Fact check: False claim that article shows kissing protest by vaccine opponents in Germany

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The claim: Photo shows news article about German anti-vaccine protesters kissing in public

In early December, then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her successor, Olaf Scholz, announced that only people who are fully vaccinated or have recently recovered from COVID-19 can enter non-essential public spaces in Germany.

The new restrictions sparked protests, including one on Dec. 11 that left 14 police officers injured.

Now, social media posts claim an article from German outlet Deutsche Welle reported about a more gentle method of resistance: mass smooching.

“German anti-vaccine protests outrage public health officials as thousands gather to kiss each other,” the headline, screenshotted in a Dec. 3 Facebook post, reads. "Lawmakers consider law to criminalize kissing in public spaces."

Above the headline is a photo showing a crowd of people kissing. 

The screenshot was shared in several Facebook posts, one of which garnered over 500 reactions. 

But DW never published such an article, and the image depicts a protest that occurred in Chile more than a decade ago. 

Paste BN reached out to users who shared the post for comment.

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Deutsche Welle never published the article in the image 

The purported screenshot of the article indicates it's from "DW News," but Deutsche Welle wrote in a fact-check that it never published an article about an anti-vaccine protest that involved kissing or any related articles.

There's no evidence such a demonstration occurred in Germany recently,  nor have lawmakers moved to outlaw public displays of affection, Deutsche Welle reported.

The image used to illustrate the fake article was actually taken at a student protest in Chile. 

The photo is included in an entry in the "creative activism database" Actipedia, which describes a "kiss-in" protest for education reform on July 7, 2011. The blog cites United Press International for the photo. 

The mass liplock was one of many tactics Chilean protesters used to demand more funding for the country's university system in 2011, according to reports from The New York Times, the BBC and United Press International.

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Our rating: Altered

Based on our research, we rate ALTERED a photo that depicts a news article about German anti-vaccine protesters kissing in public. The image is made to appear as if it is a screenshot of an article from German news outlet Deutsche Welle, but neither DW nor any other news outlets have reported on a recent anti-vaccine protest that involved kissing. The photo comes from a 2011 student protest in Chile.