No, this image does not show a collection of pornographic videos found at Bashar Assad’s palace

Rebel forces toppled former Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government Dec. 8, forcing him to flee to Russia while his overthrowers freed political captives from the nation’s prisons.

Syrians ransacked Assad’s Damascus residence. Associated Press photos showed papers, books and glass shards strewn across rooms as people took appliances, clothing, furniture and other objects from the now-abandoned property.

On X, some shared an image of pornographic DVDs they claimed were also found at his residence.

“NSFW: Additional pile of movies found in Assad’s palace,” an X post from the account @Breaking911, a self-identified “alternative news” platform which PolitiFact has previously fact-checked, read. The post included a collage of two photos showing stacks of explicit DVDs.

A Community Note disputed the claim and linked to a website for a Southport, Australia, auction dealer that showed the post’s image originated from images that appeared in a May 15, 2021, ad for three boxes of porn DVDs. (Community Notes are a crowdsourced fact-checking program.)

“I agree folks this is a bit out of our comfort zone,” the ad said. “But it was found in a deceased estate and the family want as much money out of it as they can get. So we are selling dear old dads 3 boxes of porn DVD’s.”

The image in the X post appeared to be edited, a compilation of three images that appeared in the auction ad; the titles of the DVDs in the X post match those on the auction site.

Google searches for news reports about the DVDs at Assad’s residence yielded no results.

We rate the claim that a photo shows a pile of X-rated DVDs found at Assad’s palace False.