“Stop stealing Woodstock picture”: No Kings protest fake images sparks outrage online

Confusion has been sparked online after Sunday, October 18’s ‘No Kings’ protest in multiple cities across the United States. While people have been celebrating the huge turn out at the demonstrations which have been protesting against President Donald Trump’s administration, many netizens online have been contesting claims that millions across the nation stepped out for the protests.

Many netizens have taken to social media platforms such as X to slam ‘No Kings’ protest supporters, who they claim have been using photographs from the Woodstock Music Festival. The Woodstock festival was held in 1969, when huge crowds swarmed at a dairy farm in the state of New York to attend concerts by iconic musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Joan Baez among others, as per The Atlantic.

Netizens criticized the use of photographs from the Woodstock Music Festival in 1969 to allegedly inflate the crowd size at the ‘No Kings’ protests

While criticizing ‘No Kings’ protestors’ supposed use of images from the Woodstock festival, a netizen shared a photograph from the event in 1969, and wrote on X,

“Stop stealing Woodstock picture to use as “nO kINgS” rallies. The real in 1969 was way better than these….”

Stop stealing Woodstock picture to use as “nO kINgS” rallies.
The real in 1969 was way better than these…. pic.twitter.com/Cu5VK3CF6t

— Will Whitlock (@Real_W_Whitlock) October 19, 2025

Another critic of the ‘No Kings’ protest remarked,

“The no kings crowd in NY!!! Oops! That’s Woodstock 1969!”

A netizen shared a humorous take on the conflict, and while making a joke, wrote,

“Same people were at both, 1969 Woodstock and the 2025 No Kings demonstrations”

An internet user shared an image that was seemingly being shared as a glimpse of the ‘No Kings’ protest crowd, and shared the results of his own reverse search. The netizen wrote,

“Some are claiming the one on left was in upstate NY yesterday.  A reverse search has this image all over the place.  Including Woodstock 69”

Another netizen, however, challenged the above claim on X, and simultaneously made a reference to images being broadcast by MSNBC, which many netizens have been claiming were from older protests in 2017. The netizen remarked,

“Pretty sure that was a joke spoofing MSNBC where they showed footage from 2017.”

Pretty sure that was a joke spoofing MSNBC where they showed footage from 2017.

— The Ken (@KAdamJanus) October 20, 2025

More on the confusion of the actual crowd size at ‘No Kings’ protest

Since the ‘No Kings’ protests occurred across the country on Saturday, contradictory claims about the turn out at the demonstrations have been circulating online. In addition to images from the Woodstock festival being allegedly used to portray the large participation at the protests, it was also claimed that images from 2017 protests in Boston were being used.

As per BBC, the claim originated on X, where the platform’s AI chatbot Grok added notes to posts about the ‘No Kings’ protest, claiming that the footage from Saturday’s protest was instead from 2017 demonstrations in Boston.

However, BBC verified the claims and found out that the sources used by Grok were inadequate and did not claim that the footage was false. Additionally, BBC also independently verified the aerial footage which was said to be from 2017, and through a reverse search and comparison with footage from other outlets, discovered that the aerial footage showing massive crowds was indeed from the recent ‘No Kings’ protests.

CNN reports that the ‘No Kings’ protests across the country were attended by around 7 million people, and 100,000 protestors joined from New York, according to the organizers as well as officials.