A video showing actor Harrison Ford giving a speech has gone viral on social media in recent days, with social media users claiming

that he was offering his support to students protesting the war in Gaza on campuses across the United States.

It turns out, however, that his words have been taken out of context: the video is actually from 2019 and was given at the United Nations’ Climate Action Summit.

The actor was speaking about the importance of youth action in the face of the climate emergency.

“The people on the front lines, the people on the ground, the people with their feet in the mud, our efforts will have effect. We will make great progress and we are not alone.

(…) The young people who we have, frankly, failed, who are angry, who are organised, who are capable of making a difference: they are a moral army.

And the most important thing that we can do for them is to get the hell out of their way.” 

Other accounts picked up the video and started sharing it on X and Facebook, where they wrongly claimed that the American actor gave this speech to support students protesting the war in Gaza. “Get the hell out of their way,” wrote this social media user, parroting Ford’s speech and claiming that he was showing his support for the young activists on college campuses.

“They are Pushing through Tik Tok Ban Today. Free Palestine. Protect Free Speech,” read a caption added to the video, in English. The first phrase refers to a rumour that the United States wants to ban the TikTok platform in order to prevent pro-Palestinian accounts from sharing their messages on the platform.

We ran the video through a reverse image search (check out our handy guide to find out how). This led us to an older video of the speech published on September 23, 2019 on the United Nations YouTube channel. This shows us that Ford actually gave this speech at a United Nations Climate Action Summit. In the six-minute video, Ford speaks about the importance of preserving rainforests in order to fight climate breakdown.

The 46-second clip published on TikTok doesn’t actually address pro-Palestinian student protesters in the United States. It is aimed at civil society and indigenous groups in particular who will benefit directly from funds allocated by their governments to preserve the Amazon, Ford says. 

Ford is known for his environmental activism. He has been a member of the group Conservation International for more than 30 years. He regularly speaks out against climate inaction.

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Source: Los Angeles Times