Three viral videos linked to claims of widespread unrest in Europe depict events in Poland, Portugal and Argentina with different dates and contexts, records and fact-checks show.
An archived social media post dated Nov. 12, 2017, described an independence march in Warsaw. Maldita.es traced the crowd footage to the city’s Nov. 11 National Independence Day march, and Agence France-Presse (AFP) published footage from that event. Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance says the holiday marks the country’s restoration of independence in 1918.
The Portuguese Army scheduled Army Day events in Porto from Oct. 20 to 25, 2026. Portuguese fact-checking outlet Polígrafo matched the armored vehicles in a viral clip to the scheduled celebrations, finding no link between them and a military response to housing demonstrators.
Housing protests in Portugal did take place. The Portuguese Public Security Police (PSP) said its initial Oct. 25 update listed 31 arrests and 11 injuries as police removed encampment structures in Lisbon and Porto. Municipal police removed 171 structures, the PSP said.
Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP) reported different totals on Oct. 26: 33 people detained and 33 injured. Porto organizers told the broadcaster that 37 people had minor injuries and five others received assistance. The available reports do not reconcile the figures.
FRANCE 24 reported that a third clip was recirculated as footage of an Italian protest over fuel prices. Latin America News Agency’s caption on Reuters Connect identifies the scene as the removal of a U.S. flag at Buenos Aires’ Savoy Hotel during an Aug. 6 demonstration near Congress. The caption says Argentina’s Senate was considering a private-property bill at the time. Reuters Connect identifies the agency as the footage provider and says Reuters did not verify the clip.
Argentina’s Chamber of Deputies approved the bill with amendments on Oct. 21, by 124 votes to 119, with six abstentions. The chamber said the measure would return to the Senate for final review but announced no date for that review.
