Is the United States the only country on Earth that is protesting being on lockdown amid the coronavirus outbreak? No, that's not true: There have been COVID-19 lockdown fueled protests around the world. There have been protests in France, Germany and Poland, Brazil, India and Australia, among others.
A meme claiming that only Americans are protesting appeared as a post (archived here) where it was published by Facebook on May 12, 2020, under the title "Privilege in real-time." It opened:
Honest Question: Why do you think the United States is the only country on Earth that is protesting being on lockdown?Because people that have never truly been oppressed are being inconvenienced for the first time in their lives and don't understand what it means to sacrifice in the name of the greater good. Individualist culture, institutionalized racism, commodity fetishism and selfishness.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
The claim that the United States is the only country on Earth that is protesting being on lockdown is false.
The original question posed on Twitter. A screen grab of the conversation was posted on Facebook where it went viral.
Honest question: why do you think the United States is the only country on earth that is protesting being locked down?
-- Dubstep Marie Kondo (@itsbeargrillz) May 2, 2020
Here is a list of protests that have been held around the world fighting back against COVID-19 lockdown restrictions:
On May 10, 2020, there were protests in Victoria and Sydney, Australia The Guardian reported. Over 100 people protested outside parliament in Victoria and a small group gathered to protest in Sydney.
In April, protesters were joined by Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro as they demanded an end to the restrictions state sovernors placed to stop the spread of coronavirus, the BBC reported.
In India, protesters gathered demanding they be allowed to travel to their hometowns amid the coronavirus shut down.
Multiple countries in Europe have had large protests of their citizens pushing back against coronavirus lockdowns.
More than 130 people were detained throughout Germany on May 9, 2020, as protests against coronavirus lockdowns turned violent.
Here is video of a suburb of Paris where riot police were patrolling during "civil unrest amid strict lockdown rules to curb the coronavirus outbreak" GlobalNews.com reported.
Riot police were called to a suburb near Paris in the early hours of Tuesday after people set bins and bushes on fire and let off fireworks, in a new night of civil unrest amid strict lockdown rules to curb the coronavirus outbreak. Riot police patrolled the suburb of Villeneuve-La-Garenne, north of the French capital, where trouble first broke out on Saturday after a motorcyclist collided with an unmarked police car during a chase.
