Does a meme showing thousands of people packed into a street intersection depict a January 2021 "Big Payback" rally in Washington, D.C.? No, that's not true: The image used in the meme shows a January 21, 2017, women's anti-Trump march in Los Angeles.
The meme appeared in from a post (archived here) shared on Facebook on January 5, 2021, under the title "DC Just shut the Electric Off to the Rally! No Lights, Mic Nothing! Unbelieveable!!!" The caption above the misused photo read:
Get Ready For The Big Payback. January 6, 2021
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Wed Jan 6 17:42:13 2021 UTC)
The photo of the crowd is the same image tweeted on January 21, 2017, by the Los Angeles mayor:
L.A., thank you for a show of unity, peace & strength. #WomensMarch #WomensMarchLAhttps://t.co/V6YndOoSkN pic.twitter.com/ldeFgjkX9y
-- MayorOfLA (@MayorOfLA) January 21, 2017
The Los Angeles women's march was estimated by police to total at least 500,000, according to Time magazine.
While the Washington, D.C., officials do not release crowd estimates, photos actually from January 6, 2021, do show a very large gathering in support of President Trump.
Washington DC today pic.twitter.com/BU2OPsFdXj
-- Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) January 6, 2021
