A post shared on X, formerly Twitter, claims Qatar has banned McDonald’s.

🇶🇦 Qatar decided to close all the MC Donald’s store 🏪#Gaza#Gaza_Genocide#FreePalestine#فلسطين#ابو_عبيدة#ولعت pic.twitter.com/J1Nt7dbdpK

— محمد (@mynameameed) December 29, 2023

Verdict: False

There is no evidence that this occurred.

Fact Check:

The families of hostages held by Hamas arrived in Qatar to try and resurrect discussions to free said hostages, according to the Times of Israel. Qatar has mediated discussions between Hamas and Israel before, the outlet reported.

Social media users are sharing a video of a bulldozer destroying a McDonald’s sign, claiming that Qatar has banned McDonald’s. One user wrote, “Qatar decided to close all the MC Donald’s store.”

This claim, however, is false. Through a reverse image search, Check Your Fact found that the video is from 2018 and does not show a McDonald’s in Qatar. The video actually shows a McDonald’s in Kansas, a state in the United States, according to the video’s description on Facebook.

“So this just happened. McDonald’s in Pratt, closed for lunch!” the Facebook post reads. (RELATED: Image Of Israeli Soldiers Celebrating Hanukkah Appears To Be AI-Generated)

The McDonald’s was closed, and the demolishment was planned in July 2018, according to the Salinas Journal. The outlet reported that the McDonald’s would be reopened in October 2018.

“Demolition will begin starting Monday morning. Their contract states 115 days, so we hope the new building is up sometime in October,” Pratt City Building Inspector Brad Blankenship said to the outlet at the time.