No, this photo does not show a popular Indonesian band declaring its support for presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on November 22, 2018 at 15:13
- 1 min read
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The photo shows the GIGI band members displaying a hand gesture with their thumb and index fingers raised.
Among the posts, this November 17 entry -- shared nearly 1,000 times in four days -- is captioned “BAND GIGI FOR PRABOWO SANDI”.
Sandi refers to Subianto’s running mate, Sandiaga Uno.
The photo was actually taken during GIGI’s visit to Japan, where they visited a branch office of state lender Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) on July 28, 2018.
It was taken and published by Indonesia’s official Antara news agency.
The caption for Antara’s photo states: “Members of GIGI pose for a photograph at Bank Negara Indonesia’s branch office in Tokyo during the band’s visit to Japan to play at the Festival Indonesia in Tokyo, Saturday, July 28. Bank Negara Indonesia supports the event, which is held at the Hibya Park in Tokyo, from July 28 to 29 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Indonesia-Japan cooperation.”
The photo was also published by Media Indonesia, a Jakarta-based newspaper here.
The article about their visit was published on July 29, more than a week before Subianto first announced that he had chosen Uno as his running mate. Here is an August 10 article on his announcment.
GIGI also insisted in a post on Facebook it had not supported Subianto and the photo was used out of context.
“GIGI has never been involved in any presidential campaigns. We want to clarify that this viral claim is a HOAX,” GIGI said in the post.
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