Old Protest Image Reshared Without Context Amid Anti-CAA Stir
The image is from a protest which was organised in Kolkata but it is eight years old.
CLAIM
An image of two children holding placards that say ‘Massacre those who insult Islam’ is circulating on social media with a claim that a protest has been organised in Alimuddin Street, Kolkata and that it is ‘an open exhibition of Left-Islamic pact’.
The tweet has been shared by a Twitter user ‘Rishi Bagree’ with his 1,44,300 followers which reads, “This threat to massacre those who insult Islam is being organised from ALIMUDDIN STREET, Kolkata. Open exhibition of Left-Islamic pact on the streets of Kolkata (sic).”
An archived version of the photo can be accessed here.
The aforementioned post on Twitter had garnered over 400 retweets at the time of writing this story.
The image has been shared on Facebook too with a caption which reads, “This is happening in Kolkata, India. Not in Pakistan, not in Syria, not in Iraq, But in India.”
TRUE OR FALSE?
The image is from 2012 and though it is an original one, it has been cropped to use it in the current context to imply that Muslims in India are using hateful and violent slogans amid the ongoing protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
WHAT WE FOUND
A Google reverse-search on the image directed us to multiple reports related to the incident. We found the same image on Getty, which is a stock image website.
The caption of the picture read, “The Indian Muslim children hold anti-US placards as they participate in a protest meeting against the film ‘Innocence of Muslims’ in Kolkata on 5 October 2012. A low-budget, US-produced 'Innocence of Muslims' movie has incited a wave of bloody anti-US violence in Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia, Yemen and in several other countries across the Muslim world.”
In the absence of context, the poster shared appears to be from the ongoing anti-CAA protests, whereas it is nearly eight years old.
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