This photo shows a protest in Thailand in 2010
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on November 11, 2021 at 04:15
- 3 min read
- By AFP Philippines
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Facebook posts shared thousands of times purport to show a photo of supporters of Philippine politician Ferdinand Marcos Jr gathered to back his bid for presidency in the 2022 election. The claim is false; the picture shows a political protest in Bangkok, Thailand in 2010.
The photo was posted on November 7 in a Facebook post shared more than 2,500 times.
"Happy Red Day! Let's Support Bongbong Marcos," reads the post, followed by Tagalog text: "Together we will rise again!"
"Bongbong" is the nickname of Marcos Jr -- the son and namesake of the Philippines' former dictator -- who said in October he would run in the 2022 presidential election.
"Red day" refers to various pro-Marcos Jr rallies held on November 7, including a motorcade rally in his bailiwick Ilocos Sur which drew thousands of supporters.
Pictures of the event in local media reports showed many attendees wearing red, the colour traditionally associated with the Marcos family.
The photo was shared in similar Facebook posts here, here and here.
However, the claim is false.
Reverse image searches and keyword searches found the photo posted on WikiMedia Commons on September 19, 2010, more than one decade before Marcos Jr announced he would run in the 2022 presidential race.
According to the photo description, the picture shows a rally in Bangkok, Thailand.
"The red shirts organised mass rallies across Thailand to mark the ousting of former Thai prime minister Thaksin by a military coup 4 years ago, and to commemorate the final day of the military crackdown on their protests 4 months ago," it reads.
"Red Shirts" refer to pro-democracy supporters of former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in 2006 when the military seized power.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo in the misleading posts (left) and the 2010 photo (right):
Further keyword searches found a similar image of the "Red Shirt" protest in an article by the Bangkok Post on September 20, 2010.
The photo caption reads: "Red shirt rallies in Bangkok and up-country to mark the fourth anniversary of the Sept 19, 2006 coup yesterday were large and peaceful."
A similar photo was published here on the AFP Forum, which states it was taken on September 19, 2010 by AFP photographer Christophe Archambault.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo in the misleading posts (L) and a similar image by AFP (R) with identical elements circled:
According to the Bangkok Post's report, the photo was taken at the Ratchaprasong intersection in the Thai capital. The location can be seen here on Google Street View.
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