At the end of March 2025, a picture was dispersed on the Web, which allegedly captures the entrance to the headquarters of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Some users noticed that the door handles and the castle hanging on them reminded them in the shape of a penis. We checked the authenticity of the viral image.
The picture spread widely both in Runet and in the English -language segment of the Internet. Telegram channel "The world today with "Yuri Podolyak""(1.8 million views at the time of writing this analysis) shared a post with this photo and such a comment (copyright spelling and punctuation are preserved):“ I look, USAID is not just closed! And "Closed, nah.i !!!" "This is the end))) The situation at the USAID office," the channel wrote "Sheikh Tamir”(118,000 views, spelling and punctuation are also preserved). Some Internet users notedthat the agency was closed "very symbolic."
Telegram channels shared the same picture "The ax live"(724,000 views),"Sanya in Florida"(547 000),"Zlaya Pruf"(224,000),"Newsach / Dv"(206 000),"Ivan Utenkov"(143,000),"ND - News of the day"(122 000),"Bankst"(113,000) and others. Photography is found in Instagram* and on Reddit, and in X virals the posts of the American ultra -right conspiracyx Alex Jones (843,000 views) and user Dogedesigner (12.5 million).
The US Agency for International Development was created in 1961 for coordination humanitarian support of other countries. At the end of January 2025, a few days after Donald Trump took office for the second time, almost all the programs of American external assistance were suspended. Soon, most USAID employees were either dismissed or sent on administrative leave, the organization’s website stopped working fully, the headquarters in Washington was Closed for staff, and the acting head of the agency became Secretary of State Marco Rubio. At the end of March 2025, the Trump administration told Congress that will reduce Almost all the remaining jobs in USAID and by September will finally close it, and some of the agency’s functions will go to the State Department.
The disbanding of USAID is accompanied by numerous false messages and the campaign to discredit it, in which American public and political figures participated (for example, the head of the government’s effectiveness department, Ilon Musk and other members of the Trump administration), and many Russian media. Since the beginning of February 2025 "verified" Disassembled more ten cases Disinformation about this agency.
USAID headquarters located In Washington, the district of Colombia. The main entrance to this building is noticeably different from the photography captured in a viral photograph. For example, rotating, not ordinary doors are installed there, while the USAID logo is located above them, and not on them.
With the help of a reverse search for the image “verified” it found that the emblem of the agency was absent in the original picture, which later became a viral. The earliest publication with this photo we could find was placed The user of Reddit under the nickname Lobsterinyaku-2113 on October 3, 2024-a month before the election of the US president, which Trump won. Later the same user Laid The picture again, indicating that the photo was taken in Thailand.
In the comments User under the nickname Crackred Clarifiedthat the place captured in the picture is in Chiangmae, the largest city in the north of the country, and added that he was also there and took a similar photo (it was Published on Reddit on February 7, 2023). A similar photo three weeks earlier on the same site Loose User Kittierobinson. Also “verified” found several other images of the same doors with a lock hanging on the chain.
None of the posts with similar pictures, nor in the comments under them we found the exact address of the captured location. Since these doors independently took pictures of different people, it was “verified” that the desired place is located on one of the main streets of Chiangma, and there would probably be some kind of attraction nearby. In addition, in many pictures, the road and trees are noticeable in the reflection of glass doors. We decided that four roads that form a square in the very center of the city are satisfied with these conditions. Having studied the panoramas of streets using the Google Street View service, we found building With those very locked doors. It is located on the Mun Mueang road, near From the foreman Tha-Phae-the eastern gate to the old city. Judging by Google Street View, the castle there was hanged no later than August 2022. Probably, all the pictures of those doors locked on the lock were taken until the spring of 2023, when the facade was redone in this building and opened cafe Easy Food & Drink (judging by Facebook* of the institution, in April 2023).
Apparently, the distribution of edited photographs began in the English -language segment of the network, after which the image was encouraged in Runet. The earliest such publication, which was able to track “verified”, was placed on March 28 by the above user X under the nickname Dogedesigner.
Thus, in the viral photo, not locked doors of the USAID office in the United States are captured, but an entrance to one of the institutions of the city of Chiangmai in Thailand. Moreover, the agency’s emblem was added to the picture, taken at least two years ago.
*Russian authorities They think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns social networks Instagram and Facebook, an extremist organization, its activities and symbolism in Russia are prohibited.
Photo on the cover: social networks
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