Fact-check: Hong Kong school makes students dress as pro-democracy protesters?

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Photos of young students wearing gas masks and holding toy guns have been shared hundreds of times in multiple posts on Facebook, Instagram and Weibo, claiming their school has dressed them up as pro-democracy protesters. Images are being used in a misleading context; The school told AFP the photos were taken during a school activity in early June 2019, before three months of pro-democracy protests began in the city.

The photos were published in a Facebook post on September 17, 2019 by Leticia Li, chairwoman of the pro-Beijing group Justice Alliance.

Lee posted the photos to a Facebook group called “Hong Kong Citizens Support Strong Punishment of Local Rioters, Protect Hong Kong’s Rule of Law”, which has more than 7,000 members. .

Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:

In the background of one photo can be seen billboards with the logo of NERF, a toy gun made by Hasbro, an American toy company with a branch in Hong Kong.

The post’s traditional Chinese-language caption has been translated into English: “Students at a Hong Kong primary school are all dressed in ‘cockroach outfits’, holding ‘fake weapons’ and appearing to be preparing to shoot.” are doing

“It was a poisonous attempt by the teachers to brainwash them.

“These children are the next generation of Hong Kong! How much do their parents know?”

Lee later edited the post’s caption.

Protesters have been called “cockroaches” by police and pro-establishment figures during the city’s ongoing protests, according to an AFP report published on September 16.

The post includes the Hong Kong Jockey Club Primary School logo of the University of Education.

Some comments on the post show that several Facebook users believed the claim.

A user comment in traditional Chinese translates to English: “Horrible, it must stop!”

Another wrote: “Teacher should be shot and hanged.” [This is] “Failure Education”.

Below is a screenshot of some of the comments:

Some or all of the photos have been shared hundreds of times with similar claims here and here on Facebook, here on Instagram and here and here on Weibo.

The claim is misleading; The school told AFP the photos were taken during a school activity in early June 2019, before massive pro-democracy protests hit the city.

A reverse image search on Google reveals that the same images are set for the Hong Kong Jockey Club Primary School’s website for the University of Education.

Below is a screenshot of the reverse image search results:

The photos have since been removed from the school’s website, as seen here.

In an email to AFP on September 18, a school spokesperson said the photos of its students were taken at an event on June 5, 2019, before three months of pro-democracy protests in the city. stay

The traditional Chinese language statement translates into English: “Photos taken by our students in an activity have been circulating on social media since yesterday with false captions, which do not represent the facts. We hereby issue the following explanation. do:

“In April this year, our school received several written invitations from various organizations that wanted to provide our students with a number of free activities including shooting, horse riding and leadership training.

“The shooting activity, aimed at deepening the students’ learning experience, was held on June 5, 2019. As seen in the photos, the students’ uniforms served safety purposes during training and Hong Kong. Not related to recent events.

“The pictures were taken by our staff during the activity, and the equipment was provided by the organization.

“We are very sorry that the images have caused misunderstandings among some people.”

The school confirmed with AFP that the images in the misleading post were deleted from the mobile phone of a staff member, who took them and sent them back to the school via WhatsApp.

On September 19, the school emailed AFP the metadata of a similar photo showing a group of masked students taken by another staff member at the same event on June 5.

A screenshot of the photo’s metadata shows it was taken using a Samsung SM-C9000 mobile phone at 10 Lo Ping Road, Tung Kok on 5 June 2019 at 2:24 pm.

The address corresponds to the Hong Kong Jockey Club Primary School’s University of Education location on Google Maps.

Below is a screenshot of the image metadata provided by the school.