Says a photo shows South Carolina after stay-at-home orders were announced.
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This is an old photo of Houston, not South Carolina during the pandemic
If Your Time is short
- A supposed photo of South Carolina after stay-at-home orders is actually a 2017 shot of downtown Houston during rush hour.
Communities around the country have responded differently to social distancing recommendations, with some cities and states directing residents to shelter in place while others have resisted shutting down.
A recent Facebook post seems to pointedly illustrate these differences with three photos.
"After they announce to everyone to ‘stay at home,’" the text above three different images says. The first two show empty cityscapes and are labeled "Chicago" and "New York." The third shows a highway clogged with cars. This photo is labeled "South Carolina."
The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)
That supposed photo of South Carolina? It’s Houston. The Houston Chronicle ran it with a 2017 story about traffic congestion. According to the caption, it shows traffic on Interstate 45 around downtown Houston during the afternoon rush hour.
Featured Fact-check
The image labeled Chicago appears to be a photo of Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago — based on the architectural landmarks — but it’s not of the city under a stay-at-home order. We found it posted to a website called desktopbackground.org three years ago. The photo is reversed.
Only the photo labeled New York actually shows Times Square in New York City during the pandemic.
It’s true that South Carolina was behind New York and Chicago in issuing statewide orders limiting the movements of its residents. Charleston and Columbia, S.C., told people to stay at home before the state issued its statewide mandate. Gov. Henry McMaster didn’t direct all South Carolinians to follow suit until this month. The order was effective on April 7.
But this Facebook post misrepresents what that looked like in South Carolina, using an old photo of Houston to claim that South Carolinians are flouting the law.
We rate this Facebook post False.
Our Sources
Facebook post, April 6, 2020
The New York Times, See which states and cities have told residents to stay at home, updated April 7, 2020
Houston Chronicle, Adding lanes doesn’t reduce congestion. So what is TxDOT doing?, Oct. 18, 2017
Desktopbackground.org, Empty city street wallpaper, uploaded Oct. 25, 2016
Insider, Eerie photos of some of America’s biggest cities that are empty due to the coronavirus, March 17, 2020
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This is an old photo of Houston, not South Carolina during the pandemic
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