Doctored image circulates in posts about 'protest sign demanding South Korean politicians' arrest'
- Published on October 3, 2024 at 09:54
- 3 min read
- By SHIM Kyu-Seok, AFP South Korea
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"A balloon sign hanging above Gwanghwamun on Armed Forces Day: arrest Moon and Lee," read the Korean-language post on Facebook on October 1, South Korea's Armed Forces Day.
A large military parade was held across Seoul to celebrate the occasion, which drew large crowds ranging from city hall to Gwanghwamun Square, a large plaza in front of the old royal palace (archived link).
The East Asian country used the event to show off its most powerful ballistic missile, the Hyunmoo-5, for the first time during the parade, widely regarded as a show of force to signal its readiness to respond to North Korea's threats.
The image shared on Facebook appeared to include a sign that read "arrest Moon Jae-in and Lee Jae-myung" floating above Gwanghwamun Square.
Identical images and claims were shared here, here and here in Facebook groups supporting right-wing politicians in the country.
Comments on the false posts indicated some users believed the image was genuine.
"Which brave soul had the guts to put this up, I commend them," one user wrote.
"What a great sight on an auspicious day," another said.
However, a reverse image search on Google found the image had been manipulated.
Altered image
A reverse image search on Google found the altered image circulated online since at least September 2023 by right-wing online newspaper Daehan Shinbo, which featured a watermark in the bottom right-hand corner for Newsis, a South Korean news organisation.
A separate keyword search on Newsis' website found the original image -- without the balloons or the protest sign -- published on August 25, 2014 (archived link).
The image's caption read: "Citizens and university students calling for the enactment of a special law on the Sewol ferry disaster face off against police near Gwanghwamun Square's Yi Sun-sin statue while on a march to the Blue House on the afternoon of the 25th."
Below is a screenshot comparison between the altered image shared on the Daehan Shinbo (left) and the original image published by Newsis (right), with matching features marked in red by AFP:
Gwanghwamun Square in these images also differs from its current state after the plaza's years-long renovation was completed in August 2022 (archived link).
A separate reverse image search on Google using a cropped image of the balloon sign found it was taken from a photo published by another right-wing online newspaper, Seoul Administration News, on December 31, 2022 (archived link).
Below is a separate comparison between the altered image shared by Daehan Sinbo (right) and the balloon photo published by Seoul Administration News (right):
The parade at Gwanghwamun Square on Armed Forces Day was well documented in images and live video footage (archived links here and here).
AFP checked multiple versions of parade footage but found no trace of a balloon referring to Moon and Lee.
AFP has previously debunked multiple altered images targeting Moon and Lee, including here and here.
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