#FactCheck - Viral Video Claiming UK PM Keir Starmer Was Thrown Out of a Pub Is Misleading
A video circulating on social media claims that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was forcibly thrown out of a pub by its owner. The clip has been widely shared by users, many of whom are drawing political comparisons and questioning democratic norms. However, research conducted by Cyber Peace Foundation has found that the viral claim is misleading. Our research reveals that the video dates back to 2021, a time when Keir Starmer was not the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, but the leader of the opposition Labour Party.
Claim
On January 12, 2026, a video was shared on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) with the claim that British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was asked to leave a pub by its owner. The post suggests that the pub owner was unhappy with Starmer’s performance and contrasts the incident with how political dissent is allegedly handled in India. The viral video, approximately 32 seconds long, shows a man angrily confronting Keir Starmer in English, stating that he had supported the Labour Party all his life but was disappointed with Starmer’s leadership. The man is then heard asking Starmer to leave the pub.
Links to the viral post and its archived version were reviewed as part of the research.
Fact Check
To verify the claim, we extracted key frames from the viral video and conducted a Google reverse image search. During this process, we found the same video posted on an X account on April 19, 2021.The visuals in the 2021 post matched the viral video exactly, clearly indicating that the footage is not recent.The original post described the incident as an event involving Labour Party leader Keir Starmer during his visit to the Raven pub in Bath, and included a warning about strong language used by the pub owner, Rod Humphries. Here is the link to the original video, along with a screenshot:
Further keyword searches led us to a report published by NBC News on April 19, 2021. According to the report, Keir Starmer, then the leader of the UK’s opposition Labour Party, was confronted and asked to leave a pub in the city of Bath. The pub owner reportedly accused Starmer of failing to oppose COVID-19 lockdown measures strongly enough at a time when strict restrictions were in place across the UK.
- https://www.nbcnews.com/video/anti-lockdown-pub-landlord-screams-at-u-k-labour-party-leader-to-get-out-of-his-pub-110466117702
We also verified who held the office of British Prime Minister in 2021. Official UK government records confirm that Boris Johnson was the Prime Minister at that time, while Keir Starmer served as the Leader of the Opposition.
Conclusion
Our research confirms that the viral video is old and misleadingly presented. The footage is from 2021, when Keir Starmer was not the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, but the opposition Labour Party leader. Sharing the video with the claim that it shows a current British Prime Minister being thrown out of a pub is factually incorrect.
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Executive Summary
Amid ongoing tensions in West Asia and concerns over the safety of commercial vessels carrying Indian crew members, a purported ABP News video clip has been circulating on social media. The clip, along with an accompanying image, claims that in response to alleged US attacks on ships carrying Indian citizens, the Indian government removed security arrangements outside the US Embassy in New Delhi and withdrew identity cards issued to American diplomats. The viral post also includes an image showing a JCB machine near the US Embassy, which users are sharing as alleged evidence of recent government action against the United States CyberPeace Research Wing research found the claim to be misleading. The probe revealed that both the video clip and the image are not recent and are in fact related to events from 2013, during the diplomatic tensions following the arrest of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade.
Claim:
On X (formerly Twitter), a user shared the viral clip alleging that India strongly condemned the US over reported attacks on a vessel carrying Indian citizens and, in response, removed security from the US Embassy in New Delhi and revoked identity cards issued to American diplomats.
https://x.com/aadil_husssain2/status/2065184188157043053
https://ghostarchive.org/archive/A5Py5
Fact Check
A keyword search related to the alleged removal of security outside the US Embassy did not yield any recent credible reports supporting the claim. We also observed that the ABP News logo visible in the viral clip is an older version that is no longer in use, raising further doubts about its authenticity and timeline. To verify the footage, we checked ABP News’ official YouTube channel and found a report dated December 17, 2013. The report stated that Delhi Police had removed security barricades outside the US Embassy in New Delhi following diplomatic tensions between India and the United States over the arrest and treatment of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade in New York. The visuals in the 2013 report closely match multiple segments seen in the viral clip. The footage originally aired as part of ABP News’ “Fatafat” bulletin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qrm_UcL1zOk&t=139s
Further search also led to a PTI-reported article published by Times of India on December 17, 2013. According to the report, barricades outside the US Embassy were removed as part of India’s response to the Khobragade incident. The report also mentioned that India had sought the return of identity cards issued to American consular officials and rolled back certain diplomatic privileges.
