Fact Check: This Picture Is Old And Has No Relation With The Anti-Lockdown Protest

Vishvas News (New Delhi): Pictures of a protest are going viral on social media. It is being claimed that this is a picture of a demonstration happening abroad against the coronavirus lockdown. Through this photo, measures that are being taken during rises cases of coronavirus in India are being criticised.

During Vishvas News investigation, the claim being made about the viral picture has turned out to be fake. The photo related to the protest against the then President in Algeria is being shared now with a false claim.

Coronavirus cases are rising in India and different state governments are trying to break the chain of coronavirus infection by imposing various restrictions on public movement.

Claim

Facebook user Ashish Singh shared the viral photo on April 23, 2021, writing, ‘Lockdown is being boycotted in this way abroad and here lockdown is awaited, God is the owner.’

The archived version of this post can be viewed by clicking here.

Investigation

Vishvas News used the Google reverse image search tool to verify the photo. We found many results related to the picture on the Internet. We found a report published on dubawa.org on November 20, 2020. The report states that this picture is related to the protest that started in February 2019 against the then President of Algeria. The report can be viewed by clicking here.

Based on the clue we got from this report, we searched more about this picture. We also found this picture in the report published on islam21c.com on March 13, 2019. In this report as well, it has been described as a picture related to the movement that started in Algeria (Algerian Spring) in February 2019. This report can be viewed by clicking here.

Vishvas News, in its investigation, found that this picture is already on the internet before the first case report (December 2019) of Covid-19 infection in the world. It is not related to the coronavirus lockdown, but to the political movement in Algeria. Vishvas News shared the viral picture with the reporter of Algeria Today for further confirmation. He also confirmed that this photo was taken during the diamond movement (a name for the movement for change of power) in 2019 in Algeria. It has nothing to do with the coronavirus lockdown.

Vishvas News scanned the profile of the Facebook user Ashish Singh who posted the viral photo. The user has not made his information public on his profile.