The French government agency that monitors religious heritage sites confirmed that only one fire in a church occurred in recent days. Published on October 21 by the city council and picked up by a number of media outlets, it has not been possible to determine the exact cause of that fire.
The viral posts featured a video showing the Saint-Michel Church in Bordeaux appearing to be on fire. The video was actually filmed back in July and depicts a fire that started at a homeless encampment, which did not reach the church.
This instance is not the first time that false information about church fires has circulated in France. Back in July, the Observers team looked into separate misinformation regarding a fire at a disused church.
Islamophobic social media accounts circulated a false claim that groups of Muslims are responsible for setting fire to five churches in France over the course of a single day.
The fabricated narrative has mainly been propagated by accounts known for anti-immigrant and Islamophobic rhetoric, some of which exploited footage of previous protests by taking them out of context.
Media coverage and early findings by the police laboratory indicated possible arson in that single recent incident, though the exact cause remains undetermined.
Published on October 21 by the city council and picked up by a number of media outlets, it has not been possible to determine the exact cause of the fire.
Back in July, the Observers team looked into misinformation about a fire at a disused church.
The fake claim that groups of Muslims are responsible for setting fire to five churches in France over the course of a single day has been circulating online.
The acts supposedly took place on October 17 when violence erupted across several French cities, marring a series of planned peaceful demonstrations.