The image being shared alongside the claim, showing a JCB machine near the US Embassy, is also old. Getty Images carries photographs dated December 17, 2013 showing barricades being removed outside the US Embassy in New Delhi during the same diplomatic episode.
Conclusion:
The research clearly establishes that both the viral video clip and the accompanying image are not recent. These visuals are from 2013 and are linked to diplomatic developments following the Devyani Khobragade case. The claim linking them to recent events involving US Embassy security arrangements is misleading.
On March 02, 2023, the Biden-Harris Administration unveiled the National Cybersecurity Plan to ensure that all Americans can enjoy the advantages of a secure digital environment. In this pivotal decade, the United States will reimagine cyberspace as a tool to achieve our goals in a way that is consistent with our values. These values include a commitment to economic security and prosperity, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, faith in our democracy and its institutions, and a commitment to creating a fair and diverse society. This goal cannot be achieved without a dramatic reorganisation of the United States’ cyberspace responsibilities, roles, and resources.
VISION- AIM
A more planned, organised, and well-resourced strategy to cyber protection is necessary for today’s rapidly developing world. State and non-state actors alike are launching creative new initiatives to challenge the United States. New avenues for innovation are opening up as next-generation technologies attain maturity and digital interdependencies are expanding. Thus, this Plan lays forth a plan to counter these dangers and protect the digital future. Putting it into effect can safeguard spending on things like infrastructure, clean energy, and the re-shoring of American industry.
The USA will create its digital environment by:
- Defensible if the cyber defence is comparatively easier, more effective, cheaper
- Resilient, where the impacts of cyberattacks and operator mistakes are lasting and little widespread.
- Values-aligned, where our most cherished values shape—and are in turn reinforced by— our digital world.
Already, the National Security Strategy, Executive Order 14028 (Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity), National Security Memorandum 5 (Improving Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure Control Systems), M-22-09 (Moving the U.S. Government Toward Zero-Trust Cybersecurity Principles), and National Security Memorandum 10 (Improving Cybersecurity for Federal Information Systems) have all been issued to help secure cyberspace and our digital ecosystem (Promoting United States Leadership in Quantum Computing While Mitigating Risks to Vulnerable Cryptographic Systems). The Strategy builds upon previous efforts by acknowledging that the Internet serves not as an end in itself but as a means to a goal—the achievement of our highest ideals.
There are five key points that constitute the National Cybersecurity Strategy:
1. Defend Critical Infrastructure –
Defend critical infrastructure by, among other things: i) enacting cybersecurity regulations to secure essential infrastructure; (ii) boosting public-private sector collaboration; (iii) integrating federal cybersecurity centres; (iv) updating federal incident response plans and processes; and (v) modernising federal systems in accordance with zero trust principles.
2. Disrupt and Dismantle Threat Actors
Disrupt and dismantle threat actors, including by i) integrating military, diplomatic, information, financial, intelligence, and law enforcement competence, (ii) strengthening public-private sector collaborations, (iii) increasing the speed and scale of intelligence sharing and victim information, (iv) preventing the abuse of U.S.-based infrastructure, and (v) increasing disruption campaigns and other endeavours against ransomware operators;
3. Shape Market Forces to Drive Security and Resilience
The federal government can help shape market forces that drive security and resilience by doing the following: i) supporting legislative efforts to limit organisations’ ability to collect, use, transfer, and maintain personal information and providing strong protections for sensitive data (such as geolocation and health data), (ii) boosting IoT device security via federal research, development, sourcing, risk management efforts, and IoT security labelling programs, and (iii) instituting legislation establishing standards for the security of IoT devices. (iv) strengthening cybersecurity contract standards with government suppliers, (v) studying a federal cyber insurance framework, and (vi) using federal grants and other incentives to invest in efforts to secure critical infrastructure.
