A photo, from a techno music festival in the Swiss city of Zürich from August 2019, was massively shared on social media platforms, claiming that they were taken during the protest against the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions imposed by the authorities, organized on August 1, this year, in Berlin.

The photo, taken from a height and showing a large number of people, also had a description, claiming that the protests, in the German capital, would’ve been attended by more than a million people. The description also mentioned that the authorities and the so-called mass media loyal to the state would be lying about the number of people who participated at the protest. The German authorities claimed that a few tens of thousands of people attended the protest.

The photo, which was taken in 2019 in Zürich, was shared on August 1 and 2 on social media platforms in several European countries. The same photo was also shared by Internet users in Moldova, with descriptions such as “Berlin, August 1, 2020 – Stop the panic, give our fundamental rights back!”, “Corona, a false alarm” or “Pandemic end – the freedom day.” 

In Romania, the photo was also shared by numerous Internet users on social media platforms, including the page of the Coalition for Family, which has 87,000 followers.

However, the photo was taken in August 2019 during the 28th edition of Street Parade in Zürich, a techno music festival attended by 850,000 people, according to the organizers. The event was to take place this year as well but was canceled due to COVID-19.

One more photo, taken during the Love Parade techno music festival that took place in Berlin, was also shared on social media platforms, claiming that it would’ve been from the protest in Berlin. 

On August 1, a protest was held in Berlin under the slogan Pandemic end – the freedom day. During the protest, the people expressed their discontent with the restrictive measures imposed by the German authorities to stop the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19 disease.

While supporters of the Berlin protest write on social media platforms that the rally was attended by about 1 million people, the German and international media mentions that the number of participants was between 15,000-20,000, and the police stated the figure of 17,000. During the protest from August 1, 45 police officers were injured and 133 participants were arrested.

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