Foreign Affairs

FACT CHECK: Does This Photo Show People In Berlin Protesting Against Coronavirus Restrictions?

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An image shared on Facebook purportedly shows a large crowd in Berlin “protesting the covid hoax.”

Verdict: False

The photo shows a Swiss music festival in 2019, not a German protest in 2020.

Fact Check:

The image being shared shows thousands of people tightly packed together on several streets and what appears to be a bridge. The caption claims it depicts people in Berlin “right now..protesting the covid hoax.”

While thousands of demonstrators did take to the streets of Berlin to protest against Germany’s coronavirus restrictions on Aug. 1, the image does not come from that event. Flags visible in the photo indicate it was taken in the Swiss city of Zurich, not Berlin.

Through a reverse image search, the Daily Caller News Foundation traced the photo to a 2019 music festival called Street Parade that occurred in Zurich. The picture appears on Street Parade’s official website, and similar photos from different angles can be found on the annual festival’s Facebook page.

A spokesperson for Street Parade confirmed in an email to the DCNF that the picture depicts the 2019 Street Parade in Zurich.

The Street Parade website estimates that 850,000 people “danced with a sun-cloud mix to the beat of the 28 Love Mobiles and eight stages” at the 2019 festival. In comparison, approximately 17,000 people attended the Aug. 1 protest in Berlin, according to CNN.

The 2020 Street Parade was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.