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1,948	Image morphed to claim Indian flag raised in anti-government rally in Pakistan - Alt News Anuradha Prasad 23rd October 2020 / 3:14 pm A picture of a field packed with a massive crowd carrying flags of different colours has gone viral on social media. India’s national flag can also be seen raised by the crowd. This photo is being circulated with a Hindi caption that reads, “For 70 years we were teased by people waving the flag of Pakistan here. Yesterday, the Indian flag was waved in Karachi.” A number of online users shared the picture with the accompanying caption. Twitter user Jyoti Dwivedi posted the image and wrote, “#Arrest_Deepika_Rajawat”. Dwivedi describes herself as an RSS supporter, as seen in her Twitter bio. It is noteworthy that Deepika Rajawat was the lawyer defending the Kathua rape victim. She recently posted a satirical cartoon on Twitter which many found objectionable towards the Hindu community. People were so outraged that a mob gathered outside her home and chanted slogans. The hashtag posted by Dwivedi was also seen in other tweets that featured this photo. At the time of writing, it had received over 600 retweets. (archived link to the post) 70 सालो तक हमे पाकिस्तान का झंडा लहरा कर चिढ़ाया जाता था । कल करांची की रैली में हिंदुस्तान के झंडे लहराये गए ।#Arrest_Deepika_Rajawat pic.twitter.com/aSXVdJeHfV — ज्योति द्विवेदी 🇮🇳 (@jyoti_dwived) October 20, 2020 @sri9011, a Twitter user followed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also tweeted the viral image and wrote, “Tricolour being waved in protests against Pak Army in #Karachi.” (archived link) Apart from this, Twitter users @Shubhamrajbjym (archive link), @Real18ashutosh (archive link), @Ani_Chakravarty (archive link), @Zoya_nafidi (archive link) and @dixit_purva (archive link) also shared this picture. Their posts racked up a combined total of close to 1000 retweets. Apart from them, dozens of other Twitter users also circulated the photo and accompanying claim. The image has since caused quite a frenzy on Facebook as well. A post about the viral image by a man named Vidyarthi Shivam was shared by more than 2000 people. (archived link) Another Facebook user named Awadh Bihari Verma posted the photo to a group called ‘Sudhir Chaudhary’, where it was shared by more than 450 people. Several others also shared the picture with the same caption. Alt News received requests to verify the image on our WhatsApp number (+917600011160). We performed a reverse image search and found a Facebook post by Pakistani political party Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam containing this exact picture. However, the Indian national flag was not visible in this one. پاکستان ڈیموکریٹک موومنٹ کراچی کے جلسہ عام کے مناظر ۔ ‎#MaulanaLeadsPDMInKhi Posted by Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam Pakistan on Sunday, 18 October 2020 Based on this, we performed a keyword search ‘PDM Karachi rally”. This led us to an October 19 report by Pakistani news outlet Pakistan Today. The picture published in this article closely resembles the viral image. According to the report, the photo is from a rally by the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), a coalition of 11 parties in Pakistan. This was meant to be a show of solidarity by the parties that were coming together against the government. Daily Times, another Pakistani media outlet, also published the same picture in its coverage of the rally. Below, Alt news has shown a side-by-side comparison of the viral image and the photo as it was seen in reports by the local media. However, a closer look at the picture shows that many flags in it resemble the Indian tricolour. But this is in fact the flag of Pakistani party PukhtoonKhwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP). It can also be seen on the party’s Facebook page. Indian social media users claimed that the Indian flag was waved in Karachi during a Pakistani Army protest rally. However, this is completely false. The Indian flag was edited into this image to replace the flags of a Pakistani political party. A journalist and a dilettante person who always strives to learn new skills and meeting new people. Either sketching or working. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	23rd October 2020 / 3:14 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-image-is-being-shared-to-claim-that-indian-national-flag-waved-in-a-protest-in-karachi-paksitan/", "author": "Anuradha Prasad" }
1,949	Morphed photo viral to claim city bus in Colombia pays tribute Dr BR Ambedkar - Alt News Kinjal 23rd September 2020 / 2:58 pm An image of a bus with a poster of Independent India’s first law minister Dr BR Ambedkar and his wife Savita Ambedkar is doing the rounds on social media. Facebook user Mahendra Singh Khandelwal shared the image with the claim it’s from Colombia, South America, and the bus is a tribute to Dr Ambedkar. At the time of writing this article, the post was shared more than 9,300 times. कोलंबिया (अमेरिका🇺🇸) की सड़कों पर दौड़ती सिटी बस पर बाबासाहब का चित्र यह असली सम्मान है, अमेरिका आज भी बाबा साहब को अपना… Posted by Mahendra Singh Khandelwal on Saturday, 19 September 2020 Facebook user Rakesh Nagar shared the image with the same claim. The post has been shared over 1,000 times so far. This image is viral on Facebook and Twitter with the claim that it shows a city bus in Colombia. Alt News also received several requests on its official application to fact-check this image. With a reverse image search on Google, we found a visually similar image which was posted on Wikimedia. According to Wikimedia, this image is of a tourist bus in England’s biggest city Bath. The image was shot on July 28, 2008, by photographer Adrian Pingstone. The image viral on social media is the same but includes morphed poster of Ambekar and his wife. Posted below is the comparison of the two images. Furtheremore, the destination virtually displayed on the bus—’Bathe City Sighting’—has been blurred in the morphed picture. The photograph superimposed on the original image was found in Outlook’s photo gallery. Therefore, an image of a tourist bus operating in England’s Bath city was edited by superimposing an image of Babasaheb Ambedkar on the bus. It was falsely claimed that this is a bus in Colombia, South America, tributed to Babasaheb Ambedkar. Kinjal Parmar holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. However, her keen interest in journalism, drove her to pursue journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. At Alt News since 2019, she focuses on authentication of information which includes visual verification, media misreports, examining mis/disinformation across social media. She is the lead video producer at Alt News and manages social media accounts for the organization. A minute-long video clip of a woman being physically assaulted is viral on social media…. Trigger Warning: The following story contains graphic imagery. Several users have shared images of the… A 1:34-minute-long CCTV camera clip is being widely circulated on social media in which viewers… Trigger Warning: Violent Content. Viewer discretion is advised. Over the past few months, rumours of… The teaser of a movie titled ‘The Kerala Story’ is being widely shared on social…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	23rd September 2020 / 2:58 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-image-of-a-bus-with-br-ambedkar-photo-viral-as-mark-of-respect-in-colombia-america/", "author": "Kinjal" }
1,950	Morphed image shows AIMIM's Asaduddin Owaisi with BJP leader Amit Shah - Alt News Anuradha Prasad 12th March 2021 / 2:56 pm Several social media users have been sharing a photo of Home Minister Amit Shah and AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi seated together. Twitter user @Samiullah_inc posted the image tagging Congress members Alka Lamba, Rohan Gupta, and Youth Congress President Srinivas BV. It was retweeted by over 150 handles at the time of writing. The picture has also made its way to Facebook. Bjp b tem owisi brathor Posted by Ekhlaque Parwez on Saturday, March 6, 2021 Alt News performed a reverse image search using Yandex and found the original photo in an article by The News Minute. However, a different man is seen here with Owaisi. This story is dated February 28, 2018. It discusses Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi and his brother, MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi, requesting the state government to relocate displaced street vendors. The two leaders met the Commissioner of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) B Janardhana Reddy and the Chief Secretary of Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD) Arvind Kumar to discuss the matter. He wrote a letter to the state government stating that construction work for the Charminar Pedestrianization Project (CPP) would leave several hawkers unemployed, and three bridges should be built on the River Musi to allow them to sell their products there. This image was posted by the official Asaduddin Owaisi Facebook page along with information about the agenda for the meeting. AIMIM President Barrister Asaduddin Owaisi along with Floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi met Principal Secretary MA&UD Mr… Posted by Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday, February 27, 2018 The image has been morphed to show Amit Shah having a discussion with Akbaruddin and Asaduddin Owaisi. Amit Shah’s photo has been cropped from an image of the Home Minister with Captain Amarinder Singh, the Chief Minister of Punjab. There have been no discussions between the BJP and Owaisi about entering into an alliance ahead of assembly elections in several states. The image has been morphed. Earlier during the Hyderabad municipal elections in December 2020, a four-year-old photograph of Union Minister Smriti Irani with Owaisi was shared to spread a false rumour about the two teaming up for the polls. A journalist and a dilettante person who always strives to learn new skills and meeting new people. Either sketching or working. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	12th March 2021 / 2:56 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-image-of-amit-shah-with-owaisi-viral-ahead-of-west-bengal-assembly-elections/", "author": "Anuradha Prasad" }
1,951	Morphed image shared to claim Mamata Banerjee faked her injury - Alt News Archit 16th March 2021 / 12:42 pm On March 10, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee suffered injuries to her left leg while campaigning in Nandigram and was rushed to Kolkata for treatment. CM Banerjee said that she was pushed by four or five people while BJP leader Arjun Singh claimed she is lying for sympathy. On March 12, she left the hospital in a wheelchair. Several Twitter users have posted an image of CM Banerjee walking away from a wheelchair thus, insinuating she faked her injury. The image was shared with English (“From Plaster to Bandage to Walking. What a Actor.!!!”), Hindi (“और इसतरह शाम होते होते मोमता ताई व्हीलचेयर से उठकर चल पडी।संघी भक्तों का खौफ़।”) and Telugu (“#బెంగాల్‌లో మిరాకిల్.. ఉన్నట్టుండి వీల్ ఛైర్‌లోంచి లేచిన మమతా బెనర్జీ..”) captions. The viral photograph has been manufactured using CM Banerjee’s 2012 image available on Reuters blog. According to the photo credits, it was clicked by B Mathur on June 13, 2012. This was superimposed on CM Banerjee’s recent photograph in a wheelchair published in Hindustan Times on March 14. The collage below shows the two images used to create the morphed image. On March 14, ABP News reported that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee begun her padayatra in a wheelchair. The video can be watched below. “The Election Commission has concluded on Sunday [March 14] that the incident in Nandigram which caused injuries to West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee was an accident and not a planned attack, according to sources in the poll body,” reported The Wire. Shortly after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee suffered a leg injury, a morphed image was shared on social media with the false claim that she got up from her wheelchair and walked after her hospital release. 🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	16th March 2021 / 12:42 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-image-of-cm-mamata-banerjee-falsely-claimed-she-stood-up-from-wheelchair-and-faking-injury/", "author": "Archit" }
1,952	Fact-check: Did Deepika Padukone sport 'I Stand With Indian Farmers' t-shirt? - Alt News Kinjal 6th October 2020 / 5:52 pm On September 26, Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) interrogated actress Deepika Padukone over her alleged involvement in the drug probe linked to actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death. In the backdrop of this, an image of Padukone wearing a t-shirt with the slogan ‘I stand with Indian farmers’ is circulating on social media. It is noteworthy that farmer groups have been protesting against the Modi government’s farm bills the last few months. Facebook user Rajiv Tyagi posted the image with the message, “When you report for questioning to the NCB, because you stood in solidarity with JNU…and carry swag on your T-shirt…” Twitter user Ranjit Kumar Birsa also posted the same image. किसानों को संदेश ! जमीन जल चुकी है आसमान बाकी है, सूखे कुएँ तुम्हारा इम्तहान बाकी है वो जो खेतों की मेढ़ों पर उदास बैठे हैं उनकी आखों में अब तक ईमान बाकी है बादलों बरस जाना समय पर इस बार, किसी का मकान गिरवी तो किसी का लगान बाकी है@deepikapadukone#I_stand_with_Indian_Farmers pic.twitter.com/3Ee2cK9bhe — Ranjit kumar Birsa Ambedkar (@RanjitAmbedkar) September 27, 2020 Several others on Twitter and Facebook shared the image. With a reverse image search on Google, we found that this image was published in a report by The Indian Express published on March 20, 2018. In the original image, there is no text imprinted over Deepika’s t-shirt. The comparison below clearly shows that the slogan has been morphed into the original image. An edited image of Deepika Padukone was shared on social media with the false claim that the actress displayed her support for the country’s farmers protesting against Modi government’s farm bills. Kinjal Parmar holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. However, her keen interest in journalism, drove her to pursue journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. At Alt News since 2019, she focuses on authentication of information which includes visual verification, media misreports, examining mis/disinformation across social media. She is the lead video producer at Alt News and manages social media accounts for the organization. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	6th October 2020 / 5:52 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-image-of-deepika-padukone-wearing-i-stand-with-farmer-t-shirt-is-viral/", "author": "Kinjal" }
1,953	Photo of fountain sculpture in Pakistan morphed to claim city square named after PM Modi - Alt News Anuradha Prasad 3rd March 2021 / 2:13 pm On February 24, Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad, Gujarat was renamed Narendra Modi Stadium. With a capacity of 1.3 lakh spectators, it has now become the world’s largest cricket stadium. Following this, a picture of a statue of Prime Minister Narendra Modi installed at a roundabout has gone viral on Facebook and Twitter. The photo is being shared with captions like, “What’s happening is worthy of condemnation. It’s not the tradition in our country to name intersections, stadiums, and hospitals after people that are still alive.” User Lakhan Kashyap Baliyaan shared this picture on the Facebook group अंधभक्त धुलाई केंद्र. His post racked up over 600 shares at the time of writing. Several other Facebook users also made posts about the same claim. The image has also been spreading widely on Twitter. (Archive link) निंदनीय ये हो क्या रहा है, जीते जी किसी के नाम के चौक-चौराहे,स्टेडियम-अस्पताल की परंपरा हमारे देश में नही रही !!! @INCIndia pic.twitter.com/RyMneQcIB7 — Lokesh Sharma (@Lokeshtiloliinc) February 27, 2021 Narendra Modi’s statue Alt News performed a reverse image search of the viral photo using Yandex. This led us to a photo of the fountain on a website called pakistanpoint.com. In place of a Modi statue, a sculpture of a kettle and teacup form the fountain here. The image caption states this is Station Chowk in Pakistan’s Faisalabad. We also performed a keyword search with the terms ‘Narendra Modi wax statue’ on Google. In the image results, we found a picture identical to the statue seen in the viral image. This is a marble statue for sale on the e-commerce website IndiaMart. ‘Narendra Modi Chowk’ sign In the viral photo, a board behind the fountain reads ‘Narendra Modi Chowk’. A keyword search of related terms led us to an NDTV story about an incident in Bihar’s Darbhanga, where a BJP worker’s father was killed. NDTV reported that the victim’s family alleged that their family was attacked after facing opposition for renaming a town square to Narendra Modi Chowk. Meanwhile, the police claimed that the row was sparked by a property dispute and it had nothing to do with the name change. BJP leader Giriraj Singh also tweeted the image. The board reads ‘Narendra Modi Chowk Babu Bhadwa, Darbhanga’. We have compared the original picture and the viral photo below. This confirms that the statue of Narendra Modi, the board with ‘Narendra Modi Chowk’ in the background, and the ‘Narendra Modi Chowk’ text below the statue have been morphed into the original photograph. A photograph of a fountain at Station Chowk in Pakistan’s Faisalabad was edited with a picture of a marble statue of the Indian prime minister. A journalist and a dilettante person who always strives to learn new skills and meeting new people. Either sketching or working. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	3rd March 2021 / 2:13 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-image-of-faisalabad-station-chowk-viral-as-narendra-modi-chowk/", "author": "Anuradha Prasad" }
