Fact check: Bus stop advert of Rishi Sunak is manipulated photograph from Serbia

(Updated, adding more details about process in paragraph 5)

An image has spread around social media of what appears to be a poster at a bus shelter with a picture of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and lettering which reads: “See you next Thursday. Search ‘vote tactically’ to vote the Tories out on Thursday July 4th.” Some of the images have the letters “CU” instead of “see you” in full.

Evaluation

The image has been edited, the poster detail has been added to a stock image  of a bus shelter in Belgrade.

The facts

The same image, but with a blank space instead of the Sunak poster, is available to buy on Shutterstock, a stock photograph database.

There are also two other images of the same bus shelter taken from different angles available on Shutterstock.

By searching for the stone urns on the wall using Google Lens, the PA news agency was able to find another image of the urns, which was identified as at a park in Belgrade in Serbia. The concrete wall in the background with stone urns and inlaid metal decorations match Google Street View imagery.

The building in the background also matches Street View images from the location.

Links

Post on X (archived)

Second post on X (archived)

Third post on X (archived)

Post on Bluesky (archived)

First Shutterstock image (archived)

Second Shutterstock image (archived)

Third Shutterstock image (archived)

Google Lens search

Image on Flickr (archived)

Street View one (archived)

Street View two (archived)

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