As Thailand's main opposition party signalled it would submit a no-confidence motion against the government, years-old protest videos were resurfaced in social media posts claiming they showed recent anti-government rallies in Bangkok that the media was not covering. There have been no recent anti-government protests of that scale. The footage was in fact filmed during a massive protest on October 18, 2020 -- one of several demonstrations held over consecutive days reported on by both local and international media.
"Protesters are rallying in front of Government House to remove the prime minister," says part of a Thai-language Facebook post shared on August 15, 2026.
"People are flocking into the area and traffic has been stuck, but why has there been no media coverage at all?"
Superimposed Thai-language text on a video shared in a similar Facebook post on the same day reads: "Evicting the (Anutin) government, the people's rally. A wave of future generations opposing the government, plundering and indebting the population."
The video, which was shared over 32,000 times, depicts a crowd of people draped in raincoats and holding umbrellas around a tall monument.
Posts making the same claim about large, unreported anti-government protests were also shared elsewhere on Facebook and TikTok.
They circulated as Thailand's opposition People's Party said it would file a no-confidence motion against the government coalition led by Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul's Bhumjaithai party, citing allegations of collusion and vote-rigging linked to the 2024 Senate election ( archived link).
Opposition leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut said he would file the motion when parliament reconvenes on August 25, according to local media ( archived link).
But there were no large-scale anti-government protests as of August 20, and the circulating footage is several years old.
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared protest footage led to several corresponding clips of crowds gathered around the historic Victory Monument in Bangkok ( archived link).
One video was posted on X by a Channel News Asia journalist on October 18, 2020 with the Thai-language hashtag "October 18 protest" ( archived link).
Tens of thousands of protesters defied a ban on gatherings of more than four people on that day, carrying posters portraying activists detained in four consecutive days of anti-government rallies ( archived link).
Protesters had been demanding the resignation of then-prime minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha, a former military chief first brought to power in a 2014 coup, and reforms to the monarchy -- including the abolition of a draconian royal defamation law that shields the monarch from criticism.
A subsequent keyword search of the hashtag on YouTube led to a live-streamed video posted by digital broadcaster Voice TV on the same day ( archived link).
Elements of the falsely shared video, such as vehicles and umbrellas, closely resemble the live-streamed footage of the protest.
The gathering at Bangkok's Victory Monument, which followed police use of water cannon against protesters in the capital's main shopping district, was widely reported by Thai and international media (archived here and here).
The falsely shared video also corresponds to Google Street View imagery captured in September 2020 ( archived link).
Cofact -- a collaborative fact-checking platform -- also published a Thai-language report debunking the same claim ( archived link).