A Facebook user, Karosa Ni, whose pieces of disinformation have been verified by FactCheck in the past, claims that protesters burned the Serbian flag instead of the Russian flag during the rally against the Law on Foreign Agents initiated by the Power of the People. The publication of the aforementioned Facebook user also includes a piece of footage.
In fact, the footage published by this Facebook account clearly shows that protesters are not burning the Serbian flag but the Russian flag which is upside down. The Serbian flag consists of three horizontal lines – red, blue and white and the national coat of arms. Apart from the sequence of red, blue and white lines, the Serbian and Russian flags can be differentiated by Serbia’s coat of arms.
What is more, protesters turned the Russian flag upside down to deliberately to offend the country’s national symbol.
Of note is that turning a flag upside down is considered offensive and is a rather widespread form of expressing protest. For instance, over 10,000 Dutch farmers and climate activists protested the government’s decision about nitrogen emissions on 11 March 2023 because they claim this will lead to the closure of farms and negatively affect food production. During these peaceful protests, rally participants were holding their national flag upside down to show their protest.
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