1,954	Morphed image of Pakistani politician shared in India - Alt News Kinjal 1st October 2020 / 8:09 pm / Last updated: 1st October 2020 An image of a person sitting in a flight with a bottle of liquor on the table next to him is circulating on social media. On September 26, Twitter user Manjeet Bagga posted the image and claimed, “Proper use of Zakat money”. At the time of writing this article, the tweet was retweeted more than 4,500 times. Zakat is an Islamic term denoting money kept aside for charitable causes. The Quran in several verses admonishes the consumption of liquor. ज़कात के पैसों का सही इस्तेमाल pic.twitter.com/ozjZ84gUQN — Manjeet Bagga (@Goldenthrust) September 26, 2020 Journalist and editor-in-chief of Gulf Connoisseur Meena Das Narayan retweeted Bagga’s tweet. It may be noted that Narayan has been found circulating misinformation on several occasions. The image is viral on both Facebook and Twitter with the same claim. With a reverse image search, we found a Facebook post from August 2019. The image posted by the page ‘Jamiat Talba Islam Bajaur’ does not have a liquor bottle placed on the table. The man in the image is Pakistani politician Fazal-ur-Rehman. He is the president of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F), a Pakistani political party. لیڈر وہ ہوتا ہے جنکی بہادری پر تاریخ لکھی جائے لیڈر وہ نہیں ہوتا جنکی بد کرداری پر بیوی کتابیں لکھے…. Posted by Jamiat Talba Islam bajaur on Thursday, 15 August 2019 The picture shared on social media is quite evidently photoshopped. Kinjal Parmar holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. However, her keen interest in journalism, drove her to pursue journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. At Alt News since 2019, she focuses on authentication of information which includes visual verification, media misreports, examining mis/disinformation across social media. She is the lead video producer at Alt News and manages social media accounts for the organization. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	1st October 2020 / 8:09 pm / Last updated: 1st October 2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-image-of-pakitani-leader-viral-in-india-targeting-him/", "author": "Kinjal" }
1,955	Satirical photo of PM Modi bowing to Nehru's statue shared as real - Alt News Kinjal 22nd August 2020 / 3:35 pm “If you’re bowing down to him after bashing him and speaking ill of him for 6 years, then understand that his ideology and thinking are greater than you,” reads a message shared with a photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi bowing down to a statue of former PM Jawaharlal Nehru. [Hindi text: 6 साल जिसे कोसने के बाद , खूब बुरा भला बोलने के बाद , उन्ही को नमन करना पड़े तो समझ जाओ की उनकी विचारधारा और सोच तुमसे कितनी महान होगी।”] 6 साल जिसे कोसने के बाद , खूब बुरा भला बोलने के बाद , उन्ही को नमन करना पड़े तो समझ जाओ की उनकी विचारधारा और सोच तुमसे कितनी महान होगी । pic.twitter.com/mk6T0vHWlg — शिवानी 🇮🇳 (@INSANIYAT34258) August 15, 2020 The claim has been shared by quite a few Twitter and Facebook users. We found that PM Modi had tweeted a set of four images of the newly-inaugurated Rashtriya Swachhata Kendra on August 8, 2020. Sharing some glimpses from the newly inaugurated Rashtriya Swachhata Kendra. pic.twitter.com/bhGF3saejr — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 8, 2020 One of the images from the set was morphed to depict that the Prime Minister was paying respect to Nehru when in fact he was bowing down to Mahatma Gandhi’s statue. On August 8, PM Modi inaugurated the National Sanitation Center set up at Rajghat in New Delhi. Several media organisations covered the inauguration ceremony. Prime Minister Modi’s Office uploaded a video of the event on YouTube where, at 16 seconds, PM Modi can be seen offering flowers on the statue of Gandhi. Furthermore, the picture viral on social media carries a photo of Spiderman and @libtardu written on the right. It was created as a satirical post by the handle. Rarest moment Nehru ji se haath jod kar maafi mangte huye Modi ji pic.twitter.com/HwUTaMwMYh — Libtardu (@libtardu_) August 9, 2020 Kinjal Parmar holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. However, her keen interest in journalism, drove her to pursue journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. At Alt News since 2019, she focuses on authentication of information which includes visual verification, media misreports, examining mis/disinformation across social media. She is the lead video producer at Alt News and manages social media accounts for the organization. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	22nd August 2020 / 3:35 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-image-of-pm-modi-bowing-to-nehrus-statue-gone-viral/", "author": "Kinjal" }
1,956	Morphed: TIME magazine cover featuring Donald Trump with 'Time to go' headline - Alt News Kinjal 17th August 2020 / 6:03 pm / Last updated: 18th August 2020 A picture of an alleged cover page of American weekly magazine TIME is being shared widely on social media. In the picture, a figure can be seen walking out of a door, with claims that the person is none other than US President Donald Trump. The image on the cover is accompanied by the headline, ‘Time to go’. American actor Daniel Newman had tweeted the photo on May 14, 2020, and later took it down. On May 25, Indian journalist Shobhaa De had also tweeted the picture of the alleged magazine cover. (link to the archived tweet) Pure brilliance!! pic.twitter.com/4iWIHsvz8x — Shobhaa De (@DeShobhaa) May 25, 2020 Author Gyan Prakash also tweeted this picture on May 23. Gyan Prakash wrote, “He finally gets a Time cover! Not fake one this time.” (link to the archived tweet) He finally gets a Time cover! Not fake one this time. pic.twitter.com/X4PHRRAONb — Gyan Prakash (@Prakashzone) May 23, 2020 In addition to him, journalist Ravish Kumar had also shared the picture and later took it down. We also received some requests to verify the viral image on the official Alt News mobile app. To look into the authenticity of this image, we rummaged through the archive of the cover pages of past editions of TIME Magazine. We went through cover pictures from 2020 and did not find any with an image of Donald Trump walking out with the caption reading ‘Time to go’. According to a TIME magazine report from June 20, 2020, Donald Trump has appeared on the cover page of the publication 29 times in total. The video below shows actual cover pages featuring the American president. Along with this, we found a fact-check report by Reuters from May 21, 2020, quoting a TIME magazine spokesperson, who stated that the viral image is fake. Kinjal Parmar holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. However, her keen interest in journalism, drove her to pursue journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. At Alt News since 2019, she focuses on authentication of information which includes visual verification, media misreports, examining mis/disinformation across social media. She is the lead video producer at Alt News and manages social media accounts for the organization. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	17th August 2020 / 6:03 pm / Last updated: 18th August 2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-image-of-time-to-go-cover-featuring-donald-trump-shared-by-journalists/", "author": "Kinjal" }
1,957	BJP leaders share edited photo to claim party's 'growth' in Tamil Nadu - Alt News Abhishek Kumar 9th June 2022 / 12:18 pm / Last updated: 11th June 2022 An image of a group of boys allegedly hoisting a BJP flag on an electricity pole is circulating widely on social media. It has been claimed that the visual is from Tamil Nadu. BJP National General Secretary CT Ravi tweeted the image, writing that the lotus was blooming in Tamil Nadu. (Archive link) BJP leader Ravinder Gupta made the same claim while amplifying the picture. (Archive link) BJP Himachal spokesperson Prajwal Busta wrote that Tamil Nadu was heading toward “saffronisation”. (Archive link) The photo is also widespread on Facebook with the same claim. A number of social media users replied to viral tweets stating that the image had been edited and the real image actually features the BSP flag. Alt News performed a reverse image search and came across a tweet by BSP leader Shirisha Swaero Akinapally from May 3. It contains a similar picture. However, this one features the BSP flag. “Our brothers and sisters climbed the ladder and hoisted the blue flag in the hearts of the people. Following in the footsteps of Praveen Kumar, millions of such youth are working for the establishment of the Bahujan government in Telangana,” wrote Akinapally. (Archive link) Quote-tweeting this post, BSP leader Dr RS Praveen Kumar stated that the image shows BSP Telangana at work. This confirms that the viral image featuring the BJP flag has been doctored. This is @BSP4Telangana at work. No rest till we make poor as rulers✊ https://t.co/b7u0zHUnho — Dr.RS Praveen Kumar (@RSPraveenSwaero) May 31, 2022 We performed another keyword search on Google and located the flag added to the viral image on a website named ‘StarPNG‘. It was uploaded on May 7, 2019. Comparing it with the viral image demonstrates how the original image had been doctored. Boomlive found a 2019 Facebook post carrying the same image. One Rohitash Kumar uploaded it. Kumar told Boomlive that he had clicked this picture in Shahpur, Uttar Pradesh in 2017. He further said that the blue flag seen in the picture is of BSP and it is still present on the electric pole. Kumar sent a video of the location to Boomlive where the blue flag can be seen albeit torn. To sum it up, an image originally containing the BSP flag was edited with the BJP flag. Several BJP leaders and workers shared the photo as proof of the party’s growing influence in Tamil Nadu. It is worth noting that the DMK government is currently in power in the state. Abhishek is a senior fact-checking journalist and researcher at Alt News. He has a keen interest in information verification and technology. He is always eager to learn new skills, explore new OSINT tools and techniques. Prior to joining Alt News, he worked in the field of content development and analysis with a major focus on Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	9th June 2022 / 12:18 pm / Last updated: 11th June 2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-image-shared-by-bjp-leaders-as-lotus-is-blooming-in-tamil-nadu/", "author": "Abhishek Kumar" }
1,958	Image of poster morphed to read 'Brahmins are foreigners, their homes have ACs' - Alt News Kinjal 3rd August 2021 / 4:20 pm Preparations are already in full swing for the upcoming 2022 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. Meanwhile, in a bid to attract Brahmin voters, the Bahujan Samaj Party announced it would be organising a Brahmin Sammelan, which commenced on July 23 in Ayodhya. Against this backdrop, an image is being circulated widely on social media of a group of protestors on the street with posters. The posters read, “Bahujan Kranti Morcha” and “Brahmins are foreigners, they have ACs in their homes”. Sharing the image, Twitter user Jenish Patel wrote, “Today, Mayawati’s party in UP is hosting a gathering of Brahmins. Yet, this photo clearly shows her views towards Brahmins while she was in power.” आज यूपी मायावती की पार्टी ब्राह्मण सम्मेलन कर रही है,लेकिन जब सत्ता में थी तब ब्राह्मणों के खिलाफ़ उनकी क्या सोच थी इस तस्वीर में साफ़ दिख रहा है🙌ये सम्मेलन केवल हाथी के अंडा देने से बचने की कोशिश है,बाकी उनकी सीटे बढ़ते ही ब्राह्मणों की वही हालत होगी जो पहले उनके शासन में थी।🙏 pic.twitter.com/oPzd5Q3mmy — Jenish Patel (@sir_Jenishpatel) July 23, 2021 A Facebook page called ‘BMW – The Untold Stories’ also shared the visuals. पीता नहीं क्यों देशी है…. ब्राम्हण कौम विदेशी है Posted by BMW – The Untold Stories on Saturday, July 24, 2021 A Twitter user posted the photo alongside another picture of Akhilesh Yadav’s residence. He asked whether Yadav would be considered a foreigner because he had air conditioners installed at his home. The images are widespread on Facebook and Twitter. Alt News performed a keyword search on Facebook and found a similar poster from 2018 which reads, “Brahmins are foreigners, their DNA is Eurasian”. बहुजन क्रांति मोर्चा Posted by India News on Sunday, January 14, 2018 On January 14, 2018, Facebook user Vinod Kumar made this image his profile picture and wrote, “Members of BAMCEF, Bahujan Kranti Morcha, DASFI, NAF, and the Valmiki Mahasabha protesting against the incident at Bhima Koregaon Maharashtra in Haryana’s Bhiwani district. ” Apart from this, another Facebook user had shared more pictures of the protest held in Bhiwani, Haryana. This poster is seen in one of the images from the demonstration. In addition, another placard in the viral picture reads “One arrow, one quiver, all natives are equal”. It is also seen in another photo from the protest. Furthermore, similar-looking flags are also seen in the viral picture and these pictures from the site of the rally. Another keyword search led us to a report published in Dainik Jagran on January 15, 2018. The daily carried a photo of the demonstration featuring a poster with the slogan, “Brahmins are foreigners, their DNA is Eurasian.” It is noteworthy that January 1, 2018, marked 200 years since the war between Peshwa Bajirao and the British in Bhima Koregaon. Every year on this day, a large number of people from the Dalit community visit Bhima Koregaon to pay homage to the Dalits who were martyred while fighting in the Peshwa army in 1818. On January 1, 2018, amid the annual gathering of large numbers of people from the Dalit community, violence broke out which led to one death. This claim about the Brahmin community’s foreign origins has been made on the basis of a 2001 study. The Times of India also published a report on the study. It states that the DNA of the upper castes in India resembles that of Europeans. The word ‘यूरेशी’ means people who are associated with Europe and Asia, i.e. Eurasians. On this basis, the DNA of the Brahmin community has been called Eurasian. In a fact-check report by Aaj Tak, a Bahujan Samaj Morcha worker also mentioned the same. Numerous Dalit organisations protested against the violence that broke out at Bhima Koregaon in 2018. An image of a poster carried at this demonstration was edited and shared on social media with a false claim. Kinjal Parmar holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. However, her keen interest in journalism, drove her to pursue journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. At Alt News since 2019, she focuses on authentication of information which includes visual verification, media misreports, examining mis/disinformation across social media. She is the lead video producer at Alt News and manages social media accounts for the organization. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	3rd August 2021 / 4:20 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-image-shared-false-claim-brahman-foreigners-eurasian-dalit-ac/", "author": "Kinjal" }
