Videos of anti-paedophilia protests outside Buckingham Palace circulated widely on social media this weekend, with many condemning ‘the media’ for supposedly choosing not to report on them. While some videos being shared appear to be fake news – from old protests – the video in question is reported to be from a Freedom For The Children protest taking place on Saturday.
It started with one simple video, a 17-second clip that now has over 3.1million views shared with the caption ‘What is going on outside of Buckingham Palace?’. In the video, protestors appear to be chanting ‘paedophile’ outside of the Queen’s former residence with some holding signs condemning her son Prince Andrew for his association with Jeffrey Epstein - and subsequent allegations of involvement in his sex trafficking crimes. Prince Andrew strenuously denies any wrongdoing.
What followed was a number of other videos, some shared from years gone by, reported as if they were from this weekend.
Then came the tweets condemning the media for not reporting on the protest, with one tweet receiving over 60,000 likes reading ‘the UK media not reporting on the child sex trafficking protests outside Buckingham Palace tells you everything u need to know’.
‘Finally ppl are waking up, there was a protest against paedophilia today at Buckingham palace,’ another with near 70,000 likes read. ‘The news don’t wanna showcase it though it’s all good.’
Many others shared the sentiment, starting a huge debate over the weekend as to whether the footage was real or fake, when it was recorded and what the protest was really about. And while some of the videos do appear to be old, causing mounting confusion, the one with millions of views is in fact from a protest this weekend by Freedom For The Children.
‘This is yesterday,’ protest attendee Emma Smith, an ASMR content creator who goes by Emma WhispersRed confirmed in reply to the original tweet. ‘ A peaceful walk followed by a group meditation starting at the London Eye on to the Palace then to Downing Street. Organised by ‘Freedom For The Children’ FB group for #EndChildTrafficking We had full police support.’
The event, which you can find on Facebook, took place at 1pm from Saturday and according to the Facebook page, 229 had said they were attending. ‘The purpose of this walk for change is to bring awareness to the current reality of child exploitation within our own communities and around the world,’ reads the group.
‘Let's show our devotion and determination toward protecting these children, our communities most vulnerable, by requesting change and reformation within our governmental and law enforcement agencies to ensure that justice is brought in such a manner that it will significantly reduce instances of child exploitation while promoting awareness in order to end this ongoing issue.’
Confirming that the video currently going viral was from Saturday’s Freedom For The Children protest, event organiser Laura Ward shared it on Facebook adding ‘That feeling you get when your peaceful rally gets 2.3 million views on Twitter.’
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