As pubs and retail stores across England opened their doors for the first time in months, a photograph of crowds waiting outside a Primark was shared on social media, causing some users to mistakenly believe it was taken earlier that day.
Hundreds of thousands of businesses have been closed since early January when England entered a third lockdown to stem surging infections driven by the “Kent” variant of the virus (here).
On April 12, shops, pubs, gyms and hairdressers were allowed to reopen for the first time in three months.
Undeterred by the unseasonably cold weather, enthusiastic shoppers were pictured gathered outside their favourite stores.
The same day, a photo showing hundreds of people queuing in the dark outside a Primark was uploaded to social media with the caption: “After 4 months, the knicker drawer is about to finally get a refresh...” (here).
The image was shared on a Facebook page by The Leicester Bible, which disclaims that: “Everything on this page is about giving you opinions, humour and a satirical version of events related to Leicester and sometimes beyond”.
Despite this, some have believed the picture was captured earlier that day.
“And then people will wonder why we’re back in lockdown in a month’s time,” commented one user. “Back into lockdown,” remarked another.
While there were some reports of lengthy queues forming outside stores around England, including Primark in Leicester (here , here), the image in question was actually taken in Birmingham in early December.
The same picture was published by the Birmingham Mail in an article about shoppers not respecting social distancing at a Primark at Fort Shopping Park on Dec. 2(here).
VERDICT
Satire. The photograph was taken in December, not April, and was published on a Facebook page that posts satirical content.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to fact-check social media posts www.reuters.com/fact-check/.
"image" - Google News
April 19, 2021 at 06:35PM
https://ift.tt/3dApdON
Fact Check-Image of crowds gathered outside a Primark store in England is old - Reuters
"image" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3dgnNWk
https://ift.tt/2zaSFZM
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Fact Check-Image of crowds gathered outside a Primark store in England is old - Reuters"
Post a Comment