Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
A photo of a protester, purportedly from Brazil where thousands of supporters of its far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro reportedly invaded the country’s congress, presidential palace and supreme court in the capital, Brasilia, on Sunday, is doing the rounds of social media. Media outlets have drawn parallels to the US Capitol invasion two years ago by supporters of former president Donald Trump with the viral protester compared to the infamous “QAnon Shaman” from the January 6, 2021 riots.
According to the Guardian, the sight of thousands of yellow-and-green clad protesters running riot in the capital capped months of tension after the October 30, 2022 vote. Bolsonaro, an acolyte of Trump who has yet to concede defeat, peddled the false claim that Brazil’s electronic voting system was prone to fraud, spawning a violent movement of election deniers.
The archived versions of the tweets can be seen here, here and here.
Who is the QAnon Shaman?
Jacob Anthony Chansley, who calls himself the QAnon Shaman, was a prominent follower of the conspiracy theory movement QAnon and had been charged over the US Capitol riots. The spear-carrying rioter, whose name is Jacob Anthony Chansley and whose horned fur hat, bare chest and face paint made him one of the more recognisable figures in the assault on the US Capitol, had been sentenced to 41 months in prison.
Fact check
Newschecker first ran a keyword search for “Brazil Qanon shaman”, which led us to this tweet from Shayan Sardarizadeh, a journalist from BBC, stating that the viral photo of the Brazilian protester was from a 2021 stir.
We found a similar tweet, stating that the viral photo is not from the Sunday riots.
Taking a cue from this, we ran a relevant keyword search that led us to this Portuguese report from Brazilian news website Diário do Centro do Mundo, dated September 7, 2021, titled “Bolsonarista wears costume inspired by Capitólio’s ‘Viking’ in coup act”.
We learnt that the photo was posted by Olliveira Cecilia, a journalist with The Intercept Brazil, on her Instagram account on September 7, 2021, where she credited Guilherme Gandolfi.
According to the Instagram post, translated from Portuguese, “In São Paulo, a man dressed as the “QAnon shaman” who was in the Capitol invasion, when Trump supporters organized a coup demonstration to question the result of the US elections..”
Guilherme Gandolfi’s Instagram also had the same photo, posted on January 7, 2022. When translated from Portuguese, it read, “1 year of the US capitol storming and a few months of my most reproduced photo (almost always without credit)#capitol #trump #photojournalism.”
We learnt that on September 7, 2021, Brazil’s Independence Day, Bolsonaro’s supporters rallied in major cities at a time of heightened tensions in Latin America’s largest democracy, while he slammed the Supreme Court and casted doubt on the integrity of next year’s elections. According to a Reuters report, more than 100,000 supporters turned out in Sao Paulo, according to state security officials – far short of the record turnout Bolsonaro forecast, but perhaps enough to embolden the president in his standoff with the judiciary and Congress. The reports can be seen here and here.
Conclusion
A photo of a Jair Bolsonaro supporter from a September 7, 2021 rally is being falsely claimed to be from the January 8, 2023 Brazil riots.
Result: False
Sources
Tweet from Shayan Sardarizadeh, January 9, 2023
Instagram post from Olliveira Cecilia, September 7, 2021
If you would like us to fact check a claim, give feedback or lodge a complaint, WhatsApp us at 9999499044 or email us at checkthis@newschecker.in. You can also visit the Contact Us page and fill the form.
Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
