This photo shows an anti-government protest in Bucharest in 2017, not 2021
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on February 24, 2021 at 10:30
- 2 min read
- By Rémi BANET
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The image was shared here on Facebook on February 20, 2021.
“Romanians are protesting against their government that imposed restrictions citing coronavirus. I wish people [South Koreans] were wise like this,” reads the Korean-language caption.
The accompanying photo shows a huge crowd gathered on a street.
An identical photo was shared on Facebook here and here alongside a similar claim.
The claim is false: the image shows an anti-government protest in Bucharest three years before the coronavirus pandemic.
A reverse image search on Google found the photo was published here on Twitter by geopolitical analyst Koert Debeuf on February 5, 2017.
“Wow. Bucharest, Romania tonight. The people ask the government to leave,” the tweet reads.
A similar photo taken on February 5, 2017 by AFP journalist Andrei Pungovschi shows huge numbers of protesters in the same square in Bucharest.
The AFP photo caption reads in part: “This picture shows a large view of people protesting against the Romanian government's contentious corruption decree in front of the government headquarters at the Victoriei square in Bucharest on February 5, 2017.”
The protests saw hundreds of thousands of Romanians demonstrating to protest against an emergency decree that would have decriminalised certain corruption offences. The decree was subsequently scrapped, AFP reported on February 5, 2017.
The presence on the two images of several vehicles parked at the same locations (circled in green by AFP), as well as the presence of a yellow banner in the same location, confirm that the two photos were taken on the same evening.
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