A viral video of US printing dollars is allegedly from a 90’s documentary and is not from amidst the current pandemic
A viral video is being circulated on platforms such as Twitter and Chinese microblogging website Weibo that allegedly shows US dollars being printed. The claim surrounding the video was that amidst the pandemic, the United States was more focused on upholding their economy rather than the health of their people. A screenshot of the video is as follows and the entire video can be viewed here.
The video, circulated on Twitter, currently has about 8.9k views. From the video, its visible that it was being shared on Douyin which is the Chinese version of the popular app TikTok.
The caption of the below video is as follows: “The busiest thing in the United States is not the anti-epidemic, but this...”
美国目前最忙的不是抗疫，而是这个。 pic.twitter.com/2ME9yV80Xa
— 肖仲华 (@XiaozhPhD04) April 18, 2020
The comments on the video further confirms that the clip is criticising the United States over the same. A few of the comments along with their translation are as follows:
通过放水美元，打劫世界，为自己疗伤，为们必须筑坝，防止我们的资源被掺水的美元吸走
— bing ge (@bingge52611526) April 18, 2020
The above comment was translated on Google Translate and is as follows: “By releasing water dollars, robbing the world, healing ourselves, we must build dams to prevent our resources from being sucked away by water-laden dollars”
美国人 在 掠夺 全世界 ！
— baliba99 (@baliba99) April 18, 2020
Translation: “Americans are plundering the world!”
一张纸币，打劫世界人民财富！
— 爱我中华 (@Songgx519) April 18, 2020
Translation: “A piece of paper money to rob the wealth of the people of the world!”
Another user tweeted a longer version of the video with the caption (translated): “American people work overtime every day”
美国人民天天在加班 pic.twitter.com/DVP7gE78Jg
— 细奶奶 (@oopsie06020861) April 18, 2020
Similar claims to the tweets were made on Weibo.
Translation of the caption reads: “The only risk that the United States does not have unemployment is the banknote printing factory, because Sichuan always has a big order, 4 trillion, and has to work overtime to print banknotes.”
Truth
A simple Google reverse image search of keyframes directed to a longer version of the said video which was uploaded on YouTube in the January of 2013. The video can be found here. A screenshot of the same is as follows:
The viral video can be traced from the above link from a timeline of 2 minute 11 seconds.
The video’s title reads: Inside the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, 1991. The YouTube post further reads that the raw footage refers to an hour long documentary of the same which includes several employee interviews. This documentary can be found on the independent video archive, Media Burn. A screenshot if the same is as follows:
Note the production date at the bottom right of the screenshot.
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