and came across a YouTube livestream from January 8. In this, KTLA reporter Chip Yost interviews residents affected by the fires in areas near Altadena and Pasadena.
Around the 4:46:11 timestamp of this livestream, a woman indentifying as Tiandra speaks to the channel. She refers to the group of people in the viral clip as her family and friends and adds that they were of immense help in moving household items out of her partially burnt home.
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Alt News was able to thus confirm that the viral video was being shared on social media with a baseless, racist and communally charged claim that Black "Jihadi infiltrators" were looting deserted houses destroyed by the LA wildfires. In reality, the video shows a group of known people helping a Black woman to salvage her household goods in the midst of the wildfire.
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Hello, my name is Ankit Sahu. I'm a 25 year old self-employed Pirate from the Chhindwara.