1,959	Photo of Nigerian protest against police brutality morphed as 'Justice for Sushant' rally - Alt News Kinjal 21st October 2020 / 3:53 pm A picture of several foreigners participating in a protest march holding banners that purportedly say ‘Justice for Sushant’ has gone viral on social media. A vehicle parked in the background reads ‘Nigeria Police’. While sharing this picture, users are demanding justice for Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput who died by suicide on June 14. A Twitter user with the display name ‘Sushant in our hearts forever (SSRF)’ tweeted the photo while thanking Nigeria. (archived link) Twitter user @FanofSSR2 also tweeted the picture with the same claim. (archived link) Another Twitter user shared the photo. Since then, it has also gone viral on Facebook with the accompanying claim. Performing a simple reverse image search establishes that the picture being circulated on social media is morphed. The original photo had been published in a CNN report dated October 13, 2020. In this photo, people can be seen carrying placards and banners with slogans that have nothing to do with the late actor. Their posters originally read ‘Reform Police’, ‘Disband Sars’, and ‘Sars Authorized Criminals’ as shown below. According to the CNN report, this picture was taken during a protest of the ‘END SARS’ movement against police brutality in Nigeria. The demonstration was being held by young people protesting against the Police Unit Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Nigeria over certain violent incidents. The Nigerian people have accused the squad of kidnapping, police brutality, harassment, and extortion. The report also mentioned that several well-known international singers and actors tweeted in support of the movement Media outlets including FR24 News and News Africa also shared this picture from the protest march. Apart from this, the demonstration was also covered by Premium Times, a Nigerian newspaper. Therefore, photographs of a protest against police brutality in Nigeria were edited and circulated on social media. While sharing the viral image, users claimed that the Nigerian people were demanding justice for late Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput. Kinjal Parmar holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. However, her keen interest in journalism, drove her to pursue journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. At Alt News since 2019, she focuses on authentication of information which includes visual verification, media misreports, examining mis/disinformation across social media. She is the lead video producer at Alt News and manages social media accounts for the organization. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	21st October 2020 / 3:53 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-image-shared-to-claim-nigerians-demanding-justice-for-sushant-singh-rajput/", "author": "Kinjal" }
1,960	Morphed image shows banner thanking PM Modi for Mirabai Chanu's Olympic win - Alt News Archit 31st July 2021 / 12:58 pm Manipur-based Chanu Saikhom Mirabai won the silver medal in the 49 kg weightlifting event on July 24 at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She is the first Indian weightlifter to win silver at the Olympics. An image of Mirabai along with various political leaders including Union Minister for Law and Justice Minister Kiren Rijiju is being shared on social media. The congratulatory banner for Mirabai, in the backdrop, has been highlighted because it reads, “Thank you Modi ji for getting Mirabai Chanu a medal”. (धन्यवाद मोदी जी मीराबाई चानू को मेडल दिलाने के लिए). Rashtriya Lok Dal President Jayant Chaudhary garnered over 850 retweets and close to 4,000 likes for the image. पदक विजेता का अभिनंदन तो ठीक है लेकिन, ‘#धन्यवाद_मोदी_जी मेडल दिलाने के लिए’ कुछ ज़्यादा नहीं हो गया? 🤔 भक्ति, चापलूसी और अधिप्रचार में खिलाड़ी का अपमान तो मत करो! pic.twitter.com/aNZuLg1C59 — Jayant Chaudhary (@jayantrld) July 30, 2021 Several others have shared the image. पीछे की फोटो देखिए और जो लिखा है एक बार पढ़िए, मेडल मीरा बाई चानू मेहनत कर के लाई है, या मोदी जी ने दिलाया है ?😁 वाह मोदी जी वाह pic.twitter.com/lRDXQMcUIJ — Ajmal Khan (@AjmalKh80290843) July 28, 2021 It is widely circulating on Facebook. Alt News has received multiple verification requests for the image on our WhatsApp helpline number (76000 11160) and our mobile application. Download our mobile application to send such forwards for verification. (Android, iOS) A simple reverse image search reveals that the image is morphed. The unedited image was published in a Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports press note on July 27. The images are from a day prior at the residence of Union Sports Minister Anurag Singh Thakur. Along with Thakur, Union Minister for Law and Justice Minister Kiren Rijiju and Union Minister for Tourism, Culture and Development of North-Eastern region Kishan Reddy, Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways and Minister for AYUSH, Sarbananda welcomed Mirabai. Unlike the viral image, the text “Thank you Modi ji for getting Mirabai Chanu a medal” is not written on the congratulatory banner. Here’s a comparison of the viral image (left) and the authentic image (right). Jayant Chaudhary later tweeted a clarification that the image is edited. Disregard my above tweet as it has been pointed out that the photo has been edited. Instead of deleting my tweet, am letting it stay just to warn all SM users on how pervasive manipulated media has become. Stay alert, weed out fake news! 🙏🏽 — Jayant Chaudhary (@jayantrld) July 30, 2021 A few days ago, a morphed Aaj Tak graphic crediting PM Narendra Modi for India’s Olympics medal was shared online. It was debunked by Boomlive. 🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	31st July 2021 / 12:58 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-image-shows-banner-thanking-pm-modi-for-mirabai-chanus-olympic-win/", "author": "Archit" }
1,961	Morphed image shows Congress workers feeding cake to Mia Khalifa's poster - Alt News Pooja Chaudhuri 6th February 2021 / 9:52 pm An alleged picture of Congress workers feeding cake to former adult film actress Mia Khalifa’s poster is widespread on social media. Khalifa has been making headlines in India after she tweeted in support of the farmers’ protest. The solidarity expressed by international artists has led pro-government media and supporters of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to allude a global conspiracy against Prime Minister Modi. None of these claims is either supported by reason or evidence. Below is a tweet by BJP member Surendra Poonia mocking the Congress party – “Rahul Gandhi ji’s Congress. And then they say EVMs are hacked.” (राहुल जी के कांग्रेसी ! फिर कहते हैं EVM हैक हो गई.) राहुल जी के कांग्रेसी ! फिर कहते हैं EVM हैक हो गई …. pic.twitter.com/hCMw80PThJ — Major Surendra Poonia (@MajorPoonia) February 6, 2021 Another BJP member Raj Anand Singh also shared the photograph in a rather distasteful tweet. “Why do these bootlickers like international dancers and those who show skin? No one asks for local Swara Bhaskar and what can we say about Arfa Khanum,” he wrote. @miakhalifa खालिस्तान आंदोलन के समर्थन मे किए ट्वीट के बाद कॉंग्रसी चमचे खुशी मनाते हुए वो भी देश के सबसे शिक्षित राज्य केरल मे. इन चमचों को विदेशी नाचने और अंग प्रदर्शन करने वालीं ही क्यू पसंद आता है 🙊देशी @ReallySwara को कोई पूछ ही नहीं रहा इस बार और @khanumarfa खैर छोड़ों 🤣 pic.twitter.com/14HqoKM4hx — Raj Aanand singh🇮🇳 (@rajanand_) February 6, 2021 It was also tweeted by Rishi Bagree, who has often been found spreading misinformation. He later took it down. Another Twitter user पिंकू शुक्ला @shuklapinku’s post drew over 900 likes as of this writing. The image is massively viral on Facebook as well. A simple Google reverse image search reveals that the image is morphed. The original Congress poster features Rahul Gandhi. The photograph is available on Getty Images and was taken on June 19, 2007 on Gandhi’s birthday. Youth Congress supporters cut a huge cake and fed it to Gandhi’s poster on his 37th birthday. The image carries the credit ‘RAVEENDRAN/AFP via Getty Images’. In an earlier fact-check, Alt News had shown American pop artist Rihanna’s photograph was morphed to falsely portray that she held the flag of Pakistan. Rihanna’s tweet asking why the world isn’t talking about farmers’ protest in India is what drew international attention to the cause and sparked false news in India in support of the farm laws. Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	6th February 2021 / 9:52 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-image-shows-congress-workers-feeding-cake-to-mia-khalifas-poster/", "author": "Pooja Chaudhuri" }
1,962	Morphed image shows PM Modi bowing down to Nita Ambani - Alt News Archit 7th June 2021 / 5:21 pm Several Facebook and Twitter users have shared a photograph that allegedly shows Prime Minister Modi bowing down and folding his hands in front of Reliance Foundation chairwoman Nita Ambani. गुलामों के झुके हुए सिर मालिकों के घर का पता बता देते हैं । pic.twitter.com/GBsXaR7LWU — V NEWS (@_V_NEWS) May 28, 2021 The image is shared with the Hindi text, “गुलामों और चमचों के झुके हुए सिर मालिकों के घर का पत्ता बता देते हैं.” The photograph was also tweeted by former Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar. He later took it down. The viral image is morphed. The original photograph was shared last year with the false claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was greeting Priti Adani, wife of billionaire industrialist Gautam Adani. The woman in the image is Deepika Mondol, chief functionary officer (CFO) at Delhi-based NGO Divyajyoti Cultural Organisation and Social Welfare Society (DCOWS). The unedited image was tweeted by Congress leader Surendra Solanki last year with the ‘Priti Adani’ claim. After a reverse image search on TinEye, we found that One India Hindi had published the original image in 2018 and wrote that it was shot in 2015. A 2018 article by Amar Ujala also confirms the same. This article also shows Mondol photographed with other prominent personalities like APJ Abdul Kalam, Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Rajinikanth, Shahrukh Khan and Vidya Balan. NGO Foundation directory also lists Mondol as CFO of DCOWS. The NGO’s parent organisation is PaulFoundation. Alt News had spoken to Deepika Mondol’s husband Samar when the picture was viral in 2020. “I’m aware that my wife’s picture with PM Modi is being circulated with a false claim. I can’t recollect which year this image was clicked. However, it is probably from a DCOWS event,” he said. Thus, a morphed image of PM Modi and Deepika Mondol was shared with the false claim that the woman is Nita Ambani. 🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	7th June 2021 / 5:21 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-image-shows-pm-modi-bowing-down-to-nita-ambani/", "author": "Archit" }
1,963	Morphed image shows Rohit Sharma's photo displayed on Burj Khalifa after IPL win - Alt News Archit 12th November 2020 / 8:40 pm Mumbai Indians (MI) beat Delhi Capitals in the 2020 Indian Premier League (IPL) final to win the tournament for the fifth time on November 10. Since then several social media users have posted an image that shows MI captain Rohit Sharma’s photo displayed on Dubai’s Burj Khalifa. As per the claim, he is the first cricketer and third Indian after Mahatma Gandhi and Shah Rukh Khan to receive this honour. A Rohit Sharma fan tweeted the image on November 11 shortly after the match ended. It was retweeted over 50 times. (archived link) Telugu YouTube channel NTV Sports displayed the viral image in their video. It has been viewed over 70,000 times. (archived link) Telugu website MyKhel also made this claim. However, the didn’t post the viral image. (archived link) బూర్జ్ ఖలీఫాపై తళుక్కుమన్న రోహిత్ శర్మ.. తొలి క్రికెటర్‌గా అరుదైన రికార్డు!!https://t.co/t3SzVUf9wh#RohitSharma #BurjKhalifa #MumbaiIndians #IPL2021 — Penthalasampath (@Penthalasampath) November 11, 2020 Several Twitter and Facebook users have posted this image. We also received several requests to fact-check this claim on our WhatsApp helpline (+917600011160) and on our official Android application. Alt News performed a keyword search ‘Burj Khalifa blue filter:verified’ on Twitter and found a 2016 image similar to the one viral. It was tweeted by UAE-based news website Emirates 24/7. The montage below shows the comparison between both images. Readers should note that the brightness has been lowered in the viral image. More recently, on October 25, UAE Mission to the UN tweeted a video that shows Burj Khalifa with similar blue lights on the occasion of the World UN day which is observed on October 24. We couldn’t find any tweet related to Rohit Sharma or the Mumbai Indians uploaded by Burj Khalifa on Twitter. Shortly after the match, the Twitter account of MI posted an image of Burj Khalifa that shows MI’s logo and the building surrounded by fireworks. In the tweet, the photo has been credited to Trivandrum-based graphics designer Amith S Hari. Alt News rummaged through MI’s Facebook and Twitter handles and couldn’t find a single post that shows Rohit Sharma’s image on Burj Khalifa. 📍 Dubai is BLUE & GOLD! 💙🏆 📸: @amithndd#OneFamily #MumbaiIndians #Believe🖐🏼 #MIChampion5 #MIvDC pic.twitter.com/YzIoKtBUhY — Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) November 10, 2020 Even Rohit Sharma hasn’t posted any images on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram that indicate that his image was displayed on the world’s tallest skyscraper. In the past as well, Alt News has debunked multiple morphed images of Burj Khalifa. 🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023. Following Saudi Arabia’s 2-1 win against Argentina in the ongoing FIFA World Cup, speculation about… Trigger Warning: The following story contains graphic imagery. Several users have shared images of the… The brutal murder of Shraddha Walker has been widely covered across news media over the… A 1:34-minute-long CCTV camera clip is being widely circulated on social media in which viewers… The teaser of a movie titled ‘The Kerala Story’ is being widely shared on social…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	12th November 2020 / 8:40 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-image-shows-rohit-sharmas-photo-displayed-on-burj-khalifa-after-ipl-win/", "author": "Archit" }
1,964	Morphed image shows Uddhav Thackeray watching Republic TV amidst TRP racket - Alt News Archit 9th October 2020 / 7:26 pm / Last updated: 9th October 2020 On October 8, Mumbai Police Commissioner Paramvir Singh briefed the media on their findings related to a Television Rating Point (TRP) racket. TRP is a tool that judges a channel’s viewership. It is directly proportionate with advertising revenues of a channel. In the briefing, Singh told people were compensated for tuning in to certain TV channels irrespective of whether they are watching it or not. Singh named three channels in the press briefing — Fakt Marathi, Box Cinema, and Republic TV. On the same day, Republic TV responded that a copy of the FIR in the TRP case mentions India Today as the channel to be investigated following which the latter published a story where a witness revealed he was paid ₹400 in cash for tuning in to Republic TV for two hours per day each month. In the backdrop of this, a photo of Maharastra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray watching Republic TV is viral on Twitter. Twitter user @atulsinha02 (archived link) and @VivekCEO (archived link) posted a photo of CM Thackeray purportedly watching Republic TV. Some Facebook users have also shared the image. Alt News performed a reverse image search on Google using the InVID browser plugin. We found the viral image has been edited. The unedited image was available on The Outlook‘s photo gallery. The photo is credited to PTI and the caption reads, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacts with Maharashtra CM Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray via video conference on COVID-19 preparedness, during the nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus.” The image is dated April 27, 2020. The comparison below shows that the viral image as been evidently morphed with a Republic TV broadcast. Taking a closer at the viral image we noticed the hashtag #CantBlockRepublic displayed on the TV. Using that as a clue, we performed a keyword search on Twitter and found the image is from a Republic TV bulletin aired on September 11. Therefore, a photo of Maharashtra CM Thackeray in a video conference with PM Modi was morphed to portray that the former was watching The Republic TV. 🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023. Following Saudi Arabia’s 2-1 win against Argentina in the ongoing FIFA World Cup, speculation about… Trigger Warning: The following story contains graphic imagery. Several users have shared images of the… The brutal murder of Shraddha Walker has been widely covered across news media over the… A 1:34-minute-long CCTV camera clip is being widely circulated on social media in which viewers… The teaser of a movie titled ‘The Kerala Story’ is being widely shared on social…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	9th October 2020 / 7:26 pm / Last updated: 9th October 2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-image-shows-uddhav-thackeray-watching-republic-tv-amidst-trp-racket/", "author": "Archit" }
