DigitEye India Fact Checkers
A viral video that shows a group of women tackling several men who are allegedly harassing them is going viral on social media. The claims allege that the incident took place in Paris. The video is shared with a communal angle and with Islamophobic claims. The claim that is going viral with the image reads,
This video is so soothing. Yesterday somewhere in Paris on a Metro Underpass. A bunch of Migrants were doing what they do best. Taharrush (roughly translates to mass molestation of women). Unfortunately for these migrants, these 3 women were all serving French para-military personnel.
The video is being shared virally on WhatsApp and X (formerly, Twitter).
This video is so soothing….Yesterday somewhere in Paris on a Metro Underpass.. A few Migrants were doing what they do best … Taharrush (roughly translates to mass molestation of women)… Unfortunately for these migrants, these 3 women were all serving French para-military.💜 pic.twitter.com/cI7ulAuMLX
— Madridista (@DalviNameet) November 15, 2023
The video has been shared here, here, and here with the same claims.
FACT CHECK
The Digiteye India team also received a request to fact-check this viral video on WhatsApp. The team used inVID – a video verification tool – to break the video down into multiple keyframes. In one of the keyframes, we saw that the men were wearing black hoodies. The sweatshirt had “CUC” written on the back in a white font. We used this clue and conducted a keyword search on Google.
One of the results led us to the Instagram page of Campus Univers Cascades. Their logo is similar to the one seen on the hoodies of the men. We took a look at their website to find out more. The CUC defines itself as “a professional training center dedicated to stunt techniques in cinema and shows.” It adds that “the Campus is intended for motivated athletes, men and women, whose objective is to become a professional stuntman.” They were established in 2008 and are based in France.
We scrolled their Instagram page and found the viral video that was posted on November 2, 2023. It was captioned, “Street fight ⚠️👊” Hashtags such as “cucteam, campuslife, street, fight, martialarts, video, stuntteam, fighter, campus, boxing, ko, combat, follow, martial, bagarre, action, cinema, choreography, cascadeuse, stuntlife” are used in the description of the video.
Further videos on their page reveal that they are a group that trains stunt people for cinema and videos. The claim that is going viral is, hence, false.
CLAIM: A video shows a group of women tackling men who were harassing them in Paris. The video is going viral with a communal angle.
CONCLUSION: The video is made by a French stunt group that trains people to become professional stuntpersons. The video was shared by the group on their Instagram earlier this month.
RATING: Misinterpretation — 
