TikTok of 'immigrant' making demands to Canada is altered video of Welsh woman

An unidentified woman wears a niqab outside an Ontario courthouse in Toronto on Tuesday, April 23, 2013. A video shared across multiple social media platforms claims to show a ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø 'immigrant' wearing a face covering while making a 'list of demands,' however the audio has been faked and the original video shows a Welsh woman speaking about her experience wearing the niqab. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

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On Dec. 22 a TikTok user posted a video that claimed to show an immigrant woman giving Canada a list of demands including "more welfare" and "baby bonus cheques." The audio is fake. The original video comes from a BBC interview with a Welsh woman discussing her decision to wear the niqab. 

"Immigrant woman gives ºÚÁϳԹÏÍøs a list of demands!" reads the text overlaid on a posted Dec. 22 with more than 250,000 plays. 

In the video, a woman with an Indian accent shares her supposed demands to Canada, including "more welfare" and "baby bonus cheques," no tax on products from India and government support to bring family members to Canada. 

The video , formerly Twitter, on Feb. 1 with more than 100,000 views and on Jan. 9 with more than 17,000 views. 

Rating: Altered audio 

In a comment, the TikTok user who posted the video said it was not artificially generated and came from the video sharing platform Clapper. 

ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø could not locate the video on that platform, but a keyword search brought up video of a niqab debate in which one woman wore a blazer of a similar colour seen in the TikTok video. 

The woman is Sahar Al-Faifi, who for a British online newspaper as a "Welsh and British citizen." A Google search of her name led to from April 2017. 

Both the appearance of Al-Faifi and the vertical lines from the backdrop in the video match up with the TikTok version. 

In the original BBC video, Al-Faifi discusses her decision to wear a face veil, or niqab, as a Muslim woman. 

At no point does she reference Canada or the demands from the TikTok video, and she speaks with a British accent versus the Indian accent heard in the TikTok version. 

The TikTok video includes altered audio that makes it seem like the speaker is an immigrant making demands of Canada, which is clearly false. 

Sources

TikTok posted Dec. 22, 2024 () and on Feb. 1, 2025 () and on Jan. 9, 2025 ()

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