Thousands of views and comments were garnered by a video on social media that its publishers claimed was of recent demonstrations that erupted in the Qatif Governorate in eastern Saudi Arabia against the authorities.
The video shows a large crowd of people, dressed in white, on a street at night.
However, the claim is incorrect, as the video was published 10 years ago on news sites, as it was of the funeral of a man killed in a security pursuit.
“Mass demonstrations by citizens of Qatif in Saudi Arabia,” the accompanying comment read. The posts garnered thousands of views and shares on Facebook and Twitter.
What do we know about Qatif?
Qatif, located in the oil-rich Eastern Province, where the majority of the Shiite minority lives, has witnessed security disturbances of varying severity since 2011, which the authorities attribute to “terrorists” or drug dealers.
Shiites make up between 10 to 15 percent of the kingdom’s population of 33 million people, according to “AFP”.
No credible local media outlet has published any news about demonstrations taking place in the streets of Qatif, and AFP journalists in Saudi Arabia have not received information that Qatif has witnessed any such developments in recent times.
A search through search engines showed that it was posted on YouTube on September 30, 2012, as one of the funerals of people who were shot dead by the authorities, according to the publishers of the video, whose exact circumstances could not be confirmed.
But three days before that, that is, on September 27, 2012, the Saudi Ministry of Interior had already announced the killing of a wanted security man in the Qatif Governorate and one of his companions after they had shot the security men in the town of Al-Awamiya.
The mere publication of the video a decade ago denies that it is of recent demonstrations, as the misleading publications claimed.