Does a photo show a pro-Palestine protester in the United States defiantly using an officer's riot shield as a mirror as she applies her lip gloss? No, that's not true: This photo's authentic caption says it shows a protester in Tbilisi, Georgia. A different photo from a Reuters photographer covering the April 16, 2024, demonstrations in Tbilisi against a proposed "foreign agents" bill shows the same building in the background, corroborating the location as Georgia. The demonstration in Tbilisi was unrelated to pro-Palestine college campus protests in the United States.
The claim appeared in a post on X by @rcmoya84 on May 2, 2024, which was captioned:
I don't know who she is but she's iconic. A true queen.
This is what the post looked like on X, formerly known as Twitter, at the time of the writing of this fact check:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Fri May 3 16:57:42 2024 UTC)
A reverse image search (archived here) for this photo with Google Lens leads to results with a mix of captions -- some claim this is a campus protest, and others identify the location as Tbilisi. Two April 17, 2024, posts, one on Reddit, with a wider crop than seen in other instances, and a post on Instagram (pictured below) from an account in Tbilisi captioned in Georgian. Translated by Lead Stories, it read:
The future of Georgia is in Europe! 🇬🇪🇪🇺 So many times and forever (we've been saying this.) #არარუსეთს (#notorussia)
(Source: Instagram screenshot taken on Fri May 3 18:26:40 2024 UTC)
An April 20, 2024, post on X (pictured below) was captioned:
The Parliament in Georgia is trying to pass a russian-style law again that would block their EU path, and Georgians aren't really fond of it
(Source: X screenshot taken on Fri May 3 18:26:40 2024 UTC)
Although these posts do give a strong indication that the photo was from Tbilisi, Lead Stories wanted further verification of the location.
The lip-gloss image did not appear in news coverage of the protests in Georgia.
Lead Stories searched Google for news from "April 16 2024 protests in Tbilisi Georgia" and found a photo in an April 17, 2024, Reuters article that showed protesters facing off against riot police. A building in the background features the same stains and hanging wire as pictured in the background of the lip-gloss image. The Reuters photo by Irakli Gedenidze was captioned:
Demonstrators stand in front of police officers during a protest against a draft bill on 'foreign agents' in Tbilisi, Georgia April 16, 2024.
(Source: Lead Stories composite image with Reuters and X screenshots taken on Fri May 3 18:51:33 2024 UTC)
Three screenshots of posts on X (here, here and here) from May 2-3, 2024, show that people on both sides of the Hamas-Israel war fell for the mislabeled image, with captions such as:
-
Palestine loves you babe!
You are such an American queen. - I look at this and see someone who is 1000% unprepared for the level of force the state intends to use to repress this recent wave of student protest. I don't see how yall still find this iconic or inspiring
- A true queen doesn't side with terrorist barbarians like Hamas.
(Source: X screenshots taken on Fri May 3 18:26:40 2024 UTC)
This is not the first time a photo of a woman went viral when facing off with riot police in this manner. In 2015, Jasmina Golubovska not only applied red lipstick, but planted a red kiss on a riot policeman's shield in Skopje, Macedonia. The Guardian reported on the viral photo (pictured below) in an article titled, "Macedonia's lipstick protester: 'I saw the policeman smile very slightly.'"
(Source: theguardian.com screenshot taken on Fri May 3 19:45:55 2024 UTC)
Other Lead Stories fact checks of claims about U.S. protests over the Hamas-Israel war can be found here.
