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Images circulating on social media appear to show an instruction manual forGeorge Floydprotesters,accidentally dropped duringthe demonstrations. This claim is false.

Reuters Fact Check. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt

Examplesofthis claim can be seen here and here .

The image appears to be a scanned copy of a crumpleddocument containingapproved practices for protesting,instructions around whether toescalatethe conflict,guidelines for the useof props, and otherdirectionsforgeneral behavior.At the bottom ofthe page, the document is marked confidential, and Level 7, implying the involvement of government entities.Thescanned document also contains what appears to be the signature of Soros.

This leaked document, however, is not recent, nor is its appearance onlinerelated to the protestsacross the U.S. following the death of George Floyd.A quick searchonlineshows that this scanned page is part of a larger instruction manual posted online at least as far back as 2018 by outlets likeInfowars, in whichitalleged a funding conspiracy related to protests after the death of Freddie GrayinApril,2015.

One version of theclaimfeaturing a longerdocument can be seenin a Twitter post, here .

Thelongerdocument is entitledBWI041815, in reference to Baltimorethe place of Grays death andof the subsequent protestswhich began in mid-April 2015(Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport is often referred to as BWI).Other hand-written notes on the document alsoreference April 2015.Thislonger document appeared to start circulating online around 2018.

At the top,thedocumentprominently showsthe logo for Friends of Democracy, a Super PAC (Political Action Committee) founded by Jonathan Soros,son of George Soros( archive.vn/wvAl2 ).In past election cycles, the Friends of Democracy Super PAC had donated exclusively to Democratic politicians ( here ).

In2014,the Huffington Post reportedFriends of Democracymerged withthe Public Campaign Action fund to create Every Voice, anon-profit organization focused on campaign finance reform ( here ).Friends of Democracythereforemerged into a different PACayear prior to the protests in Baltimore following Freddie Grays deathin April 2015, andsix yearsprior tothe protestsfollowing George Floyds deathin May 2020.

When the claims that Friends of Democracy were funding protesters afterGrays deathcirculatedin 2018,theCEO ofthe organization, David Donnelly,issued a statementon Twitterconfirming these flyers were fabricated:[]No, Friends of Democracy PAC was created in 2012 to help elect money-in-politics reform champions. Period. Any document that says FOD was involved in, or funded, or in any way encourage, the protests in Baltimore afterFreddie Grays death IS COMPLETELY FALSE AND FORGED.( here )

Reuters recently debunked a claim related tofake flyers showingjob listings to become professional anarchistsandimplicating George Soros here .

False. George Floyd protesters were not issuedtheseinstructions.

This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to fact-check social media posts here .

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Fact check: Protesters were not issued instructions from Friends of Democracy PAC - Reuters