The photo was published on Twitter here on October 13, 2020. The post has since been retweeted over 390 times and liked over 1,300 times.
Screenshot captured on October 16, 2020, of the misleading tweet
The Twitter post's simplified Chinese caption translates to English as: "A phone was snatched by a monkey, and the monkey took a selfie. As a result, this photo won the selfie category championship of the 2020 iPhone Photography Awards."
Other Twitter users seemed to be believe the claim, leaving comments that translate to English as: "So how many bananas should be rewarded to the monkey," "Humans' art talent is not as good as animals," and "Would they offer the prize to the monkey?"
The photo has also been shared hundreds of times after it was published alongside claims about winning the photo contest in 2020 and 2019 on Twitter here, here and here; on Facebook here, here and here; and on Weibo here, here and here.
The claim, however, is false.
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The photo is not included among the 2019 and 2020 winners featured on the iPhone Photography Awards official website.
The contest also does not include a selfie category, as noted on the competition page.
The monkey photo appears to have been originally published on Instagram here in September 2019. AFP was unable to verify the photo's authenticity and the Instagram user did not respond to AFP inquiries.