No, This Photo Does Not Show Two Bikers Protesting The Burkini Ban

The image has been online for years and does not show bikers making a protest on a French beach.

By
Craig Silverman
by Craig Silverman

BuzzFeed Founding Editor, Canada

Tons of people are sharing this photo and claiming it shows two French bikers protesting the burkini ban by wearing a "motokini":

@CraigCons / Twitter / Via Twitter: @CraigCons

This French tweet has over 8,000 retweets and is being shared widely.

@wordfreeland / Twitter / Via Twitter: @wordfreeland

People are responding to the tweet with messages of solidarity with Muslim women that the photo supposedly shows.

The problem is that the claim being made about the photo and the "motokini" is false. A reverse image search shows that the photo of the bikers on a beach has been online since at least 2012.

Google

The photo was posted in a Spanish motorcycling forum in August of that year. It has nothing to do with the burkini ban in France.

Unfortunately, the false claim about the photo continues to spread. It even led to a news story by a website in the Czech Republic.

expres.cz / Via expres.cz

Thirty French municipalities voted to ban the burkini in recent weeks. However, France's top administrative court today reversed the ban in the town of Villeneuve-Loubet near Nice.

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