2022 footage misattributed as Dutch farmers recently traveling to Brussels protest

By: Emmi Kivi
June 6 2024

Share Article:

Source: X

Context

On June 4, farmers from the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, and Germany traveled to Brussels to protest the adverse effect of EU green policies on European farmers' competitiveness.

A video of a long queue of tractors circulated online, with captions like "Netherlands - To Brussels Jun 2, 2024. Farmers from the Netherlands are gathering throughout the whole country for the massive protest held in Brussels upcoming June 4th." The video shows a police motorcycle guiding a long line of vehicles on a highway.  

However, Logically Facts found that the footage is from 2022 and is unrelated to the June 2024 farmers' protest. 

In fact

A reverse image search led us to an X post (formerly Twitter) from July 5, 2022, with matching visuals to the video clip. The footage was shared with the caption, "Netherlands – June 4, 2022 – Tractor Convoy The farmers fight back and no longer obey the government."

Left: The recent clip. Right: A screenshot of an X post published on July 5, 2022. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

Left: The recent clip. Right: A screenshot of an X post published on July 5, 2022. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

Therefore, the footage predates the June 2024 farmers' protest in Brussels. Our research led us to an article by the South African agricultural magazine Landbou headlined "Farmers are causing chaos in the Netherlands over nitrogen emissions." The article, published on July 8, 2022, includes the same video. During that demonstration, Dutch farmers were protesting government plans to halve nitrogen emissions by 2030. 

The verdict

The video does not show farmers from the Netherlands traveling to Brussels for a demonstration on June 4, 2024. The footage was captured in 2022 and shows Dutch farmers protesting against plans to cut down nitrogen oxide and ammonia emissions. Therefore, we have marked the claim as misleading.