Photo shows president-led biker rally in Brazil, not support for terminally ill German child
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on April 13, 2023 at 11:41
- 3 min read
- By Kate TAN, AFP Australia
Copyright © AFP 2017-2025. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.
The picture was shared on Facebook here on April 9, 2023 by a page with more than 384,000 followers.
Text underneath the picture reads: "In Germany, a 6 year old boy who loved Motorcycles was diagnosed with cancer. His family posted online asking if someone can ride pass (sic) their house to cheer him up. They expected 20-30 people. But in the end, nearly 20,000 bikers showed up."
The post's caption says: "This is amazing.. We stick together."
The same picture and text were shared together elsewhere on Facebook by users in Australia, the United States and Germany.
But the picture shows a biker rally in Brazil led by then-president Jair Bolsonaro in 2021 in Sao Paulo, not Germany.
Bolsonaro-led biker rally
A reverse image search on Google led to a similar photo used in an article by the UK's Guardian newspaper on June 13, 2021.
It reported Bolsonaro was fined by the state government of Sao Paulo for not wearing a mask as he led thousands of motorcycle-riding supporters through the city on June 12, 2021.
AFP reported that Bolsonaro had worn an open-faced helmet and no mask, in violation of state health regulations, during the "Accelerate for Christ" rally.
The far-right former president had been holding such rallies across Brazil as he geared up to seek re-election in 2022.
Bolsonaro also posted a video of the rally on his Twitter account.
Footage from the video posted on Bolsonaro's Twitter account matches the image that has circulated in social media posts.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the picture used in the false post (left) and a still from the video uploaded to Bolsonaro's Twitter account (right), with corresponding features highlighted by AFP:
The stretch of road in the picture corresponds to a motorway in Sao Paulo -- Rodovia dos Bandeirantes.
Below is a screenshot comparison of Bolsonaro's video on Twitter (left) and Google Street View imagery of the location on Google Maps (right), with matching features highlighted by AFP:
Rhauderfehn riders
While the picture does not show a motorcycle rally in Germany, text in the false social media posts is largely accurate in describing how thousands of motorcyclists converged on the northwestern German town of Rhauderfehn on July 24, 2021.
According to a local newspaper, the bikers were responding to a call to drive by the home of a young motorcycle fan who was terminally ill.
The report says it took more than three hours for all the bikers -- an estimated 15,000 to 20,000, according to local police -- to drive by the home of six-year-old Kilian Sass.
It quotes Ralf Pietsch, the organiser of the campaign and a friend of the Sass family, as saying: "I met Kilian afterwards. He can't get the smile off his face."
"In his little world, he's totally celebrating the event. It was the greatest thing for him."
Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.
Contact us
