No, this picture does not show an elevated highway in Indonesia's Papua province

This article is more than one year old.
Published on October 12, 2018 at 16:00
2 min read

A Facebook post shared an image which it claimed shows an elevated road in the Indonesian province of Papua, Indonesia's easternmost province which has suffered from years of underdevelopment. A reverse image search and Google mapping data showed the photo was actually of an elevated highway in New Taipei City in Taiwan. Taipei local authorities confirmed the road was in Taiwan and provided a photograph showing the cars on the highway driving on the right. Indonesia drives on the left.

The photograph was posted by a group called Jokowi Presiden RI 2019 -- which translates as Jokowi for Indonesian President in 2019. The group supports the country's leader, Joko Widodo, in his 2019 re-election bid. Widodo is popularly known as Jokowi.

Screenshot of misleading image

The post had nearly 4,000 reactions and 1,500 shares.

The post's caption says: "This is a fact and not a hoax... This is not the Himalayas, Switzerland, or Canada, but in Papua, Indonesia. Great work for the people. Not a big mouth who sells lies to the people .... Jokowi is great..."

Jokowi's bid for a second term has focused on a multi-billion-dollar infrastructure building programme, including developing poor regions such as Papua.

A Google reverse image search found that the elevated highway is actually in New Taipei City in Taiwan.

This image taken by the global photo agency Getty Images lists Taiwan as the location, specifically: New Taipei City, Wu-Yang Highway.

Another Getty photo of the road says in a caption: "This is the new highway between Wuku to Yangmei in Taiwan."

According to Google Maps data, the road is actually the "Wugu Yangmei Elevated Section" in Taipei.

The highway can be seen in this Google Maps link:

Taiwan's Transportation Ministry told AFP that the Facebook photo was of the Wu-Yang Highway.

The ministry provided a similar photo of the road, taken in daylight, which shows vehicles moving on the right side of the road.

Photograph of road from Taiwan’s Transportation Ministry

Traffic in Indonesia drives on the left hand side of the road.

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No, this picture does not show an elevated highway in Indonesia's Papua province

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