1,965	Morphed image used to claim IAF 'mocked' Pakistan over Balakot airstrike casualties - Alt News Archit 27th October 2020 / 4:39 pm / Last updated: 29th October 2020 An image of a fighter plane has been shared on Twitter with the claim that the Indian Air Force (IAF) is mocking Pakistan’s claim that four trees and one crow were the only casualties in the 2019 Balakot airstrike. The viral image also has a watermark ‘Bharat Rakshak’ at the bottom. Twitter user Dr Shobha was among those who shared the picture. She has over 1.5 lakh followers including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (archived link) IAF – thoroughly enjoyable professional force with an admirable sense of humour at official level. The adversary admitted that only 4 trees and a crow were the casualties in the Balakot Strike ! All other trolls (past, present & future) put together – 0 IAF – 1 pic.twitter.com/sgcs8Qwa7O — Dr Shobha (@DrShobha) October 26, 2020 Similarly, Wg Cdr Nitin Purandare (Retd), a former IAF officer (as per Twitter bio), Twitter user @satya_AmitSingh and Twitter user @samarjeet_n also posted the viral image. All the three tweets carried the text, “Admire the sense of humour. They are trolling Pakis for admitting that only 4 trees and one crow were the casualties in Balakot strike.” Following the Pulwama attack in 2019, the IAF claimed to have bombed Jaish-e-Mohammad’s “biggest” terror-training camp in Pakistan’s Balakot. Media reports placed the casualties at 300 citing “top government sources” even as the centre did not release any official statements. Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in fact said that the casualty figure will not be provided. Two days after the airstrike, Reuters published a ground report from Balakot where a local was quoted as saying, “No one died. Only some pine trees died, they were cut down. A crow also died.” Before we proceed with the fact-check, it must be pointed out that it’s improbable for the IAF to engage in such puerile mockery. The claim itself sounds absurd. We performed a reverse image search on Google and found the image on the website ‘zone5aviation‘ (archived link). It is the ninth photograph in the gallery. “IAF Mirage 2000H/TH In late 2012, I spent a few days at Maharajpur Air Force Station in Gwalior, where Squadrons No. 1, 7 & 9 flying Dassault Mirage 2000H/TH combat aircraft are based,” reads its description. The aircraft does not have four trees and a crow imprinted on the side. The image below shows the comparison between the viral image and image uploaded on the website ‘zone5aviation’. The only difference is that the viral image has the watermark ‘Bharat Rakshak’. Bharat Rakshak, a website that posts content related to the Indian military, tweeted, “Sorry, but this is a fake photo being circulated and did not originate with @bharatrakshak. We do feel flattered that the person who faked it wanted the BR watermark to assign some sense of authenticity to it – but yeah.. its fake.. sorry @CestMoiz if this was disappointing!” Twitter user @CestMoiz had posted the viral image and later took it down. (archived link) Sorry, but this is a fake photo being circulated and did not originate with @bharatrakshak We do feel flattered that the person who faked it wanted the BR watermark to assign some sense of authenticity to it – but yeah.. its fake.. sorry @CestMoiz if this was disappointing! https://t.co/kAVYpzgjUs — Bharat Rakshak (@bharatrakshak) October 25, 2020 The claim was earlier fact-checked by The Quint that spoke with the founder of Zone5Aviation website Angad Singh. He told the outlet that the image in circulation is “fake” and that he had captured the original one in December 2012 in Gwalior. The image now being used to claim that the IAF ‘mocked’ Pakistan was initially shared by Pakistani Twitter users to ridicule the IAF. An Indian Twitter user had posted the original picture back in April and called out the misinformation. Pakistani Trolling level on IAF Mirage-2000H 😂😪..Just 4 trees and one crow. 1st fake pic vs 2nd real pic… pic.twitter.com/RAmUam5kAs — Sukhoi Su-57 Felon 🇷🇺🇮🇳 (@I30mki) April 4, 2020 Another photograph of an aircraft was similarly morphed with images of trees and a crow to mock the Indian Air Force. ” #IAF Mirage 2K with an updated livery after the successful airstrike on trees and crows 😃😜#ISPR #PakistanArmy pic.twitter.com/OjqMUDMkzO — Umaır Şhahzad 🇵🇰 (@ImUmairShahzad) March 30, 2019 🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	27th October 2020 / 4:39 pm / Last updated: 29th October 2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-image-used-to-claim-iaf-mocked-pakistan-over-balakot-airstrike-casualties/", "author": "Archit" }
1,966	Morphed India Today graphic falsely claims PM Modi extends lockdown till May 4 - Alt News Archit 3rd April 2020 / 5:06 pm / Last updated: 8th April 2020 A screenshot of an India Today broadcast with the time stamp 8:10 pm has gone viral. It shows Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing the country on the coronavirus pandemic. The text flashed on the screen reads – “All-India Lockdown Increased Till 04th May.” Alt News has received several requests to fact-check the viral screenshot on WhatsApp (+91 76000 11160) and on our official Android application. On March 24, PM Modi had ordered a nationwide lockdown for 21 days, barring essential services, as a preventive measure to tackle the coronavirus pandemic. The 30-minute address was televised at 8 pm by nearly every news channel. Alt News watched this address on India Today‘s YouTube channel and found that the viral image is a still taken at the 9:40-minute mark. However, it has been morphed to add false information that the lockdown has been extended till May 4. As evident, both the clips are similar – PM Modi’s photograph, the blurbs ‘COVID-19 BREAKING’ and ‘PM ADDRESSES NATION’ are exactly the same including the font. However, the news flash in the middle and bottom of the screen have been altered. 1. While the original informs of an ‘all-India lockdown from midnight’, the morphed one has changed this to falsely read – ‘All-India lockdown increased till May 4’. 2. The sentence ‘India under lockdown’ has been altered to ‘India under lockdown dates increased’. 3. ‘PM Modi announces nationwide lockdown’ falsely reads ‘PM announces to shut down everything till 04 May’ in the morphed graphic. 4. It is also noteworthy that there’s uniformity in the font size and texture in the original graphic. The same cannot be said about the morphed one. There are no reports of PM Modi announcing an extension of the 21-day lockdown (March 25 to April 14). In his latest address made on April 3, the Prime Minister appealed to citizens to switch off all lights at 9 pm on April 5 and ignite diyas, candles or torches from the balconies and doorsteps of their homes. This, he claimed, is an effort to dispel the darkness caused by the pandemic and give hope to the poor, the ones most vulnerable to the crisis. Recently, Alt News fact-checked two images resembling a still from a TV news channel circulated to falsely claim that Home Minister Amit Shah tested positive for coronavirus. Note: The number of positive cases of the novel coronavirus in India exceeds 5,000 and more than 150 deaths have so far been reported. The government has imposed a complete restriction on movement apart from essential services to tackle the pandemic. Globally, more than 14 lakh confirmed cases and over 80,000 deaths have been reported. There is a sense of panic among citizens, causing them to fall for a variety of online misinformation – misleading images and videos rousing fear or medical misinformation promoting pseudoscience and invalid treatments. While your intentions may be pure, misinformation, spread especially during a pandemic, can take lives. We request our readers to practice caution and not forward unverified messages on WhatsApp and other social media platforms. 🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023. Following Saudi Arabia’s 2-1 win against Argentina in the ongoing FIFA World Cup, speculation about… Trigger Warning: The following story contains graphic imagery. Several users have shared images of the… The brutal murder of Shraddha Walker has been widely covered across news media over the… A 1:34-minute-long CCTV camera clip is being widely circulated on social media in which viewers… The teaser of a movie titled ‘The Kerala Story’ is being widely shared on social…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	3rd April 2020 / 5:06 pm / Last updated: 8th April 2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-india-today-graphic-falsely-claims-pm-modi-extends-lockdown-till-may-4/", "author": "Archit" }
1,967	Morphed news graphics falsely claim Amit Shah contracted coronavirus - Alt News Archit 28th March 2020 / 2:01 pm Two images are circulating on social media with the claim, “Home Minister Amit Shah in the grip of coronavirus”. Both the images seem to be a still from TV channels. The viral image with the logo of Aaj Tak shows Shah surrounded by men dressed in white and in military uniform. In the bottom of the image, we see the caption – “Breaking News गृहमंत्री अमित शाह कोरोना की चपेट में (Translation Home Minister Amit Shah in the grip of coronavirus). Alt News has received several requests to fact-check the viral images on WhatsApp (+91 76000 11160) and on our official Android application. The second viral image has a logo of Sach News. This image shows a screen with the text in Hindi which states Amit Shah tested positive with coronavirus, admitted in hospital (translated from अमित शाह आये कोरोना कि चपेट में अस्पताल में भर्ती). Just like the first viral image, we received several requests to fact-check this image as well. Image 1 This image has been made using Break Your Own News, a meme generator. Once the meme is made, the image has a watermark which says ‘breakyourownnews.com’. The screenshot below highlights that in green. In the viral image, it is noticeable that the area next to the Aaj Tak logo is blurred. This confirms that the meme has been maliciously morphed by adding the Aaj Tak logo and blurring the watermark which was not hidden by the logo. The person on Shah’s right is BJP member Ashish Shelar. Using this as a clue, Alt News performed a keyword search on Google and found an Indian Express report from 2014. According to the report, Amit Shah visited NCP chief Sharad Pawar at Breach Candy Hospital after Pawar underwent a thigh surgery. Image 2 Alt News looked up for Sach news channel on the list of paid and free TV channels grouped by the Telecom Regulatory Authority. We could not find a channel by this name. Moreover, the background screen has ABP News written on it. Here’s a still from March 28 bulletin published on YouTube. There is an online news outlet by the name Sach News. However, its logo doesn’t match with the one used in the viral image. Therefore, social media claim that Home Minister Amit Shah has contracted coronavirus is false. 🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	28th March 2020 / 2:01 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-news-graphics-falsely-claim-amit-shah-contracted-coronavirus/", "author": "Archit" }
1,968	Morphed ABP News screengrab on Rhea Chakraborty 'eating palak paneer' surfaces online - Alt News Priyanka Jha 7th September 2020 / 9:34 pm / Last updated: 7th September 2020 Retired IAS officer Surya Pratap Singh posted a purported screengrab of an ABP News bulletin. “Rhea had eaten palak paneer curry,” reads the breaking news ticker in Hindi. “How can TV (channels) recognise the issue of unemployment when such important news needs to be aired?” wrote Singh. Journalist Swati Chaturvedi also tweeted the image and criticized the Indian media while dubbing the alleged reportage “cringeworthy”. It is noteworthy that she had taken down her tweet and issued a clarification before this report was published. On Facebook, a few more people shared the screengrab and took potshots at Indian media. The bulletin comes across as a satirical creation just by the first read. The bottom-most line in the image makes it evident that it’s not a screengrab of broadcast but a joke on the falling journalistic standards in broadcast news. Such screenshots are created from a meme-generator website. This website allows you to populate a template of a meme with a headline, ticker and an image of your choice. This particular meme was created on the meme-generator website ‘Break Your Own News’. Only the logo of ABP News was added to the template. After his initial tweet, Singh posted another where he said, “Even if it’s photoshopped, it (shows) what’s happening right now”. यदि ये फोटोशॉप भी है, लेकिन हो तो ये ही रहा है l — Surya Pratap Singh IAS Rtd. (@suryapsingh_IAS) September 7, 2020 Chaturvedi also clarified, “Been told the ABP news SS is fake. Deleting it. Apologies”. Been told the ABP news SS is fake. Deleting it. Apologies — Swati Chaturvedi (@bainjal) September 7, 2020 This is not the first instance when netizens fell for an image that was created on such meme-generator websites. Earlier, a similar screengrab that read, “Breaking News: Weed kills coronavirus”, had gone viral. Several people had shared it believing it to be true. Using the template now viral, an image was shared in the month of March, where it was falsely claimed, “Vladimir Putin has Dropped 800 tigers and Lions all over the Country to push people to stay Home”. It was also used to spread misinformation about the accused bishop in the Kerala nun rape case. She specializes in information verification, examining mis/disinformation, social media monitoring and platform accountability. Her aim is to make the internet a safer place and enable people to become informed social media users. She has been a part of Alt News since 2018. Following Saudi Arabia’s 2-1 win against Argentina in the ongoing FIFA World Cup, speculation about… Trigger Warning: The following story contains graphic imagery. Several users have shared images of the… The brutal murder of Shraddha Walker has been widely covered across news media over the… A 1:34-minute-long CCTV camera clip is being widely circulated on social media in which viewers… The teaser of a movie titled ‘The Kerala Story’ is being widely shared on social…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	7th September 2020 / 9:34 pm / Last updated: 7th September 2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-news-graphics-falsely-linked-with-abp-news-rhea-chakraborty-palak-paneer-fake/", "author": "Priyanka Jha" }
1,969	Morphed OpIndia screengrab claims Greta Thunberg's real name is 'Ghazala Bhat' - Alt News Pooja Chaudhuri 6th February 2021 / 8:05 pm / Last updated: 7th February 2021 Sharjah-based Hend bint Faisal Al Qasimi, Emirati princess of Al Qasimi family, claimed that right-wing propaganda website OpIndia published an article which said that climate activist Greta Thunberg’s real name is ‘Ghazala Bhat’. Don’t believe the news. It is written by those that are paid to have you agree with whatever they are told to make you believe. Do the right thing always, no matter how small- that is true religion. To be a good person is more important than to be an extremist. #GretaThunberg pic.twitter.com/c1Zd7gFRtv — Hend F Q (@LadyVelvet_HFQ) February 5, 2021 She supported her claim by sharing a screenshot of a purported OpIndia story that shows Thunberg in a hijab and reads, “The real face of Greta Thunberg. Her real name is Ghazala Bhat she is daughter of Kashmiri Bussinessmen Hilal Bhat who married to Swedish mother Anna Björklund converted to Islam became Aafia. Her parents got killed into car accident. She became orphan later adopted by Svante Thunberg. [sic]” CEO of Khalsa Aid International Ravinder Singh too shared the screenshot on Instagram where it drew close to 40,000 likes. A post shared by Ravi Singh (@ravisinghka) The screenshot was also shared by singer Caralisa Monteiro and Pakistan-based journalist Omar Quraishi. Monteiro later took it down. An archived link can be accessed here. It is massively widespread on Facebook, with users criticising OpIndia. OpIndia has not published any article that claims Greta Thunberg’s real name is ‘Ghazala Bhatt’. Moreover, the screenshot does not have the same interface as OpIndia’s website. The font size and style are different and OpIndia stories are not centre-justified. The viral image has been created by morphing a screenshot from OpIndia’s website. Everything below the orange and black borders has been removed and morphed with a fictional paragraph and Thunberg’s image. OpIndia editor Nupur Sharma also tweeted that the screenshot is fake. Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	6th February 2021 / 8:05 pm / Last updated: 7th February 2021	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-opindia-screengrab-claims-greta-thunbergs-real-name-is-ghazala-bhat/", "author": "Pooja Chaudhuri" }
1,970	Morphed photo: Kejriwal's dinner host did not have Modi's portrait on wall - Alt News Shinjinee Majumder 14th September 2022 / 5:16 pm / Last updated: 15th September 2022 On his two-day visit to Gujarat, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was invited by an auto-rickshaw driver, Vikrambhai Dantani, to dinner at his home after Kejriwal addressed a gathering of auto-rickshaw drivers in Ahmedabad. Following this, an image of Arvind Kejriwal interacting with Dantani’s family has gone viral. Users have pointed out an image of PM Narendra Modi that can be seen on the wall in the background. BJP Mumbai city minority morcha president Wasim Khan tweeted the image with the caption “Kejriwal got tricked because his host turned out to be a supporter of Narendra Modi”. His tweet garnered 15,000 likes and 2,000 retweets (Archived link). केजरीवाल जी जिनके घर गए वह लोग तो @narendramodi जी के दीवाने निकले केजरीवाल जी को मामूँ बना दिया! pic.twitter.com/v1adOziwtd — Wasim R Khan (@wasimkhan0730) September 12, 2022 User @narendramodi177 tweeted the image and garnered over 4,000 likes. (Archived link) केजरीवाल आज जिस ‘ऑटोवाले” के यहां खाना खाने गए थे 😂🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/r4H7OuSKEP — Narendra Modi fan (@narendramodi177) September 12, 2022 The image has been shared on Facebook several times. On September 12, 2022, Arvind Kejriwal tweeted some pictures from the dinner that he attended at auto-rickshaw driver Vikrambhai Dantani’s home. The viral image was one of them. The only difference is that the picture of PM Modi cannot be seen in the background of the image that Kejriwal uploaded. अहमदाबाद में ऑटो चालक विक्रमभाई दंताणी बड़े प्यार से अपने घर खाने पर लेकर गए, पूरे परिवार से मिलवाया, स्वादिष्ट खाने के साथ बहुत आदर-सत्कार दिया। इस अपार स्नेह के लिए विक्रमभाई और गुजरात के सभी ऑटो चालक भाइयों का ह्रदय से धन्यवाद। pic.twitter.com/SiFCZOizaW — Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) September 12, 2022 Below we have compared the two images. Kejriwal’s picture has been used by several media outlets. As is obvious, the picture of Modi cannot be seen on the wall in any of the pictures. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) We also found India Today‘s video coverage of this event. At the 2:35 second mark, the same portrait, as shared by Kejriwal earlier, can be seen in the background. PM Modi’s portrait is absent. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyRk6ic9go4] Thus, it is quite evident that the image being circulated is morphed. PM Narendra Modi’s portrait was photoshopped into the background of Kejriwal’s photo. Student of Economics at Presidency University. Interested in misinformation. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	14th September 2022 / 5:16 pm / Last updated: 15th September 2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-photo-kejriwals-dinner-host-did-not-have-modis-portrait-on-wall/", "author": "Shinjinee Majumder" }
