A photo shows thousands of people in South Korea protesting the declaration of martial law on 3 December 2024.
The image is actually from 2016, predating South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol’s declaration of martial law by eight years. It shows a demonstration against a different South Korean president in Seoul.
A photo being shared online that allegedly depicts recent protests against the South Korean president’s declaration of martial law was actually taken eight years ago.
People on social media have shared the image claiming it shows protesters marching in Seoul on 4 December 2024 to demand the resignation of President Yoon Suk Yeol after he declared martial law on 3 December. Several posts include a caption which reads: “Today on the streets of South Korea as they marched the streets toward the presidential palace to demand the resignation of President Yoon Suk-yeol.”
But the photo, which was taken by an Associated Press (AP) photographer, actually shows a protest against a different president in Seoul on 3 December 2016.
A caption on the original photo says: “Hundreds of thousands of South Koreans marched in the capital for the sixth straight Saturday calling for the removal of scandal-plagued Park, who faces an impeachment vote in parliament next week.”
President Yoon declared martial law at around 11pm Korean Standard Time (2pm GMT) on 3 December, with lawmakers voting to overturn the order several hours later. Later on 4 December, opposition lawmakers tabled a motion to impeach the president.
This week, South Korea’s constitutional court began trial proceedings for the impeachment, and now has six months to decide whether to remove or reinstate Yoon.
We have previously debunked other miscaptioned pictures and videos of protests, including a 2022 demonstration in Iran claimed to be recent and a video which was falsely claimed to show Lebanese citizens celebrating the death of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Misinformation can spread quickly online during rapidly developing global events, and it’s important to consider whether what you are seeing is accurate before sharing posts on social media.
We have created guides to identifying misleading images and videos to help you better navigate content online.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because the photo is eight years old and doesn’t show recent events.
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