As fuel prices in India have increased in recent times, a photo is being shared widely on social media with a claim that it shows a protest in Germany against the petrol price hike by their government. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Photo of a protest in Germany against the petrol price hike by their government.
Fact: The posted photo is related to China, not Germany. The photo was taken in 2012 when cars were stuck in a traffic jam in Shenzhen city. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When the posted photo was run through Google Reverse Image search, the same photo was found in an article published by ‘The Telegraph’ in 2012. In the description of the photo, it can be read – “Cars during a traffic jam in Shenzhen city, Guangdong province, in 2012“. The traffic jam occurred in 2012 as the government has granted free road travel during the holidays in China. More photos of the same traffic jam taken by a Shutterstock photographer can be seen here.
When we searched about the traffic jam mentioned above, an article by ‘The Atlantic’ that reported this incident was found. It can be read here. So, it can be concluded that the posted photo does not show people in Germany protesting against the increased fuel price.
Also, no such protest (’10-lakh-car-blockade’) against the petrol price hike was reported in Germany. In the past, there were other protests in Germany on fuel prices details of which can be found here and here.
This photo was also shared in the past with the same claim and gets revived on social media whenever there is a discussion over fuel price rise in the country. The fact-check article written by FACTLY in 2019 on the same photo can be seen here.
To sum it up, with fuel price rise in the country, a photo of traffic jam in China got revived again as German fuel protest.