1,971	Morphed photo of NDA presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu with Mohan Bhagwat viral - Alt News Kalim Ahmed 7th July 2022 / 9:53 pm / Last updated: 7th July 2022 A photograph of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)’s presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu is widely circulating on social media. In the photo, we can see Murmu praying to a photo of a Hindu deity while standing next to Mohan Bhagwat, the Chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Various users including Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan have shared this photo claiming that this was clicked at the RSS headquarters in Nagpur. It is further insinuated that Murmu is “hand in gloves” with the Sangh and will be merely a puppet if elected. Prashant Bhushan wrote, “BJP’s presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu visits Mohan Bhagwat at the RSS headquarters in Nagpur! Is there any doubt that she will just be a rubber stamp and not be able to function independently?” [sic] Similarly, various other social media users shared this photo with similar captions. We performed a reverse image search on Google which did not yield any result. After multiple attempts, we cropped the image, flipped and processed it again through Google reverse image search. This led us to a news report by Prabhat Khabar where we found the same image of Mohan Bhagwat but here he’s not accompanied by Droupadi Murmu as seen in the viral image. To probe further, we performed an additional reverse image search on the photo carried by Prabhat Khabar. This led to a blog by the RSS published on March 11, 2022, according to which the photo was clicked at the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha in Karnavati, Gujarat. Photos of this event were also shared by the official Twitter handle of RSS which said that the man accompanying Mohan Bhagwat was RSS secretary Dattatreya Hosbale. राष्ट्रीय स्वयंसेवक संघ की अखिल भारतीय प्रतिनिधि सभा की बैठक आज गुजरात के कर्णावती में प्रारम्भ हुई। बैठक का शुभारम्भ पू. सरसंघचालक डॉ. मोहनजी भागवत और मा. सरकार्यवाह श्री दत्तात्रेय होसबाले जी ने भारत माता के चित्र पर पुष्पार्चन करके किया। बैठक 13 मार्च को सम्पन्न होगी। pic.twitter.com/gWNk7KwpwZ — RSS (@RSSorg) March 11, 2022 We also cropped the viral image, isolating Murmu from the rest of the surroundings, then flipped it and processed the image through Google reverse image search. This led us to a tweet where we can see Droupadi Murmu in the same attire as the viral image. पिछले बार विपक्ष में रहते हुए श्री रामनाथ कोविंद के नाम पर @NitishKumar को समर्थन करना पड़ा था। इसबार भी @BJP4India ने वही दांव खेल दिया, अब @HemantSorenJMM अगर यशवंत सिन्हा का समर्थन करते हैं तो उनपर आदिवासी विरोधी का ठप्पा लगेगा। अब विरोध करें तो कैसे करें?@meriteshkashyap pic.twitter.com/9KuaqKImPB — Sudhir Sharma (@KrsSudhir) June 21, 2022 Making a visual comparison, we noticed that the image of Murmu with Mohan Bhagwat was morphed using this image. The similarities we observed were: Additionally, we also found the same image in a tweet by Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren. The two had met in December 2020, on the occasion of the completion of one year of the Soren-led Jharkhand government. आज झारखण्ड सरकार के एक साल पूरे होने के अवसर पर राजभवन में राज्यपाल श्रीमती द्रौपदी मुर्मू जी से मुलाकात की। pic.twitter.com/Si262ts95D — Hemant Soren (@HemantSorenJMM) December 29, 2020 Based on all the pieces of evidence, it is safe to conclude that the photo of NDA presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu with Mohan Bhagwat is manipulated. Kalim is a journalist with a keen interest in tech, misinformation, culture, etc Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	7th July 2022 / 9:53 pm / Last updated: 7th July 2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-photo-of-nda-presidential-candidate-droupadi-murmu-with-mohan-bhagwat-viral/", "author": "Kalim Ahmed" }
1,972	Morphed photo shared as Indian army soldiers raising tricolour flag at Mount Kailash - Alt News Pooja Chaudhuri 16th September 2020 / 4:12 pm / Last updated: 16th September 2020 “India has taken into control 60–70 km of the Kailash mountain range and captured such peaks that were used by China earlier to prevent Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage. Soldiers shouted slogans of Har Har Mahadev in the area,” reads a message on social media. It accompanies a photograph of Indian army soldiers raising the tricolour flag atop a mountain. (Translated from: “कैलाश पर्वत श्रृंखला की भारत ने 60-70 किलोमीटर तक का वह पूरा क्षेत्र अपने अधिकार में ले कर ऐसी चोटियों पर कब्जा कर लिया है जिसके दम पर चीन हर बार कैलाश मानसरोवर की यात्रा रोकने की धमकी देने के साथ ही आंखें दिखाता था।वहां भारतीय सैनिकों ने लगाए हर हर महादेव के नारे.”) From the Twitter account @RajSriv43245377, the claim drew over 300 retweets and close to 600 likes. The photograph is circulating against the backdrop of the Indian army occupying the high ridgeline of the Kailash Range opposite the Chushul Bowl on the intervening night of August 29-30. The same was promoted by Twitter handle @Qweenofjhansi gathering over 900 likes. The picture is also circulating on Facebook. It has been shared with another message that read, “India’s Ranbakura took control of a large part of Kailash mountain occupied by China in 1962 and waved the tricolour flag. (हिन्द के रणबाकुरों ने 1962 में चीन द्वारा क़ब्ज़ाये गए कैलाश पर्वत बड़ा हिस्सा अब अपने कब्जे में लेकर तिरंगा लहराया.”) (कैलाश पर्वत श्रृंखला के उन पहाडि़यों को अपने अधिकार में लेने के बाद भारतीय सेना की यह तस्वीर) हमसे महज़ कुछ दूर है बस… Posted by Neeraj Kumar on Monday, 14 September 2020 A similar image was viral in June with the false claim that India captured the Chinese side of the Pangong Tso lake. Alt News Fact Check on the claim spread by a dubious website can be read here. A reverse-image search had led us to the original picture used by The Print in an article from May 13, 2020. The photograph, credited to ANI, was used for representational purposes. This image has clearly been morphed and shared recently. We found another image of the same event in an India Today report from January 26, 2020. As per the article, the image shows soldiers celebrating the 2020 Republic Day at the Line of Control (LoC). Alt News also reverse searched the viral image on Yandex after blurring out the soldiers and the flag. This led us to the original photograph that has been used in the background. Therefore, a picture from 2020 Republic Day celebrations at the LoC was morphed and shared with the false claim that it shows the Indian army raising the national flag at Kailash mountain. India recently occupied the heights in Chushul sector. Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	16th September 2020 / 4:12 pm / Last updated: 16th September 2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-photo-shared-as-indian-army-soldiers-raising-tricolour-flag-at-mount-kailash/", "author": "Pooja Chaudhuri" }
1,973	Morphed photo shows patient being dragged in front of Central Vista construction site - Alt News Pooja Chaudhuri 30th April 2021 / 7:58 pm Congress MP Jairam Ramesh shared a photograph of a healthcare worker in a PPE suit transporting a patient on a gurney in front of construction boards of Central Vista. Narendra Modi government’s pet project aims to redevelop a 3.2 km stretch of Central Vista. The total cost of the project is Rs 20,000 crore and work continues on Central Vista amid the raging pandemic in Delhi. No construction is allowed in the national capital but the Central Vista project has been declared an essential service. Several others have also shared the picture. Two different images have been morphed together to make it seem that the patient was carried in a gurney in front of Central Vista construction boards. The image of the boards was found in an article on Scroll published on April 27. It was shot by Vijayta Lalwani. The other photograph was taken by Adnan Abidi for Reuters. “A health worker wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) carries a patient suffering from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outside the casualty ward at Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, in New Delhi, India, April 24, 2021,” reads its description. The picture was inverted and used in the morphed photo. Jairam Ramesh made another tweet after it was pointed out that the image is morphed. Regardless of whether this is an actual photograph or a depiction, what is absolutely shocking is the Prime Minister not scrapping the Central Vista project in the middle of a devastating pandemic. — Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) April 30, 2021 The Central Visa project is ongoing despite thousands of lives lost every day due to the pandemic. India is facing a shortage of medical equipment, including life-saving oxygen cylinders, and vaccines. The government has received immense flak for going ahead with the project instead of redirecting funds for essentials. However, the viral photograph is not genuine and many among those who have shared have acknowledged that it has been morphed. Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	30th April 2021 / 7:58 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-photo-shows-patient-being-dragged-in-front-of-central-vista-construction-site/", "author": "Pooja Chaudhuri" }
1,974	Morphed photo viral as ABVP Assam protesting against CAA, NRC - Alt News Nitika Amin 7th January 2020 / 9:39 pm A photo was circulating on social media last week that shows a group of people holding ABVP flags and a large banner which has photos of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah with footprints on their faces. The text of the banner reads, “We don’t support NRC, CAB, CAA. Modi Go back, Takla Amit Go back #ABVP Assam”. Among those who tweeted this photo was Waris Pathan, former AIMIM MLA from Mumbai’s Byculla constituency. He shared the photo with the claim “ABVP members in Assam protesting against NRC, CAB, and CAA. The nation is changing. 2020.” However, he later deleted his tweet. The photo was also viral on Facebook – Sachiv Gupta, Mohammed Sami and multiple other users have posted the photo with similar claims. Alt News did a reverse image search of the photo and found that it has been morphed. In the original photo, the banner reads, “We Support CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) ABVP.” Alt News found an article published by DNA according to which the photograph was shot in Ahmedabad during a rally by ABVP members in support of CAA on December 18, 2019. Deccan Herald however reported that the photograph was shot in JNU campus. Needless to say, the image has been morphed. The original banner says “We Support CAA”. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	7th January 2020 / 9:39 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-photo-viral-as-abvp-assam-protesting-against-caa-nrc/", "author": "Nitika Amin" }
1,975	Morphed poster falsely claims 'burqa, hijab' dress code for CAA protest in Mumbai - Alt News Pooja Chaudhuri 17th January 2020 / 6:47 pm BJP media panellist Yashveer Raghav shared a poster of a protest rally against the Citizenship Amendment Act (2019) which allegedly mentions that the dress code for women attendees is ‘Hijab or Burqa’. He wrote, “If you want to take part in protests against CAA and NRC (provisions for which are yet to be implemented), you have to wear burqa or hijab. These people want to push the country toward Sharia law.” [Translated from गजब ! अगर आप #CAA2019 और #NRC (जिसको लाने का अभी तक कोई विचार तक नहीं हुआ है) के विरुद्ध आयोजित प्रदर्शन में भाग लेना चाहते है तो आपके लिए बुर्का और हिजाब पहनना अनिवार्य है। ये लोग देश को शरिया कानून की तरफ बढ़ाने की चाहत में अग्रसर है।] Prashant Patel Umarao, an infamous name in the misinformation ecosystem, also circulated the claim on both Twitter and Facebook. He wrote, “Protest is against CAA but the dress code is hijab and burqa. They’ll get freedom from patriarchy and manuvad by wearing burqa and hijab. In simple words, this isn’t an all-India protest but a show of strength. Hindu’s patience is being tested.” [Translated from प्रोटेस्ट CAA के विरुद्ध है लेकिन ड्रेस कोड हिजाब और बुरका है। पितृसत्ता और मनुवाद से आजादी हिजाब और बुरका पहनकर मिलेगी। सीधे शब्दों में, यह देश भर में आंदोलन नहीं हो रहा, बल्कि शक्ति प्रदर्शन है और देश के हिंदुओं के धैर्य की परीक्षा ली जा रही है।] A keyword search on Twitter leads one to the original poster. 1. The sentence ‘Dress code for women: Hijab or Burqa’ has been added and a morphed poster has been presented on social media. Amir Edresy, who identifies himself as ‘Founder President, Association of Muslim Professionals’ on Twitter shared the poster on January 15, 2020. It informs about a women’s protest organised by Mumbai Citizens Forum against CAA, NRC and NPR to held at YMCA Ground, Agripada in Mumbai on January 17 at 6 pm. Massive Women’s Protest Against #CAA #NRC & #NPR At YMCA Ground, Agripada, Mumbai At 6PM On Friday, 17th January Let’s join in Large numbers!!! Organized By: Mumbai Citizens Forum pic.twitter.com/4wqxF6XxOu — Aamir Edresy (@aamiredresy) January 15, 2020 Alt News contacted Aamir Edresy from Mumbai Citizens Forum, who is a part of the organising committee of the protest. “This is mischevious. The protest is open to every person irrespective of faith. There is no dress code,” he said. The original poster was also tweeted by the handle ‘CAA / NRC Protest info.’ on January 16. #Mumbai Massive Women’s Protest against CAA / NRC / NPR 17th January @ 6 pm pic.twitter.com/ofL9pt2M2h — CAA / NRC Protest Info. (@NrcProtest) January 16, 2020 2. Another giveaway that the poster has been morphed is the use of lower case alphabet. All words are written in capital letters on the original poster. 3. The sentence ‘Dress code for women: Hijab or Burqa’ is not aligned with the rest of the text on the poster, as indicated by the red margin on the image below. A Twitter handle #IndiaFirst (@savitha_rao) was among those who shared the morphed poster. “So women of all faiths have to dress in burkha or hijab? In addition to Rs 500 and biryani will there be a clothing Allowance too?” reads the tweet. The handle is followed by prime minister Narendra Modi. Another user Saurabh Singh, who is followed the PM in addition to union minister Piyush Goyal and BJP spokesperson Tajinder Bagga, also tweeted the edited poster. Several other users followed by PM Modi have propagated the misinformation. For a women’s protest on CAA, the dress code is Burqa/Hijab Is this how they will fight patriarchy? pic.twitter.com/UlYJKWwXdB — Vasudha (@WordsSlay) January 17, 2020 An anti-CAA poster was morphed to falsely depict that the rally demands all women adorn a hijab or a burqa. Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	17th January 2020 / 6:47 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-poster-falsely-claims-burqa-hijab-dress-code-for-caa-protest-in-mumbai/", "author": "Pooja Chaudhuri" }
