Claim: Gambian authorities fought a military coup attempt and arrested 4 soldiers plotting to impeach President Barrow.
Verdict: Misleading
Full Text
A TikTok video shared by the username “Mustapha Barry” titled “Gambian authorities fought a military coup attempt and arrested 4 soldiers plotting to impeach President Barrow,” the video features a woman seemingly a journalist reporting on the situation with the logo of TVC NEWS visible in the top-right corner of the clip. The video claims there was a recent coup attempt involving four soldiers trying to impeach President Barrow, but when you look closer, the story doesn’t add up, the video was uploaded recently, but it doesn’t support that claim.
Verification
To verify the accuracy of this claim, our researchers checked the video closely focusing on the TVC NEWS logo and the woman in it. Using Google’s reverse image search, the team traced the video back to its source: the official YouTube channel of TVC NEWS, a media organization based in Lagos, Nigeria.
The video was uploaded to TVC NEWS’ YouTube channel on December 23, 2022, corresponding with verified news reports from multiple media outlets both within and outside the Gambia about an attempted coup on December 20, 2022, while reports confirm there was an attempted coup in the country (Gambia) during this period, the claim made in the TikTok video is misleading. The video suggests that Gambian authorities recently stopped a coup attempt by four soldiers trying to remove President Barrow, but that’s not true. The footage was taken out of context and twisted to make a dramatic claim that doesn’t match the original news report from TVC NEWS.
In conclusion, the claim that Gambian authorities recently fought a military coup attempt and arrested four soldiers plotting to remove President Barrow from power is misleading. The video shared by “Mustapha Barry” manipulates genuine footage from TVC NEWS, which reported on a coup attempt that occurred on December 23, 2022. There is no evidence to support the specific claim presented in the TikTok video. This shows why it’s important to double-check facts before sharing them online.
By Muhammed L. Touray
OSINT Expert