On July 30, Georgian-language Facebook users published a video claiming to be taken at a rally supporting U.S. presidential candidate Kamala Harris. In the video, a person dressed in a genital costume is seen imitating a sexual act. The users asserted that the Democratic Party organized this entertainment program to support Harris.
The video is being disseminated with a false description. In reality, the video is not from a rally supporting Kamala Harris and was recorded at the 2022 Pride festival in Toronto.
Since 2022, the video featuring a person dressed in a genital costume imitating a sexual act has been circulating on social media with various descriptions (1;2;3;4). It does not depict an entertainment program organized by the Democratic Party to support a U.S. presidential candidate and was not even recorded in the US but in Toronto, Canada.
The event where the person in the genital costume appeared took place on June 25, 2022, at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto. A YouTube video shows (at 1:38:05) that one of the participants is the person in the video that the Georgian language user is spreading with a misleading description.
As part of Pride month, at one of the scheduled events called Living Out Loud Ball, participants danced in various costumes related to the theme. One of the organizers also published a video on Instagram, thanking the sponsors, Canada Pride and Sony Music Canada.
The video has also been circulated in the past with other false descriptions. For instance, in 2022, it was claimed to be taken in a Brazilian school, depicting students and teachers.
“Myth Detector” has debunked a number of manipulative posts and disinformation regarding Kamala Harris.
The article has been written in the framework of Facebook’s fact-checking program. You can read more about the restrictions that Facebook may impose based on this article via this link. You can find information about appealing or editing our assessment via this link.
Read detailed instructions for editing the article.
Read detailed appeal instructions.