1,976	Morphed poster of 2015 film 'Muhammed' viral - Alt News Kalim Ahmed 17th June 2022 / 7:35 pm / Last updated: 18th June 2022 Against the backdrop of the alleged derogatory remarks made by former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma about the Prophet of Islam which caused a diplomatic stir for India, an alleged movie poster that appears to be on the life of Prophet Muhammad is viral on social media with various claims. Twitter user @Narpats62770513 shared the poster with a caption in Hindi that reads, “When the trailer looks like this, imagine how will the movie be?” जब ट्रेलर ऐसा है तो फिल्म कैसी होगी ? pic.twitter.com/iJ1crwfCTc — ठाकुर साहब (@Narpats62770513) June 15, 2022 This poster is widely circulating on Twitter with various claims. The poster is also viral on Facebook with similar claims. We started with a keyword search on Google based on the text that is visible on the poster. This led us to the IMDB page of the film ‘Muhammed’ (2015), directed by the acclaimed Iranian filmmaker, Majid Majidi. The real movie poster is completely different from the one that is viral on social media. The film has met with widespread criticism from Sunni Muslim groups, who believe any depiction of the Prophet is blasphemous. Moreover, fatwas were also issued against Majidi as well as music composer AR Rahman for making the film. In 2020, Anil Deshmukh, then Home Minister of Maharashtra, had written to the Central Government, demanding a ban on the broadcast of the film. We cropped the image and performed multiple Google reverse image searches which led us to an Instagram page of an Egyptian photographer named Omar ShEkoo. As per the caption, the photo was clicked during Eid prayers in 2019 at the Al-Tawheed Mosque in Cairo. Rummaging through Omar’s Instagram page, we found another photo from the same event. It had the same caption as the previous image. This photo was posted four days after the first one. The child and the elderly man are visible in this image as well. Alt News was able to get in touch with Omar through his Instagram page. He said that he indeed took the picture during Eid prayers in Cairo in 2019. “There is a large crowd praying during Eid and several people are accompanied by children. Kids like to play around and they might get lost so their guardians like to hold on to them as they pray. My father used to do the same to me. He used to hold on to me and I used to play around him,” he said. Omar had also shared the image on his Facebook page in June 2019. The photo was used to edit the poster of the film ‘Muhammad’. It was lifted from social media and shared out of context in India amid the Nupur Sharma controversy. Kalim is a journalist with a keen interest in tech, misinformation, culture, etc Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The CCTV footage of a man violently flinging a child on the ground has created… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… A minute-long video clip of a woman being physically assaulted is viral on social media….	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	17th June 2022 / 7:35 pm / Last updated: 18th June 2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-poster-of-2015-film-muhammed-viral/", "author": "Kalim Ahmed" }
1,977	Morphed: Poster of CM Kejriwal congratulating Delhi for a speed breaker - Alt News Archit 24th June 2021 / 10:16 pm On June 16, Delhi MLA Shiv Charan Goel tweeted images of inaugurating a speed breaker in Moti Nagar which became a subject of online trolling. Since then several social media users have posted an image of a political poster of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The poster reads, “Congratulations! A new speed breaker has been constructed in Sagarpur’s vegetable market.” Sagar Pur is a colony situated on Pankha Road, South West Delhi. It comes under Dwarka Vidhansabha constituency in West Delhi. BJP supporter Major Surendra Poonia (Retd) tweeted the viral image. His tweets gained over 1,000 retweets. Thank you Kejriwal Ji 🌹🙏 pic.twitter.com/2ErXKl0UCd — Major Surendra Poonia (@MajorPoonia) June 24, 2021 National spokesperson of BJP Gaurav Bhatia also tweeted the image and later took it down. BJP Delhi members Virendra Babbar and Kamaljeet Sehrawat amplified the image. A tweet by @MeghUpdates gained close to 2,000 tweets. Congratulations Delhi pic.twitter.com/FzMIgMlMh8 — Megh Updates 🚨 (@MeghUpdates) June 23, 2021 Performing a reverse image search on Yandex led us to an identical image posted by Twitter account @pantherblack363. This account is now suspended but the tweet read, “The image is edited from a banner is related to last year’s inauguration of the redevelopment work of Rohtak Road connecting Delhi to Haryana.” Next, we performed a keyword search using the Hindi text on the poster (बधाई. जखीरा गोलचक्कर से मुण्डका रोहतक रोड का मरम्मत कार्य शुरू दिल्ली सरकार) and found that an unedited poster, same as the one posted by @pantherblack363, was uploaded by AAP on November 6, 2020, when CM Kejriwal had inaugurated the redevelopment work of Rohtak road connecting Delhi to Haryana. Posted by Aam Aadmi Party on Friday, 6 November 2020 AAP also aired the video of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal laying the foundation stone of the project. The unedited poster can be seen in the opening few seconds of the video. To sum it up, several social media including BJP spokespersons posted an edited poster of Delhi CM Kejriwal to falsely claim that AAP created much fanfare after constructing a speed breaker. The original poster dates back to November 2020. 🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	24th June 2021 / 10:16 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-poster-of-cm-kejriwal-congratulating-delhi-for-a-speed-breaker/", "author": "Archit" }
1,978	Morphed poster shared to mock AAP contesting upcoming Himachal polls - Alt News Mohammed 12th April 2022 / 5:33 pm / Last updated: 12th April 2022 A picture of a banner comprising Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s photo along with a statement attributed to him is currently being shared on social media. The statement reads, “If the central government gives us funds, mothers-sisters from Himachal Pradesh will get Rs 1000 per month.” It must be noted that the phrase “if the central government gives us funds” is written in tiny letters while the rest of the sentence is in bold. On April 8, 2022, Delhi BJP spokesperson Nighat Abbass posted the photo while mocking the AAP. Her tweet received over 2,000 retweets. सच्ची बात 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/KvTJZYNpje — Nighat Abbass 🇮🇳 (@abbas_nighat) April 8, 2022 A right-wing handle @spoof_Junkey posted the same picture captioned as Kejriwal’s “manifesto” for Himachal Pradesh. Kejriwal’s manifesto for Himachal Pradesh. pic.twitter.com/rQyfg901c5 — Naweed (@Spoof_Junkey) April 7, 2022 Similarly, @doctorrichabjp posted the picture asking if people in Delhi and Punjab have received the money. पंजाब और दिल्ली में मिल गए क्या pic.twitter.com/nB72CkbdX9 — Dr. Richa Rajpoot (@doctorrichabjp) April 8, 2022 Several Facebook users too shared the same picture with sarcastic remarks targeting Kejriwal. The picture is being shared against the backdrop of Kejriwal’s recent visit to Himachal Pradesh, where he indicated that the Aam Aadmi Party would contest upcoming assembly elections scheduled for November this year. Alt News carried out a reverse image search of the photo on multiple platforms including Google and found that the image of the banner dates back to 2014. However, the statement on the banner reads completely different. The original banner reads, “Thank you, Delhi”. It was put up across Delhi after the AAP was elected to form government in 2014. There are multiple news articles (1, 2) from 2014 that carry the image of the poster. He is wearing the same clothes in this poster. We have juxtaposed the morphed image with the original one to show they are the same. A morphed image of an AAP poster was shared to falsely portray that the party was making misleading promises to voters in Himachal Pradesh. While the morphed poster depicted Delhi CM Kejriwal promising money to all women from the state if the AAP is elected to power, the phrase “if the central government gives us funds” was written in tiny letters. BJP members and supporters used this to mock Kejriwal. Fact-checking journalist Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	12th April 2022 / 5:33 pm / Last updated: 12th April 2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-poster-shared-to-mock-aap-contesting-upcoming-himachal-polls/", "author": "Mohammed" }
1,979	Hathras case: Morphed Aaj Tak graphic portrays Yogi Adityanath supporting Thakur community - Alt News Priyanka Jha 6th October 2020 / 3:48 pm An alleged screenshot from a broadcast by news channel Aaj Tak has been making the rounds on social media the last few days. The Hindi headline in the viral image shows a purported statement by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath which reads, “Thakurs are hot-headed, they can make mistakes.” A Dalit woman was allegedly raped by four Thakur men in Hathras last month. The purported quote attempts to show the CM’s support to the accused. It is noteworthy that the alleged rape has sparked massive outrage in the country but there are also reports of hundreds of people from the Thakur community staging a counter-protest in support of the accused and demanding justice for them. ये है बनारस कांग्रेस का सबसे बङा वाहियात नेता अस्सी घाट पर लङकी छेङ रहा था लङकी से बहस हुई थी लङकी ने इसको करारा तमाचा… Posted by सैफरान राजेश सिंह on Saturday, 3 October 2020 The screengrab is viral on Facebook. Congress leader Udit Raj also attributed the statement to Adityanath however, sans the Aaj Tak screenshot. He later took down his tweet (archive). A closer look at this screengrab shows that the font used on the Breaking News template looks different from the text on the bottom. The background colour behind the headline is also different. There are certain formatting issues which would otherwise not be present in a genuine broadcast. For example, there is no space after the comma or the colon in the headline. Moreover, a Google search does not throw any news reports claiming that Adityanath made the statement in question. Aaj Tak’s fact-check wing had examined the screenshot and concluded that it was fake. The channel revealed that the viral image was made using a Breaking News graphic aired on the evening of October 2. Aaj Tak had tweeted a video of the genuine news update containing the unedited screenshot. This appears at the 56-second mark. Therefore, social media claims that Yogi Adityanath gave a statement in support of the accused in the Hathras case is false. This is not the first instance where screenshots of news broadcasts were edited to spread misinformation. She specializes in information verification, examining mis/disinformation, social media monitoring and platform accountability. Her aim is to make the internet a safer place and enable people to become informed social media users. She has been a part of Alt News since 2018. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	6th October 2020 / 3:48 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-screengrab-of-aaj-tak-broadcast-shared-as-cm-yogi-adityanath-gave-a-statement-in-support-of-thakur-in-alleged-hathras-rape-case/", "author": "Priyanka Jha" }
1,980	Morphed screenshot of Mirror Now used to claim animal slaughter banned in Kashmir - Alt News Jignesh Patel 12th August 2019 / 9:43 pm Twitter user Nabeha Latif, who in her bio claims to be from Islamabad (Pakistan), posted a purported screengrab of Indian news broadcaster Mirror Now with the claim that the Indian government has imposed a ban on animal slaughter in Kashmir during Eid. The graphic started circulating on social media after reports of re-imposition of curfew in Srinagar on the eve of Eid. Indian government imposed ban in Kashmir that kashmiris are not allowed to slaughter animals on eid ul azha. I don’t know how to celebrate #EidAlAdha2019! pic.twitter.com/M4FwWvOnnO — Nabeha Latif (@Nabehal) August 11, 2019 Another user from the United Kingdom tweeted the same screenshot along with one more similar screengrab. It has been retweeted more than 2,500 times so far. This is Indian occupied Kashmir#WakeUpUN_KashmirBleeding pic.twitter.com/jVAPEIpmuq — Ravneet Kaur (@FreeJagtar) August 11, 2019 According to the second screengrab, the reporter’s name is Pramod Madhav. Mirror Now editor Faye D’Souza took to Twitter to debunk the photoshopped screengrab of the news channel viral on social media. She said, “This is a fake screen. FALSE. Photoshopped”. This is a fake screen. FALSE . Photoshopped 1. The bottom ticker is missing 2. The font is not the one used by the channel 3. This is not a story carried by @MirrorNow pic.twitter.com/Ugoz7lAQHo — Faye DSouza (@fayedsouza) August 11, 2019 She pointed out the discrepancies in the morphed screengrab by referring to the actual composition of the screen and the fonts used by the broadcaster. D’souza asserted that the news channel has not carried such a story. Moreover, we also found that Pramod Madhav, the reporter whose name is mentioned in the second viral screengrab, is reporting on Kerala floods right now and is NOT in Kashmir. #TheBigStory — The death toll has risen to 76 in #Kerala. Orange alert issued in 7 districts. @madhavpramod1 reports on #KeralaFloods @avniraja pic.twitter.com/ixP1JhgaAC — Mirror Now (@MirrorNow) August 12, 2019 It may also be noted that the English text in the morphed screenshots of the news channel is grammatically incorrect. While the text in the screengrab reads, “No one can slaughter animal now”, it should have said, “animals” and not “animal”. Shehla Rashid, a political activist and general secretary of Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Movement had posted the fake graphic on Twitter and later clarified that these were photoshopped. Warning: There are photoshopped images of a @MirrorNow screen being circulated with the caption that animal slaughter has been banned in Kashmir. I checked with Mirror Now. They deny having run the story. Looks like a trap by the ruling party to discredit Kashmiris. — Shehla Rashid شہلا رشید (@Shehla_Rashid) August 11, 2019 In conclusion, a photoshopped screengrab of Mirror Now was circulated on social media to falsely claim that the Indian government has banned animal slaughter in Kashmir during Eid. Jignesh is a writer and researcher at Alt News. He has a knack for visual investigation with a major interest in fact-checking videos and images. He has completed his Masters in Journalism from Gujarat University. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	12th August 2019 / 9:43 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-screenshot-of-mirror-now-used-to-claim-animal-slaughter-banned-in-kashmir/", "author": "Jignesh Patel" }
1,981	Morphed screenshot of Swara Bhasker's tweet circulated on social media - Alt News Jignesh Patel 20th July 2018 / 12:38 am Actress Swara Bhasker has once again become a target for right-wing trolls on social media. A screenshot of a tweet ascribed to her was tweeted by a user Shash(@pokershash) which has now been deleted. The screenshot read, “This is what hate looks like. The wise and always open to dialogue a Muslim Lawyer attacked by so called Maulana of Muslims. She is 60 years old. This is HEARTBREAKING. Along with ALL the halala this too is on u @INCIndia”. The tweet accumulated 57 retweets and 169 likes before it was deleted. Bhasker rubbished the statement credited to her tweeting, “My original tweet. (On left about Swami Agnivesh being attacked) and the Fake News Factory adapting it.. to the Slapgate issue.. guys u are SO creative!“. My original tweet. (On left about Swami Agnivesh being attacked) and the Fake News Factory adapting it.. to the Slapgate issue.. guys u are SO creative! 🙄🙄🙄🙄 pic.twitter.com/GLBJAZqmkS — Swara Bhasker (@ReallySwara) July 19, 2018 Shash(@pokershash) tried to save face by deleting the tweet without an apology. Later, the account tweeted the same screenshot mocking Bhasker, “Everyone knows that it’s fake coz you just can’t condemn violence on a woman by a muslim. It’s funny that your idea of women empowerment is limited only to pathbreaking.” Everyone knows that it’s fake coz you just can’t condemn violence on a woman by a muslim. It’s funny that your idea of women empowerment is limited only to pathbreaking. pic.twitter.com/0EmHCJbGX9 — Shash (@pokershash) July 19, 2018 A photoshopped tweet of Swara Bhasker had been circulated in the past as well. Posted below is the tweet which carried the morphed screenshot of Bhasker’s tweet, So a media company is using dented painted b!**0s of Bollywood to promote hinduphobia deliberately using ‘Hindustan’. @smritiirani pic.twitter.com/do4g5oYT6f — कुंतवै (@Kunthavi5) April 16, 2018 Whereas the original tweet of Bhasker was nowhere close to what was portrayed. The need for make up was because I was right in the middle of a shoot Chandni.. you know that thing called WORK.. But why is that important? People who wear make up cannot take up for a cause? Don’t have the right to express their opinion? What’s bothering you? https://t.co/Z7X9gMSo5Y — Swara Bhasker (@ReallySwara) April 13, 2018 Earlier, A fake quote regarding the movie Padmaavat was ascribed to Swara Bhasker in January 2018 by serial fake news purveyor ShakhNaad after she had written an open letter to director Sanjay Leela Bhansali about the movie. ShankhNaad is known for its chronic tendency of sharing misinformation. In a statement given to Alt News, she had refuted the claim, calling it “perverse and wilful twisting of my article”. This is a BLATANT LIE. @ShankhNaad pls publish an official apology or we can take this to court.. https://t.co/yJQe6UpX7l — Swara Bhasker (@ReallySwara) January 30, 2018 Ascribing false statements to politically vocal public figures is not a new phenomenon. Alt News has observed that public figures who refuse to toe the popular line are specifically targeted by the right-wing ecosystem on social media. Jignesh is a writer and researcher at Alt News. He has a knack for visual investigation with a major interest in fact-checking videos and images. He has completed his Masters in Journalism from Gujarat University. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	20th July 2018 / 12:38 am	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-screenshot-of-swara-bhaskers-tweet-circulated-on-social-media/", "author": "Jignesh Patel" }
