Fact check: Original footage of small boat does not show machete

A widely shared social media post showed a video of a supposed migrant on a small boat arriving to England.

The video appeared to show a man wearing a life vest on a boat and who shouts “this is the end of England”, throws papers into the ocean, and wields a machete.

A separate social media post – which has since been deleted – shared the same video and wrote: “‘This is the end of England’ he shouts. If we don’t stop these wretched boat crossings he could be right.”

Evaluation

The clip appears to be AI-generated and likely based on a video shared by a news outlet showing migrants on small boats.

The original video does not show the migrant speaking English, throwing papers or holding a machete. Details of the boat are also different on the original video.

The facts

What does the social media post’s video show?

The video shared on X on July 1 shows a man on a boat wearing an orange life vest, with a grey vest and dark long sleeve top underneath. He is being recorded by someone as he shouts “this is the end of England” in English and throws stacks of paper into the water. He then holds up a machete and yells.

What appears to be a spinning maritime radar is visible in the background on top of a red and white structure at the start of the video. The radar seems to be floating without a support, suggesting it was AI-generated.

The edge of the boat is also visible in the clip, with a white wall with blue trim seen when the man throws the papers.

What does the original video show?

A video shared by a news site on June 30 – the day before the two social media posts – shows what appears to be the same man recording himself and men behind him on  an overcrowded dinghy. He is similarly wearing an orange life vest.

What are the differences?

There are several differences between the videos, including the man’s clothing. In the original clip shared by the news site, he is wearing a grey, patterned, long-sleeved jumper under the life vest. However, the clip shared on social media shows what appears to be another vest under his life vest that has the same grey pattern with a dark long-sleeve top underneath it.

He is also likely recording himself in the original video, while the video shared on social media suggests someone is recording him because both of his hands are visible.

The boat also appears to be different, with the original clip showing him sitting on the edge of a dinghy with many people behind him doing the same. Meanwhile, the social media clip seems to show him standing on a much larger boat.

In the video shared on social media, the man speaks English while he does not in the original clip.

Most notably, the original clip does not show him throwing papers into the water or holding a machete. People behind him do appear to throw small objects into the water.

The links

Post on X (archived and archived video)

Second post on X (archived)

News article (archived)

News site’s Facebook post (archived and archived video)

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