4. Invest in a Resilient Future
Invest in a resilient future by doing things like i) securing the Internet’s underlying infrastructure, (ii) funding federal cybersecurity R&D in areas like artificial intelligence, cloud computing, telecommunications, and data analytics used in critical infrastructure, (iii) migrating vulnerable public networks and systems to quantum-resistant cryptography-based environments, and (iv) investing hardware and software systems that strengthen the resiliency, safety, and security of these areas, (v) enhancing and expanding the nation’s cyber workforce; and (vi) investing in verifiable, strong digital identity solutions that promote security, interoperability, and accessibility.
5. Forge International Partnerships to Pursue Shared Goals
The United States should work with other countries to advance common interests, such as i) forming international coalitions to counter threats to the digital ecosystem; (ii) increasing the scope of U.S. assistance to allies and partners in strengthening cybersecurity; (iii) forming international coalitions to reinforce global norms of responsible state behaviour; and (v) securing global supply chains for information, communications, and operational technologies.
Conclusion:
The Strategy results from months of work by the Office of the National Cyber Director (“ONCD”), the primary cybersecurity policy and strategy advisor to President Biden and coordinates cybersecurity engagement with business and international partners. The National Security Council will oversee the Strategy’s implementation through ONCD and the Office of Management and Budget.
In conclusion, we can say that the National Cybersecurity Plan of the Biden administration lays out an ambitious goal for American cybersecurity that is to be accomplished by the end of the decade. The administration aims to shift tasks and responsibilities to those organisations in the best position to safeguard systems and software and to encourage incentives for long-term investment in cybersecurity to build a more cyber-secure future.
It is impossible to assess the cyber strategy in a vacuum. It’s critical to consider the previous efforts and acknowledge the ones that still need to be made. The implementation specifics for several aspects of the approach are left up to a yet-to-be-written plan.
Given these difficulties, it would be simple to voice some pessimism at this stage regarding the next effort that will be required. Yet, the Biden administration has established a vision for cybersecurity oriented towards the future, with novel projects that could fundamentally alter how the United States handles and maintains cybersecurity. The Biden administration raised the bar for cybersecurity by outlining this robust plan, which will be challenging for succeeding administrations to let go. Also, it has alerted Congress to areas where it will need to act.
References:
- https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/03/02/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-national-cybersecurity-strategy/
- https://www.huntonprivacyblog.com/2023/03/02/white-house-releases-national-cybersecurity-strategy/
- https://www.lawfareblog.com/biden-harris-administration-releases-new-national-cybersecurity-strategy
Introduction
When Tamil Nadu Police arrested a man from Vellore in May 2026 on suspicion of being the point person helping Indian youth to be smuggled into cyber scam compounds in Cambodia, the papers led with the accused. They shouldn't have led with the accused but with the system. The arrest, one in a long string of them in Tamil Nadu, Madurai, and other states, is not simply another one-off policing victory. Rather, the arrest gives us an insight into a larger, darker world: an international criminal organisation that has successfully combined human trafficking and cybercrime, a new trend in criminality that specialists are calling 'cyber slavery.'
What Is Cyber Slavery?
“Cyber slavery” involves trafficking persons under the pretence of employment, forcing them into committing online fraud to serve criminal enterprises. Victims are not merely victims of the work they are forced to do; they are often turned into culprits as they become complicit in victimising others. Trafficked victims are compelled to participate in frauds targeted at unsuspecting victims all around the globe. These activities, organised into robust criminal schemes, involve victims of sex or labour trafficking who are forced into operating romance scams or the so-called "pig butchering" scams that defraud people of their investment in cryptocurrency, all in heavily secured complexes guarded with threats of violence and torture. The extent of the problem is enormous, with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights estimating in a 2023 report that there are over 100,000 victims of cyber scam compounds in Cambodia and another 120,000 in Myanmar. Schemes throughout Southeast Asia were projected to commit as much as $39.9 billion in fraudulent schemes a year.
Why Southeast Asia? The Geography of Organised Crime
In order to answer why Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, and the surrounding regions have developed into the cyber slavery hub of the world, we can draw together an array of structural reasons:
- Casino clampdown and crime diversification: Cambodia's ban on online gambling in 2019 broke down established casino-related criminal networks. This saw old casinos and Special Economic Zones turn into cyber scam compound operations.
- Corruption and state complicity: A pre-existing environment of corruption and involvement of politically linked figures permitted scamming networks to flourish, and the armed groups in the border areas of Myanmar are reportedly complicit in these operations through supplying land and protection for the networks to operate in.
