Overview
- AFP and Newsweek verified the video’s origin as January 23, 2021 protests in Moscow tied to Alexei Navalny, with AFP geolocating the scene to Tsvetnoy Boulevard and sourcing the clip to Mediazona.
- Newsweek’s fact-check ruled the claim false, and X community notes state the footage shows Russian riot police being hit by snowballs, not ICE officers in New York.
- The misleading claim spread across X, TikTok, Instagram and other platforms, including Spanish-language posts, after shares by users such as musician Bill Madden and financier Spencer Hakimian.
- Reporting from The Guardian describes separate U.S. confrontations where bystanders threw snowballs at federal agents in cities like Minneapolis and Chicago, which are not connected to the viral clip.
- The incident reflects broader challenges in a period of heightened immigration enforcement, compounded by the spread of synthetic media, including an ICE-posted AI video on December 22.