Multiple Instagram, Facebook and Twitter posts have shared an aerial photo which they claim shows a protest against coronavirus lockdowns in the UK capital of London in April 2021. The claim is false: the photo shows a march in October 2018 that called for a fresh referendum on Brexit.
The photo was shared here on Instagram on April 26, 2021.
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The post's caption reads in part: "UK Anti Lockdown 24.04.21. Aerial View, My word, that is some Epic amount Of Conspiracy Theorists. Long Live Freedom".
A screenshot of the misleading Instagram post as of April 29, 2021. The photo circulated online two days after demonstrators gathered in London to protest against the UK's Covid-19 restrictions.
Thousands marched along several major arteries in the city, AFP reported.
The same photo was also shared alongside a similar claim here and here on Facebook; and here and here on Twitter.
The claim is false.
A reverse search on Yandex followed by keyword searches on Google found the photo shows a march calling for a fresh referendum on Brexit in October 2018.
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The photo is almost identical to the image published here by UK broadcaster ITV on October 20, 2018.
The ITV report reads in part: "Organisers claim 670,000 people have attended a march in central London calling for a fresh referendum on the outcome of the Brexit negotiations.
"The People's Vote march set off from Park Lane before heading to Parliament Square for a rally."
Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo in the misleading posts (L) and the image published by ITV (R):
A screenshot comparison of the image in the misleading post (L) and the image in the ITV report (R) The photo also corresponds to videos of the same march calling for a fresh Brexit vote published here by ITV and here by The Guardian.
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AFP has previously debunked misleading posts that have similarly misrepresented an anti-Brexit demonstration in March 2019 as an anti-lockdown protest.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by BOOM staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
