A photo shared on social media describing Trump supporters arriving in Washington DC ahead of a January 6 demonstration is actually a photo of a 2018 gun control.
Numerous posts (here, here, here and here) showing the same picture were either posted in Facebook groups related to the pro-Trump protest on January 6, or were posted with a description linking the photo with the demonstrations connected.
The photo was first published by the Washington Post in 2018 (here) with the caption: “Hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered in downtown Washington on Saturday for the March for Our Lives rally to call for stricter gun control measures.”
Salwan Georges, the photographer who attributed the photo, posted on Twitter on January 5 to confirm that the photo was his and did not show continuous protests. He wrote: “After seeing several people on social media sharing this photo and claiming that it shows the crowds that gathered in Washington DC today, I want to make it clear that I took this photo on March 24, 2018 while booked the March for Our Lives event in the capital. . The photo was not taken today. ”(here)
Several rallies are scheduled for Wednesday, January 6, including one outside the U.S. Congress (here).
VERDICT
Untrue. Reports incorrectly described a 2018 photo as protesters in Washington, DC in January 2021.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to actually check social media posts.