A YouTube video, which supposedly shows Trump supporters with disabilities being arrested for taking part in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, has been making the rounds on social media. However, the footage really shows disabled protesters being removed from the Capitol in 2017, years before the riots took place. Here’s how we fact-checked this.
Look for potential red flags
This video was posted by an account called “Millennial,” which has more than 100,000 subscribers. But glancing over the other videos they’ve posted, it’s clear the channel as a whole is focused mostly on comedy videos, not hard news.
There is also no added context in the description. Ideally, there would be a link to a credible source, or at least a credit to who took the video.
Another thing that stands out is that none of the people in the video are wearing masks. And while there were a lot of maskless people photographed at the Capitol on Jan. 6 — the fact that none of the police officers are masked up is a clue that this video could be old.
Reverse video search
Anytime you see a video that seems a little sus, you can try fact-checking it using this verification tool from InVid and WeVerify. The free browser extension pulls keyframes from the video and finds instances where this video appears on the Internet.
This tool is super, super helpful for a number of reasons. It can reveal added context, which is always a good thing. But it can also be used to determine if a video is just old, which wound up being the case for this video.
The verification tool led us to this 2017 video from C-SPAN. The video is titled, “Protesters at health care hearing: ‘No cuts to Medicaid, save our liberty.’” This is what the protesters are actually chanting in the YouTube video.
See what multiple sources are reporting
When it comes to verifying information, you always want to check multiple sources. And a keyword search of “disabled trump supporters capitol,” brought up several, reliable sources, including fact checks from Reuters and PolitiFact.
According to PolitiFact, yes — the footage is authentic. But what this video really shows is a demonstration from September 2017, when the U.S. Capitol police arrested 181 people outside a hearing room where U.S. senators were discussing a bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
Rating
Not Legit. While this YouTube title accuses the protesters in the video of taking part in a violent mob and storming the U.S Capitol, it actually shows people protesting the GOP’s health care bill in 2017.