- Poor governance in the border areas: The lack of state control in the frontier areas of Myanmar provided the criminal networks with a secure sanctuary in which they could operate with impunity and cross borders to escape crackdowns and move their operations.
- Post-pandemic growth: The economic stress associated with the COVID-19 pandemic led to an increase in the supply of vulnerable individuals available to fill the scam networks, as well as unprecedented profit margins on scams.
The Recruitment Pipeline: How Are Indian Youth Trapped?
The typical journey from an Indian town or village to a locked compound in Southeast Asia follows the same narrative:
- The bait: On platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, and Telegram, gangs lure with posts of lucrative overseas employment for IT work, customer service, data entry, and digital marketing with attractive, albeit feasible, pay packages (Rs. 80,000 to Rs. 1.5 lakh per month) and destinations such as Thailand and Singapore added for a veneer of genuineness.
- The recruiters: Local agents who gain trust, arrange visas and flight tickets, and collect the application fees are key intermediaries. Cases registered in Vellore and Madurai hint at recruitment agents receiving a commission for each person successfully smuggled into a trap, linked to larger travel and immigration networks.
- The lie: Victims are assured that they will be working legitimately in Thailand, but on reaching the border and crossing over, they find themselves pushed into scam compounds in neighbouring countries and have their passports, mobile phones and devices confiscated, thus rendering any escape attempt futile.
- The trap: In the interim, fake interviews, false job promises and convincing flight tickets serve to maintain the facade until the victims are forced to participate in cyber-fraud schemes.
The Architecture of Coercion: Life Inside the Scam Compounds
It is in these compounds that the fates of the victims become known. Survivor accounts, investigations and UN human rights reports provide evidence of these circumstances. These compounds are often surrounded by barbed wire fences, monitored with cameras and heavily guarded. Once a potential victim is captured, they are stripped of their passports and any other electronic devices, preventing them from being able to contact the outside world or to escape. Workers are allocated stringent targets, ranging from the number of potential victims they must solicit for scams and the amount of money they must acquire through such scams. Failure to do so, or perceived disobedience, may lead to beatings, electroshock treatment, starvation and long periods in confinement. These beatings are supplemented with psychological torture, with scammers assuring their victims that they owe money for their journey, stay and training. This method of debt bondage keeps people at the compound even when the opportunity for escape is presented to them. The victims are then forced to take part in more complex online scams, which involve romance scams, fake investment scams, and impersonation scams using scripts and with supervision. In some cases, families will be encouraged to pay for their captive relatives' release by ransom, whereas those who refuse to comply or meet performance requirements may be sold and transferred to another compound as a piece of property within a transnational criminal network.
Cybercrime Is No Longer Just About Hacking
This emergency challenges the existing notion of cybercrime. The scam compound of Southeast Asia is not about a lonely hacker or a standalone breach; it is a form of organised cyber slavery in which trafficked individuals are made to commit financial fraud on an industrial level.
The probe of India's NIA found that recruitment is done in the Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Transport agents in Chennai and Madurai provide logistics, and Dubai and Bangkok act as transit points on the way to Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. It makes use of cryptocurrency wallets, shadow banking, and shell companies for the movement of funds across international borders. Companies such as the Huione Group has been accused of facilitating billions of dollars in financial transactions for scam infrastructure before receiving sanctions from the U.S.
To illustrate the threat landscape, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on 19 entities spread across Myanmar and Cambodia and said that cyber scam operations looted $10 billion worth last year. Also, cryptocurrency transactions related to trafficking crimes jumped by 85% last year, which speaks to the expanding nature of the global criminal infrastructure.
India's Exposure: A National Vulnerability
The scale of exposure for India is large and expanding. The most likely victims are educated, and aspirational young men and women from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, seeking work abroad, which perfectly aligns with the primary target of such human trafficking networks.
Repeated incidents of people from Tamil Nadu falling victim to these networks have come to light. As far back as 2022, the chief minister wrote to the prime minister that close to 300 Indians, roughly 50 Tamils included, were being held in Myanmar. The Madurai-Cambodia case that came to light in 2026 revealed an entire network spanning Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, with authorities believing that thousands of Indians might have been trafficked there over the past three years. Such cases from Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and some northern Indian states have been reported. Last year, India had to charter Air Force flights to rescue over 549 Indians from cyber scam centres along the Myanmar-Thailand border.
