Photo from 2020 Tokyo Olympics event shared in Greece in 2024 with wrong context

A photo of a Japanese boy at an event in 2020 linked to the Tokyo Olympics was shared on social media in February 2024 falsely claiming to show children in Japan marking Greek Language Day this year. Posts sharing the photo criticise Greek authorities for a range of issues, including not organising similar events at home to honour Greek culture.

Facebook posts like this one on February 9 shared the photo of a boy with the claim that he was among elementary school children in Japan eating Greek food to honour the Greek Language Day the same day.

Text on the image says: “9/2 International Greek Language Day and 19 elementary schools in Misato, Japan, in honour of it, tasted Greek food and all the schools were filled with Greek flags!” The photo was widely shared on Facebook, for example here, here, and here.

However, an online search for the image shows that the picture is from 2020 and was taken during an event for the Olympic Games and not Greek Language Day.

Complaints about the Greek language being honoured abroad but not at home were also made with another image claiming to show Japanese children eating Greek food, for example in this post which had more than 100 shares. However, this image shows several signs that it was created by artificial intelligence.

Screenshot of the false claim on Facebook. Image captured: 19/02/2024” data-src=”https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/1zpjsO6AAa0PVqsb3AzVZA–/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU4Ng–/https://media.zenfs.com/en/afp_factcheck_us_713/f2c33dea727c78ca970311c7b22e50e5″ class=”caas-img”/

“How sad that our language and culture are symbols of Western civilisation, and foreigners remind us of this, while we are concreting the Acropolis, and at the same time the ruling regime is condemned and vilified in the European Parliament,” said posts such as this one sharing the image of the boy.

The government’s decision to repave pathways at the site of the ancient Acropolis outraged many in Greece in 2021. The comments about Greece being taken before the European Parliament may be referring to a vote there on February 7, 2024 expressing concern over developments regarding media freedom and treatment of migrants, among other issues.

Other comments complain that Greek Language Day was not promoted in Greece. “In our schools, they don’t even know about it!” said one. “We here didn’t have a clue and no-one in the media mentioned the issue,” said another. “In Greece and Cyprus did they do something in schools?” asked another.

This post is also critical: “In Greece, we didn’t get any news about the International Greek Language Day. Our Government is busy with the LGBTQI marriage.” The…