German farmers' protests are being shared with misleading claims linking them to India - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
February 17, 2021
A post accompanying a video of a tractor parade is being widely shared with a claim that the video shows German farmers’ tractor protest in solidarity with protesting Indian farmers. Another post (archived) which shares a set of images claiming to be those of recent protests by farmers in Germany is also being widely shared. Through this article let’s fact-check the claims made in these post.
Claim: Video of German farmers tractor parade in solidarity with protesting Indian farmers; Images of recent farmers’ protest in Germany.
Fact: The video actually shows a recent tractor parade organised by German farmers in Berlin protesting against their government policies. The parade is not in solidarity with protesting Indian farmers. And the set of images are actually of 2019 protests by German farmers against few government policies. Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
Video:
Reverse image search of the screenshots of the video led us to a website that uploaded the same video on 08 February 2021, the title of the video reads ‘FARMERS PROTESTING BERLIN GERMANY’. Further search also led us to few social media posts which shared the same video attributing it to farmers’ protest in Berlin. One such post can be seen here.
Taking a cue from the above posts, Google search with relevant keywords led us to a news video by Ruptly dated 06 February 2021 which reported about farmers tractor rally in Berlin. The description of the video reads ‘Farmers are demanding new regulations that require imported food to meet German standards and the suspension of the German Fertiliser Ordinance in place since 2021’. In both the viral video and the news report, we can see the same white colour vehicle adorned with tiny red colour lights and a poster with a slogan which reads ‘NO FARMERS NO FOOD NO FUTURE’.
Further Google search with relevant keywords yielded us multiple news articles which reported the farmers tractors parade in Berlin streets protesting against the new German Fertiliser Ordinance which limits the use of pesticides on agricultural lands to save insects. Few such news articles can be read here, here and here. All these suggest that the video in the post shows German farmers’ tractor parade against a new legislation but not in solidarity with protesting Indian farmers.
Image 1:
Reverse image search of this photo led us to a news article dated 26 November 2019 which published the same image. This article reported a protest by farmers against the German government and the European Union for their agricultural policies. This proves that the image is old and is connected to the recent protests in Germany.
Image 2 :
Reverse image search of this photo led us to a news article dated 26 November 2019 which published the same image. According to this article, the image is related to farmers protest on multiple issues like the government’s proposals to phase out and ban the weedkiller glyphosate by 2023, tighter regulations on the use of fertilizers and slurry to reduce nitrate content in groundwater, and also EU’s plans to reduce direct payments under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) from 2021 and link payments more closely to environmental measures. Video footage of the protest can be seen here.
Image 3:
Reverse image search of the photo yielded multiple 2019 news articles which published the same image. According to one such news article, the image shows farmers protesting against the government policies. Further search led us to the Getty Images collection in which the same image is also featured. Even the description of the image reiterates that the image is related to 2019 farmers’ protests in Germany.
Although farmers in Germany have protested recently against the government policies, these images are not related to the recent protests. In the light of the Indian farmers’ protest against the new farm laws, posts like these are being shared with misleading claims.
To sum it up, images and videos of German farmers’ protests are being shared with misleading claims linking them to India.