Tweets shared more than a hundred times claim that French presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon wears a 17,750€ Rolex watch. Yet, the photos used to support this claim have obviously been sourced elsewhere.

"Un bon communiste !" pic.twitter.com/n1Dgi90fD5

— Stalker (@_Stalker_69_) March 20, 2017

(Translation: ‘A relaxed Jean-Luc Mélenchon with a Rolex worth 17,750€’)

This photo-collage dates back to April 2016. It appears frequently on Twitter accounts and Facebook pages affiliated to the French extreme right. However, the author of the initial post, who presents himself as an environmental activist, has insisted several times that the photo-collage is a hoax.

https://twitter.com/Alex_Le_Rouge/status/721841859077779456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

(Translation: ‘Those people who really believe that Mélenchon has a Rolex must really learn how to think.’)

In April 2016, Jean-Luc Mélenchon denied the rumour, writing on his website that he did not own a Rolex and did not desire one either. The website France TV Info also concluded that the watch the European deputy of the Left Party wears was a model from the Seiko 5 line, which costs between 70€ and 200€ depending on the model.

French website “Fdesouche” (native F(rench)) shared the results of a CNRS study on radical religious ideas in high schools. According to the website, «in certain high schools, 44% of Muslim students believe it is acceptable to “take up arms for one’s religion”». This figure was taken out of context.

The CNRS study focused on 7000 students in 21 high schools with higher numbers of students from social categories which are «less studied in traditional studies because of the lack of staff resources». As indicated in the report, it refers to «young people from lower classes or migrant backgrounds» for example. The study’s aim is to analyze the radicalization factors amongst young people. But Fdesouche mistakenly deduced that «in certain high schools, 44% of Muslim students believe it is acceptable to take up arms for one’s religion».

This 44% figure doesn’t represent the share of Muslim students in the high schools selected for the study. It refers to another category of students, defined by the CNRS report as students of any religious beliefs who also show «religious absolutism» and «tolerance towards violence». Four percent of the 7000 students have both characteristics. The figure rises to 12% for young Muslims in the study.

In fact, amongst the 4% of high school students exhibiting both characteristics (tolerance towards violence and absolutism), 44% believe it is acceptable, «in some current social situations» to fight for one’s religion. This does not concern solely Muslim students but rather students of all religious beliefs. Hence Fdesouche’s title is doubly misleading.

A video showing clashes between the police and dozens of protesters, apparently “in Paris, last night”, received over 40,000 views by March 20th. The person who posted the video accused the French media of a blackout on the story. But the clashes occurred in January 2016 during a demonstration by taxi drivers on the Paris ring road.

David van Hemelryck, who shared the video on his Facebook page, is the founder of the « Hollande, démission » (Hollande, resignation) collective. He claimed that the video originated on a Czech TV channel, because « one needs to watch foreign TV » to hear about such incidents. « In France, the pro-Macron (presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron) media censor any truth » he added. But these confrontations were widely covered by the French media when they occurred on January 26th, 2016, near Porte Maillot on the Paris ring road.

In December 2015 and January 2016, French taxi drivers organised multiple demonstrations against Uber and other similar services to protest what they judged to be unfair competition.

A video shared 113,000 times on the Facebook page “SOS anti-white racism“ shows a man assaulting two hospital employees. “We treat them, and that is how they thank us,” comments the author of the post, without detailing where or when the incident occurred. However, the language spoken in the video is Russian, and, by conducting a reverse-image search on key frames in the video, CrossCheck was able to establish that the incident happened in the Russian city of Novgorod.

In the comments below the video, many question the authenticity and the origin of the video. According to the website Metronews, the incident occurred in Novgorod in north-west Russia on the 23rd February 2017.  The 23rd of February is “Defender of the Fatherland Day” in Russia which can be marked by incidents of violence. The man responsible for the attack appears highly inebriated. He first punches the security guard, as can be witnessed on the video extract put online in Metronews article. He continues and seriously assaults a nurse and a nursing auxiliary who were trying to restrain him. The two women had to be hospitalised and the police arrived to arrest the man at the hospital. He was accused of “assault” and “assault on persons in authority.”

The video was also largely shared on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/_Stalker_69_/status/843385417886027776