Truth Behind Viral Video Showing Kenyans Beaten in China

A snapshot of the widely circulated video.
A snapshot of the widely circulated video.

On Wednesday, April 22, new details emerged showing a highly-circulated video of black people said to be Kenyans allegedly getting beaten up by Chinese nationals in the Chinese city of Wuhan, on  April 13, as misleading and false.

AFP was first to spot the falsehood from the video after conducting online searches of images in the video established that the video was filmed in New York and not in Wuhan, China as claimed in several misleading social media posts.

The video raised online outrage against the Chinese with Kenyans online calling on the government to send an evacuation plane to bring back home Kenyans and African nationals in China.

Payomatic and SBH signs seen in the video
Payomatic and SBH signs seen in the video

The much-shared video first appeared online on March 18, 2020, on Reddit, two weeks before the first reports of discrimination against Africans in Guangzhou.

In the video, an Asian woman and two Asian men are seen exchanging blows with a black woman and two black men.

The visuals spotted by AFP that helped locate the video included a blue sign with the acronym ''SBH"  denoting St Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, New York, and a PayOMatic store label written in yellow and white on a blue background.

An image showing more details of the verified information.
An image showing more details of the verified information.

As the video ends a person can be seen filming behind a glass window and a door, where there are two restaurants, including a Chinese restaurant, with display cases and glass doors.



The video is one among many other videos, that were indeed recorded in China, that caught the attention of African Union officials who called the Chinese Ambassador to the AU to highlight more on their concerns about Africans being mistreated in China.

PayOmatic Sign can be seen in the background in this image,
PayOmatic Sign can be seen in the background in this image,