Does a video on social media show crowds gathered in Australia to greet Julian Assange on his return in June 2024? No, that's not true: The video was published in 2023, showing footage from crowds at the May 20 Sydney Freedom March. The video has a clear logo identifying it as being from Aussie Cossack News and the footage was posted on their YouTube account on May 22, 2023.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on X, formerly known as Twitter, on June 25, 2024. It opened:
Australians welcoming their fellow countryman Julian Assange.....
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Wed Jun 26 16:23:46 2024 UTC)
The video posted on X has the logo Aussie Cossack News in the lower right corner. A Google search of keywords found the video archived on the Wayback Machine website with the details that the footage was posted on the Aussie Cossack News YouTube account on May 22, 2023:
Aussie Cossack remotely addresses thousands marching at the May 20th Sydney Freedom March.
Thousands marched with John Shipton Julian Assange's father to say NO to NATO and to demand the release of Julian Assange.
The YouTube account for Aussie Cossack News was suspended as of June 26, 2024.
Assange returned to Australia on June 26, 2024, after a plea deal in which he pleaded guilty to violating U.S. espionage law, as Reuters reported (archived here).
Other Lead Stories fact checks about Julian Assange can be found here.
