No, those pictures of brutal Spanish police action to block people from casting ballots were fake. There are plenty of real ones. As a casual but interested observer, I personally don't remember seeing any of those fake photos shared.

https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2017/10/photos-from-catalo...

The fake photos were self-evidently shared enough to receive some media coverage, and the article cites retweet counts. I'm not clear on the relevance of you not having personally spotted these specific ones.

I took a look at the Atlantic link you included, and I'm not seeing any photos of bloodied protesters like the fake ones had. I don't doubt that with rubber bullets and batons flying there were some injuries, but the "fake" photos still aren't accurate depictions of them if they're from previous incidents.

I know that, I've been part of the Romanian protests for almost two years now and I've seen my good share of fake news attached to similar events. It was just that the article was somehow hinting that all news shared on Facebook and other social media about the protests were fake news (which is obviously false), or at least that was my feeling when reading the article.