1,982	Morphed screenshot viral to claim NYT's propaganda for AAP - Alt News Kalim Ahmed 4th April 2022 / 5:52 pm A screengrab of an alleged report published in The New York Times (NYT) is in circulation on social media. Its headline reads, “Aam Aadmi Party sets world record of gathering highest number of people in a political rally.” The deck below the headline reads, “Nearly 25 crores people attended Arvind Kejriwal’s rally in Gujarat after his Landslide win in Punjab Election.[sic]” It is noteworthy that Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann reached Ahmedabad on April 1 for a two-day visit. RSS worker Rajgopal shared this screenshot pointing out that Gujarat has a population of “6.5 crores” thus, how could it be possible for “25 crore” people to attend the AAP’s political rally. Seriously NYT? For reference: Population of Gujarat is 6.5 crores. pic.twitter.com/4H4aTEpVX5 — Rajgopal (@rajgopal88) April 3, 2022 Various other Twitter users also shared this screenshot while making the identical observation. This claim is also widely viral on Facebook. We checked dozens of these tweets and Facebook posts and noticed that none of these users has provided links to this news report. Moreover, it seems the same screenshot has been shared by everyone. The article could not be found on the NYT’s website. This was the first red flag. We then checked for discrepancies. The home page of the NYT currently has live tickers for only three political events — ‘Russia-Ukraine War’, ‘Coronavirus Pandemic’ and ‘Pakistan Political Turmoil’. There is no live ticker for India-related news. After comparing one of the live pages with the viral screenshot, we noticed a few more anomalies: 1. The “Live”, “Subscribe” and “Log in” buttons of the genuine NYT live feed does not match with the ones seen in the viral screenshot. 2. The colour of the font below the headline i.e., the font colour of the news decks does not match. 3. The news deck in the viral screenshot also carries grammatical errors – the letter ‘l’ in ‘landslide’ is capitalised in between the sentence and it says 25 “crores” people instead of “crore”. 4. The same observations could be made on all the live pages. Based on all the observations it is safe to conclude that the viral screenshot is morphed. Moreover, The New York Times PR dismissed the claims of publishing any such news reports. The screenshot in that tweet is a mocked up image. The New York Times did not write or publish that story. Our coverage can be found at https://t.co/wnc1L2kU2m. — NYTimes Communications (@NYTimesPR) April 3, 2022 Kalim is a journalist with a keen interest in tech, misinformation, culture, etc Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	4th April 2022 / 5:52 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-screenshot-viral-to-claim-nyts-propaganda-for-aap/", "author": "Kalim Ahmed" }
1,983	Kamala Harris criticised Modi for farmers' protest? No, Canadian MP's tweet edited - Alt News Anuradha Prasad 5th December 2020 / 6:27 pm A screenshot of an alleged tweet by US Vice President-elect Kamala Harris has been making the rounds on social media. In this tweet, Harris is criticising the Indian government and its handling of the continuing farmers’ protests. Recently, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also expressed concern over protests while addressing a gathering of the Indian community. Facebook page Akaal Sahai TV shared a photo of Kamala Harris with the alleged tweet and wrote, “Vice President of America, Kamala Harris in support of #FarmerProtest. Now, what will those criticising Justin Trudeau for supporting the farmers say?” New Vice President of USA Kamala Harris Support #FarmerProtest people who were upset on the Justin Trudeau statement in… Posted by Akaal Sahai Tv on Tuesday, December 1, 2020 Similarly, a number of other Facebook users made the same claim. ਅਸੀ ਕਿਸਾਨਾ ਦੇ ਸ਼ਾਤੀ ਪੂਰਵਕ ਰੋਸ ਮੁਜਾਹਰੇ ਦਾ ਜੋਰਦਾਰ ਸਮਰਥਨ ਕਰਦੇ ਹਾ ਸਤਿਕਾਰਯੋਗ Honorable PM.JustinTrudeau Canada ਭਾਰਤੀ… Posted by Tejinder Dhami on Tuesday, 1 December 2020 We combed through Kamala Harris’s Twitter profile and found no such tweet posted between November 28 and now. When we searched the text of this tweet, we came across a tweet by Canadian MP Jack Harris which matched word for word. We are shocked to see the Indian government’s suppression of farmers protesting new laws which will endanger their livelihood. Instead of using water cannons and tear gas, the Indian government needs to engage in open dialogue with farmers. — Jack Harris (@JackHarrisNDP) November 27, 2020 The original tweet was posted by Jack at 12:45 PM. It is worth noting that an identical timestamp is seen in the viral screenshot too. However, it is clear that Jack’s tweet was edited to pass it off as Kamala’s tweet. There is also an error in the morphed screenshot. The time is denoted by ‘AM’ and not ‘am’. Furthermore, had the American Vice President-elect posted a tweet such as this, it would have made headlines in both the Indian and American media. A journalist and a dilettante person who always strives to learn new skills and meeting new people. Either sketching or working. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	5th December 2020 / 6:27 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-tweet-of-jack-harris-shared-as-kamala-harris-tweeted-in-support-of-farmer-protest/", "author": "Anuradha Prasad" }
1,984	Morphed tweet of Shehla Rashid calling for boycott movie of movie on Kashmiri pandits viral - Alt News Archit 13th January 2020 / 8:44 pm The trailer of Bollywood film ‘Shikara – The Untold Story of Kashmiri Pandits’ released on January 7, 2020. Journalist Aditya Raj Kaul shared the trailer and tweeted, “In tears. I am unable to move. For the first time someone has had the courage to narrate my story of forced exodus by Islamist terrorists in Kashmir without monkey balancing. Thank you @rahulpandita for writing this for us all. Thank you @VVCFilms for sharing this brutal truth.” Since January 8, several social media users shared a screenshot of Shehla Rashid allegedly quote-tweeting Kaul’s tweet and asking people to boycott the movie. “Plese boycott this anti Kashmiri Muslim movie Shikara. There is no need to bring up the past…What is bygone is bygone…” reads the purported tweet. Facebook page Puffington Post shared the viral screenshot and wrote, “Ohh yes. Same reason we shouldn’t talk about 2002 again.” This post has been shared over 180 times. On January 10, Twitter user @rohinikaul posted two screenshots and said, “@Shehla_Rashid is this tweet shared by you? I couldn’t find it. If it is then it pains me to see this.I have been pretty vocal about how two wrongs can’t make one right being a Kashmiri pandit.(screenshot) But why boycott a movie which is on our history? Aren’t we all against d terrorists? #Shikara” Here, instead of Kaul, Rashid is allegedly quote-tweeting one Rohit Arya. @Shehla_Rashid is ds tweet shared by u?I couldn’t find it.if it is then it pains me to see ds.I hv been pretty vocal abt hw two wrongs can’t make one right being a Kashmiri pandit.(screenshot) Bt y boycott a movie which is on our history?Aren’t v al against d terrorists? #Shikara pic.twitter.com/S36RxZgoIi — Rohini Kaul (@rohinikaul) January 10, 2020 Several social media users have shared viral screenshots on Twitter and Facebook. The alleged tweet could not be located on Shehla Rashid’s Twitter timeline, hinting that it was either deleted or was never made in the first place. Alt News picked up a random quote-tweet by Rashid (right) and compared it with the screenshot shared by Puffington Post (left). It is noticeable that both the viral images show different text alignments. The screenshot shared by @rashmi21044 has similar alignment issues. Moreover, Arya’s tweet looks like a Facebook post as the ‘public’ and the ‘send friend request’ icons are visible. Speaking with Alt News Rashid said, “This seems like a very mischievous attempt to incite communal tensions. I’m shocked by the deliberateness with which this screenshot has been doctored. I didn’t know about the movie till last night when this fake screenshot came to my notice. Kashmiri Pandits are part of Kashmir, and it is ridiculous to suggest that I would call for a boycott of a movie or a book by a Kashmiri Pandit.” The claim on social media that Shehla Rashid asked people to boycott ‘Shikara – The Untold Story of Kashmiri Pandits’ is false and was made using a doctored screenshot of a tweet that the activist never made. Earlier, former BJP MLA Paresh Rawal had targetted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a similar fashion. 🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	13th January 2020 / 8:44 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-tweet-of-shehla-rashid-calling-for-boycott-movie-of-movie-on-kashmiri-pandits-viral/", "author": "Archit" }
1,985	Morphed tweet portrays actor Ali Fazal celebrating IB staffer Ankit Sharma's death in Delhi riots - Alt News Pooja Chaudhuri 7th October 2020 / 10:02 pm / Last updated: 8th October 2020 As the trailer for the second season of Hindi crime series ‘Mirzapur’ released on Tuesday, a section of Twitter users have been trending #BoycottMirzapur2. The show’s lead actor Ali Fazal is one of the reasons for the ongoing discontent. Several people have shared a purported tweet of Fazal celebrating the Delhi riots. The tweet reads, “PROTESTS : SURU MAJBOORI MEIN KIYE THHEY, AB MAJA AA RAHA HAI!!” which translates to, “Protests: Started due to helplessness but now it’s exciting.” The tweet carries a photograph of Intelligence Bureau staffer Ankit Sharma’s body being pulled out of a drain. Sharma was killed during the communal violence and his body was recovered from a drain on February 26. Twitter user @srikanthbjp_ shared the purported tweet drawing close to 500 retweets. Boycott Hinduphobic #AliFazal‘s Mirzapur 2#BoycottMirzapur2 Pls pass on it …. H!t them where it hurts pic.twitter.com/HjH0e6UJe3 — Srikanth (@srikanthbjp_) October 6, 2020 It has in fact been shared by numerous Twitter users. Before watching #mirzapurseason2 Do not forget this tweet of @alifazal9 If you watch his series, you are supporting his anti India stance. pic.twitter.com/WUxhVMSTVm — Arif Aajakia (@arifaajakia) October 7, 2020 Pro-BJP website OpIndia published an article on Fazal which carried many other such tweets. Fazal had supported the violent anti-CAA protests that had eventually culminated into the horrific anti-Hindu riots in northeast Delhihttps://t.co/uhio3ew4Zp — OpIndia.com (@OpIndia_com) October 7, 2020 Fazal had indeed made a tweet which he later took down, however: 1) His tweet was related to CAA protests, not the Delhi riots. 2) He did not share the photograph of Ankit Sharma. The tweet in question was posted on December 19, 2019, two months prior to the Delhi riots. An archived link to the tweet can be accessed here. Fazal had also given his reasons to delete the tweet. He felt that it might be used to mislead “vulnerable” individuals on social media. Nai actually, like many other things, the bigots mislead. They wont mislead me but the janta sometimes is vulnerable . Aur masala daalne mein toh maahir hain sab. Wont let ppl fall for that. Not on my timeline. Toh tum jheete? Correct? Ok — Ali Fazal M / میر علی فضل / अली (@alifazal9) December 20, 2019 As evident, Fazal did not celebrate IB staffer Ankit Sharma’s death but his tweet was meant for the protests against CAA. Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	7th October 2020 / 10:02 pm / Last updated: 8th October 2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-tweet-portrays-actor-ali-fazal-celebrating-ib-staffer-ankit-sharmas-death-in-delhi-riots/", "author": "Pooja Chaudhuri" }
1,986	Morphed tweet portrays Obama said he is 'ashamed' of shaking PM Modi's hand - Alt News Archit 7th December 2020 / 7:40 pm / Last updated: 7th December 2020 A screenshot of a tweet claimed to have been posted by former US president Barack Obama is widely circulating on social media. The screenshot portrays that Obama tweeted a picture of him shaking hands with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and wrote, “Today I am shamefull for a hand shake with this man…. #NarendraModi”. Alt News received multiple requests to fact-check the claim on our WhatsApp helpline (+917600011160) and on our official Android application. Multiple Twitter users (1,2,3) posted this screenshot and suggested that Obama made the tweet against the backdrop of the ongoing farmers’ protest. Several Facebook users have also posted this screenshot. The viral screenshot by Obama has been morphed. A photograph of the world leaders from 2014 was used along with text to create the manufactured tweet. Several red flags point to the tweet’s ingenuity. We were unable to find any tweet by Obama addressing PM Modi on December 5. The screenshot also carries silly grammatical errors – misspells the words ‘shameful’ and ‘handshake’. Also, the word that should have been used in the tweet is ‘ashamed’ not ‘shameful’. The viral screenshot’s design doesn’t match Twitter’s layout. Alt News compared the viral tweet with the lastest tweet by Obama that carries a picture. Quite evidently, the text of the tweet is not properly aligned with the image in the morphed screenshot. Thus a manufactured tweet has been shared on social media portraying that former US president Barack Obama said that he is ‘ashamed’ to have shaken hands with PM Modi. 🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	7th December 2020 / 7:40 pm / Last updated: 7th December 2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphed-tweet-portrays-obama-said-he-is-ashamed-of-shaking-pm-modis-hand/", "author": "Archit" }
1,987	Morphed cutting of The Times of India newspaper viral amidst 5G spectrum auction - Alt News Abhishek Kumar 5th August 2022 / 1:46 pm An alleged cutting of the ‘Times Business’ page of ‘The Times of India’ (Chennai edition) is viral on social media. It is written on the page that the government has incurred a loss of 2.8 lakh crores in the auction of the 5G spectrum. Furthermore, the number ‘2800000000000000’ is written in the headline to display the loss. Several social media users, leaders and accounts associated with the Congress party shared it as the ‘5G scam’ of the BJP. Writer Ashok Kumar Pandey tweeted the cutting of the newspaper and wrote, “Count the zeros and tell me, in how many days will the ED raid on The Times?” (Archive link) Congress leader Pankhuri Pathak also tweeted the picture and called it the ‘5G scam.’ (Archive link) RLD leader and former journalist Prashant Kanojia also made the same claim. (Archive link) This cutting of the newspaper was tweeted by many social media users including Uttar Pradesh Congress, Bihar Youth Congress, NSUI Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh Congress Sevadal, Daman and Diu Congress Sevadal, Congress leader Vinay Kumar Dokania, and DMK leader T R B Rajaa. We observed the newspaper cutting carefully and noticed that there was a mismatch between the figures given in words and the figures written in digits. The figure provided in digits has fourteen zeros after ’28’, which means 2800 lakh crores, while the figures given in words are written as ‘2.8 lakh crores’. Next, we noticed that the viral newspaper cutting had the byline of The Times of India’s National Editor Pankaj Doval. Taking this clue, we checked Pankaj Doval’s Twitter account and found that he had tweeted the page of Times Business on August 2. It is worth noting that the picture tweeted by him is similar to the viral image, however, it does not have the headline seen in the viral cutting. That’s how the Business Page looks like when you start the day with record spectrum auctions, and end the day with record auto sales… pic.twitter.com/R9Qee59Zfi — Pankaj Doval (@pankajdoval) August 2, 2022 To probe further, we matched the viral cutting with the news published in The Times of India (Chennai edition) dated August 2, 2022, and found that it is edited. In fact, the newspaper did not print anything about “a loss of 2.8 lakh crores” in the 5G spectrum auction. The original paper had written about the earning of 1.5 lakh crores in the auction of 5G spectrum by the government. To sum it up, several politicians, accounts associated with the Congress party and social media users tweeted an edited image of the ‘Times Business’ page claiming the 5G spectrum auction to be a record-breaking scam. Whereas in reality, the original cutting of the newspaper had written about the earning of 1.5 lakh crores during the auction of the 5G spectrum. Abhishek is a senior fact-checking journalist and researcher at Alt News. He has a keen interest in information verification and technology. He is always eager to learn new skills, explore new OSINT tools and techniques. Prior to joining Alt News, he worked in the field of content development and analysis with a major focus on Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	5th August 2022 / 1:46 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/morphes-news-paper-clip-of-toi-shared-as-5g-spectrum-auction-billions-loss-fact-check/", "author": "Abhishek Kumar" }