The Indian embassy in Phnom Penh assisted the Indian nationals along with the CBI, MEA, and NIA in the rescue of 67 Indians in September 2024; however, these operations are largely reactive in the face of the vast and evolving transboundary crisis.
Prevention
The best solution is awareness. The following are tangible signs that a job offer might be a lead to trafficking:
Red Flags within the job offer:
- Receiving unsolicited recruitment messages on WhatsApp, Telegram or Instagram from unknown numbers/contacts.
- Offer of unbelievably high salaries in undefined roles like ‘data entry,’ ‘online marketing’ or ‘customer service’ outside India.
- Request for upfront money to cover costs of visas, travel, accommodation, and training.
- Job offers to places in Thailand or Singapore involving complex transit routes through other countries.
- An interview process entirely through messaging apps, where the company has no real office address or registration number.
- Urgency and/or confidentiality required.
Verification:
- Check if the recruiter is registered on MEA's e-Migrate portal-this is a portal where MEA lists authorised overseas recruiters.
- Verify the authenticity of the company through its business registration with official registries in the foreign country.
- Contact the Indian Embassy/Consulate in that foreign country if something doesn't add up about the offer.
- Do not hand over your passport to your employer on arrival; it is standard practice for recruiters working as traffickers to confiscate it.
What to do if trapped:
- Contact the closest Indian embassy or consulate immediately.
- Call the MEA overseas helpline: 1800-11-3090.
- Lodge a report on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (cybercrime.gov.in).
Policy Imperatives
On their own, individual consciousness cannot undo such a massive criminal infrastructure. India has to enforce the Emigration Act rigorously, implement mandatory licensing of recruitment agents and create a specialised task force consisting of NIA, CBI, MEA and the states’ cybercrime units. Pre-departure orientations should also become mandatory for migrant workers who go to Southeast Asia. Globally, India needs to work more closely with Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and Laos via intel sharing protocols, victim repatriations and action against scam compounds. Financial probes must be on par with enforcement investigations to catch up with the perpetrators’ network, the cryptocurrency and hawala channels that facilitate money laundering and finance trafficking operations, as that would severely hit these networks.
Conclusion
This arrest of the recruiter in Vellore is just a small piece of a larger network. What we see in these instances is the marriage of cybercrime, trafficking, and financial fraud into a larger transnational ecosystem that systematically preys on the economic vulnerability of individuals. These young Indians are not simply falling for scams; they are being systematically targeted, recruited, trafficked, and forced into these criminal operations by a networked structure. The scam compounds in Cambodia and along the border of Myanmar and Thailand are only the end of a process that very likely starts with a convincing job offer on social media. Fighting cyber slavery will not be as simple as more arrests; we need education and international efforts, as well as policy responses that match the scope and scale of the problem.
References
- https://the420.in/78415-2vellore-man-cambodia-cyber-slavery-trafficking-case/
- https://the420.in/madhan-vadivel-cambodia-cyber-slavery-trafficking-racket-investigation/
- https://www.newsonair.gov.in/tamil-nadu-police-arrest-key-recruiter-in-cambodia-cyber-slavery-racket/
- https://kashmirdotcom.in/2026/05/16/cambodia-linked-human-trafficking-cyber-slavery-racket-nia-chargesheets-five-including-absconding-kingpin/
- https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/16/more-than-1000-arrested-in-cambodian-cyber-scam-raids
- https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/why-southeast-asias-online-scam-industry-is-so-hard-to-shut-down
- https://www.cfr.org/articles/how-myanmar-became-global-center-cyber-scams
- https://www.amlrightsource.com/resources/scam-states-the-cybercrime-corruption-complex-in-southeast-asia-and-the-collapse-of-anti-money-laundering-enforcement
- https://newlinesinstitute.org/global-security-mil-priorities/cybercrimes-human-trafficking-and-cryptocurrency-in-southeast-asias-special-economic-zones/
- https://www.theweek.in/news/india/2026/03/21/lured-by-jobs-sold-into-slavery-indias-crackdown-on-cyber-trafficking-continues.html
