Photo from 2018 US rally misrepresented as protest in Indian-controlled Kashmir in May 2022

  • This article is more than one year old.
  • Published on June 2, 2022 at 07:12
  • Updated on June 2, 2022 at 07:12
  • 3 min read
  • By AFP Pakistan

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A photo of a packed street has been shared dozens of times across Facebook and Twitter posts that claim it shows a "massive protest in Srinagar", a city in the Indian-controlled Kashmir, over the sentencing of a campaigner for the region's independence in May 2022. However, the claim is false; the image was in fact taken during a rally supporting gun control in the US capital, Washington, in 2018.

The photo of massive crowds filling a street was posted here on Facebook on May 25, 2022, where it has been shared more than 40 times. 

The Urdu-language caption translates as: "This is the freedom march. In Srinagar slogans were raised to free Yasin Malik. Your freedom march is fake."

A screenshot taken on May 31, 2022, of the misleading Facebook post

The caption appears to contrast the protest in Srinagar, in the India-controlled part of Kashmir, over the sentencing of independence leader Mohammad Yasin Malik on May 25, 2022, with the "real freedom march", the violent rally organised by the ousted Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan on the same day.

Malik, leader of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), was sentenced to life imprisonment by an Indian court for terrorism and funding acts of terror, AFP reported here. 

The photo has been shared more than 130 times after it also circulated alongside a similar claim on Facebook here, here and here; and on Twitter here and here.

However, the claim is false.

2018 Washington rally

A reverse image search found the photo on the website of photo agency Getty Images here.

The caption partly reads: "Crowds and celebrities attend the March for Our Lives Rally on March 24, 2018 in Washington, DC."

Hundreds of thousands of people, including celebrities, joined the March for Our Lives, a student-led demonstration demanding stricter gun control, in Washington on March 24, 2018. 

Below is a screenshot comparison of the picture used in the misleading post (left) and the Getty Images photo (right):

Screenshot comparison of the picture used in the misleading post (left) and the Getty Images photo (right)

A similar scene from the protest was captured in this photo, taken by the Associated Press.

The buildings seen in the photos, which include the Canadian Embassy on the right and the Old Post Office Tower in the centre, can be seen on the Google Street View of Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington.

AFP's photos of the same protest on Pennsylvania Avenue can be seen here and here. 

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