1,988	Moscow's forest soccer field shared as football ground in Ukhrul, Manipur - Alt News Archit 5th August 2020 / 10:04 pm / Last updated: 5th August 2020 Several Facebook and Twitter users have posted an image of a football ground surrounded by trees. As per social media claims, the football ground is from Ukhrul in Manipur. A Twitter user @biswajitroy2009 posted the viral image along with the text, “The beautiful football ground is not in Europe but in Ukhrul, Manipur, India. Exceptionally beautiful!!!” This tweet has over 3,000 likes as of this writing. Similarly, many Facebook users also posted the viral image. Alt News performed a reverse image search on Google and learned that near-identical pictures have been posted on multiple websites. In fact, Google’s autogenerated keywords prompted ‘russia moscow football ground’. The ground is indeed from Russia. As per a blog on Medium, the ground in the viral images shows the Meshchersky Park also know as the Forest Pitch in Moscow. The image on the blog has been shot from a different angle. Alt News found that the viral image was uploaded on Google Maps in 2017. As per Google Maps, the ground is called Forest Soccer Field and it is less than 2 kilometres away from the Meshchersky Park Alt News also found stock images and footage of the said football ground on Shutterstock. The social media claim that the football ground in the image is in Ukhrul, Manipur is false. It’s located in Moscow, Russia. 🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023. A minute-long video clip of a woman being physically assaulted is viral on social media…. Trigger Warning: The following story contains graphic imagery. Several users have shared images of the… A 1:34-minute-long CCTV camera clip is being widely circulated on social media in which viewers… Trigger Warning: Violent Content. Viewer discretion is advised. Over the past few months, rumours of… The teaser of a movie titled ‘The Kerala Story’ is being widely shared on social…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	5th August 2020 / 10:04 pm / Last updated: 5th August 2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/moscows-forest-soccer-field-shared-football-ground-in-ukhrul-manipur/", "author": "Archit" }
1,989	Most Facebook fact-checking partners in India fail to fact-check BJP-led misinformation - Alt News Pooja Chaudhuri 25th October 2020 / 11:07 am / Last updated: 26th October 2020 Social media giant Facebook has repeatedly come under the scanner after multiple reports of the company evading responsibility for hateful content and misinformation thriving on the platform. A Buzzfeed report from last month revealed that Facebook “ignored or was slow to act on evidence that fake accounts on its platform have been undermining elections and political affairs around the world.” This revelation was made just days after an investigative report by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) said that Facebook’s top public policy executive in India, Ankhi Das, supported Prime Minister Modi and ‘disparaged’ opposition parties. An earlier WSJ piece had disclosed that Das blocked applying Facebook’s hate speech rules to “Hindu nationalist individuals and groups flagged internally for promoting or participating in violence.” Hints of preferential treatment to the ruling BJP were also discovered last year when, right before the Lok Sabha elections, Facebook took down thousands of pages and accounts for “coordinated inauthentic behaviour” but did not name BJP-linked pages with much higher follower count. Facebook has a rampant misinformation problem. False news on the platform is believed to be true by regular users who, when emotionally triggered, amplify these claims. Misleading news or outright lies are pushed for several reasons, the most popular being political one-upmanship. But Facebook refrains from fact-checking political speech which it considers “most scrutinised” by the media. Facebook relies on independent third-party fact-checkers worldwide — eight in India — to “reduce the spread of false news and other types of viral misinformation, like memes or manipulated photos and videos.” Alt News analysed the reports published by Facebook’s Indian fact-checking partners in the past year. We observed that between August 2019 to August 2020, barring two outlets, none highlighted individuals or organisations that are arguably the most frequent sources of misinformation. Facebook has eight fact-checking partners in India namely — Agence France-Presse (AFP), Boomlive, The Quint, India Today, Factly, FactCresendo, Newsmobile and Vishvas News. Alt News has picked five sources of misinformation that come out on top as per our reports — BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya, BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra, Pakistani Canadian author Tarek Fatah, Sudarshan News or its editor-in-chief Suresh Chavhanke and OpIndia. We analysed their posts carrying misinformation against fact-check stories published by Facebook’s fact-checking partners between August 2019 to August 2020. This was also compared with stories on Alt News. In our analysis, we found that apart from Boomlive and The Quint, others have either not published reports or published very few reports identifying any of the five sources of misinformation. It is noteworthy that not all false claims by the selected individuals or organisations are made on Facebook. However, since all of them are highly influential in the social media ecosystem, their posts are picked up and amplified across platforms including Facebook. Misinformation is mirrored identically or in form of screenshots, thus demands scrutiny. But content posted by politicians is not eligible for review by third-party fact-checkers, as per Facebook’s policy. For instance, last year Amit Malviya had shared a video of a protest rally against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Lucknow, where he claimed ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans were raised. This was false. The protesters were chanting ‘Kashif Saab Zindabad’ in relation to AIMIM leader Kashif Ahmad who led the rally. The only Facebook fact-checking partner that picked up the story failed to mention Malviya in the report. Sambit Patra has also been found misquoting individuals. His tweet mocking Rahul Gandhi talking about red and green COVID zones used a clipped video of the Congress leader. The video was then amplified by others on social media yet most fact-checking partners of Facebook did not deem it worthy of a story. It may be pointed out here that nearly every political party or its supporters has been found promoting disinformation but those associated with the BJP unequivocally have an upper hand in terms of volume. Members or supporters of opposition parties like Congress or AAP did not make the cut to feature in our analysis for the simple reason that they promoted fewer false claims in the chosen time frame. Furthermore, several other names worthy of mention — Madhu Kishwar, Rishi Bagree, Prashant Patel Umrao, Sanjay Dixit and Gaurav Pradhan among others — are not a part of this analysis based on volume and impact of content. India Today has published only one report each on Amit Malviya, Sudarshan News/ Suresh Chavhanke and OpIndia between August 2019 and August 2020. Compared to this, Boomlive has written seven stories on Malviya and five each on the other two sources of misinformation. The Quint, in contrast, has published 14 stories that highlight OpIndia and Alt News has penned 35. Organisations need to be certified by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) to become a Facebook partner. These outlets need to meet the IFCN’s code of principles which includes non-partisanship and erratum in case of misleading news. India Today and its Hindi counterpart Aaj Tak have been found publishing false claims on several occasions. They’re even known to have fallen for fake Twitter accounts and fictitious stories. But more often than not, the organisations have failed to publish clarification notes or fact-check its own errors. Another outlet that deserves attention is Vishwas News, a part of Jagran Media Network — the parent organisation of the Hindi daily Dainik Jagran. In the past year, Vishvas News has penned no articles that identify Amit Malviya, Tarek Fatah, Sudarshan News/ Suresh Chavhanke and OpIndia. It has written one report on false news shared by Sambit Patra and debunked two pieces of misinformation (1, 2) targeting him. In fact, Vishvas News has also debunked misinformation targeting Tarek Fatah though the author has not been identified as a source of misinformation. Between August 2019 to August 2020, Alt News and Boomlive have respectively published 18 and 12 stories that identify Fatah. Both organisations have also penned compilations (Alt News, Boomlive) on the misinformation shared by him. In the case of Newsmobile, we noticed an interesting trend. While the outlet has recognised Sambit Patra as a misinformation source in only one story, it has debunked four claims that targetted him. All of these were morphed images (1, 2, 3, 4). AFP and Factly have also scantily published stories that mention the names of the top sources of misinformation. But the fact-checking method applied by these outlets differs from the rest in terms of the format. Both rarely highlight names of individuals/ organisations in their reports. In fact, Factly is known to publish brief fact-checks on viral claims and the corresponding truth. Fact-crescendo also has a scanty coverage of misinformation shared by the sources in question. Multiple attempts to contact India Today, Vishvas News and Newsmobile went unanswered. We also reached out to Facebook via email and were sent a boilerplate response that failed to address specific questions raised by Alt News. A part of its response is as follows: “Facebook’s fact-checking program uses a combination of technology and human review to detect and demote false news stories. We use signals and feedback from people on Facebook, to predict potentially false stories for fact-checkers to review. When fact-checkers rate a story as false, we significantly reduce its distribution in News Feed and show warning labels with more context. We also want to empower people to decide for themselves what to read, trust, and share. When third-party fact-checkers write articles about a news story, we show them in Related Articles immediately below the story in News Feed. We also send people and Page Admins notifications if they try to share a story or have shared one in the past that’s been determined to be false.” Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News. Following Saudi Arabia’s 2-1 win against Argentina in the ongoing FIFA World Cup, speculation about… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The CCTV footage of a man violently flinging a child on the ground has created… A minute-long video clip of a woman being physically assaulted is viral on social media…. Trigger Warning: The following story contains graphic imagery. Several users have shared images of the…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	25th October 2020 / 11:07 am / Last updated: 26th October 2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/most-facebook-fact-checking-partners-in-india-fail-to-fact-check-bjp-led-misinformation/", "author": "Pooja Chaudhuri" }
1,990	Movie still shared as image of 26/11 martyred cop Tukaram Omble - Alt News Pooja Chaudhuri 26th November 2019 / 6:32 pm / Last updated: 21st August 2020 A photograph of a bloodied policeman is making the rounds on social media with the claim that he is Tukaram Omble of Mumbai police who was martyred in the 26/11 terror attacks. From the Facebook page Narendra Modi for 2024 PM (@Namo2019PM), the post has received 15,000 likes and over 1,300 shares as of this writing. The text shared on the image reads, “Even after being shot 23 times, he caught terrorist Kasab alive. The countrymen salute a solider like Tukaram. (23 गोली खाने के बावजूद आतंकवादी कसाब को जिंदा पकड़ा था, ऐसे सिपाही तुकाराम को देशवासी नमन करते हैं।)” The post was shared by several other Facebook pages (हम हैं हिंदुस्तानी) and users (Arun Kumar Pandey). A similar claim was viral last year on the 11th anniversary of 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, “Let’s take a moment to remember the hero of 26/11! He took over 40 rounds from the AK47 of Ajmal Kasab, but captured him alive. We salute you, Sri Tukaram Omble Ji! #MumbaiTerrorAttack,” tweeted BJP MP Shobha Karandlaje sharing purported images of the police officer. Let’s take a moment to remember the hero of 26/11! He took over 40 rounds from the AK47 of Ajmal Kasab, but captured him alive. We salute you, Sri Tukaram Omble Ji!#MumbaiTerrorAttack pic.twitter.com/7G8l58drQS — Shobha Karandlaje (@ShobhaBJP) November 26, 2019 A similar tweet was made by the founder of fake news portal Postcard News Mahesh Vikram Hegde, who had tweeted the same in 2018. The hero of 26/11 Even are being hit with 23 bullets, he captured Terrorist Kasab A salute to this warrior Tukaram Omble #MumbaiTerrorAttack pic.twitter.com/K05JuquRg6 — Mahesh Vikram Hegde (@mvmeet) November 26, 2019 Many other individuals, BJP social media members and handles tweeted the set of photos. While the image on the right is indeed of Tukaram Omble, the one on the left is a movie still. The film is called ‘The Attacks of 26/11’ and was released in 2013. Incidentally, the still was also used in a report on 26/11 by Patrika in 2018 with no mention that it is from a movie. This scene can be viewed at approximately 3:58 minutes into the video posted above. Catch News had also used the image in 2018. A movie still was thus shared as a photograph of 26/11 martyr Tukaram Omble by the media, members of the ruling party and several individuals on social media. [Update: Tukaram Omble’s name was misspelt in this article. The same has been rectified. Similar claims viral in 2020 were added to the report on August 21, 2020.] Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	26th November 2019 / 6:32 pm / Last updated: 21st August 2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/movie-still-shared-as-image-of-26-11-martyred-cop-tukaram-omle/", "author": "Pooja Chaudhuri" }
1,991	Movie still shared as photograph of Mahatma Gandhi's assassination - Alt News Jignesh Patel 9th October 2019 / 3:44 pm / Last updated: 9th October 2019 A photograph of Mahatma Gandhi which supposedly captures the moment when he was killed by Nathuram Godse is floating on social media. A day after 150th birth anniversary of Gandhi, on October 3, Twitter user Azmath Sultan posted the image with the claim, “Rare photo of Gandhi jis murder”. One Iftikhar Chaudri from Pakistan shared the image with the claim that it depicts the scene where “Hindu extremist RSS worker Nathuram Godse, the man who killed Gandhi, -was held by two Hindus while dead body of Gandhi is lying on the floor”. Twitter handle The Pakistan Index posted the image with an identical claim. A few other people on Facebook and Twitter claimed the same while posting the image. Through the comments posted below the tweets, Alt News found that the image is a still from a movie named ‘Nine Hours to Rama’. The film is based on the novel with the same name written by Stanely Wolpert. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6787&v=NkcGzbiRr48 In the still posted below, the characters visible in the clip shared on social media can be seen in the movie. We also found a still from the movie set shot from a different angle which depicts the scene shared online. According to Britannica, ‘Nine Hours to Rama’ was an ambitious drama about the events leading up to the assassination of Gandhi. Horst Buchholz was the lead actor who played the role of Nathuram Godse in the 1963 movie. A still from ‘Nine Hours to Rama’, a fictional movie set around the events that lead up to Gandhi’s assassination, was shared as a photograph depicting the moment when Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated. Earlier this week, a clipping from a movie based on Swami Vivekananda’s life was shared as ‘rare’ footage of the iconic speech given by the spiritual guru in Chicago. Jignesh is a writer and researcher at Alt News. He has a knack for visual investigation with a major interest in fact-checking videos and images. He has completed his Masters in Journalism from Gujarat University. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	9th October 2019 / 3:44 pm / Last updated: 9th October 2019	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/movie-still-shared-as-photograph-of-mahatma-gandhi-assassination/", "author": "Jignesh Patel" }
1,992	Former MP BJP President falls for clipped Rahul Gandhi video, social media clips his statement and targets him - Alt News Arjun Sidharth 25th April 2019 / 5:43 pm / Last updated: 25th April 2019 “UP में ऐसी भी महिलएँ हैं जो हर हफ्ते बच्चा देती हैं , साल भर में 52 बच्चे देती हैं” (There are women in UP who give birth every week, 52 babies in a year- translation). These are the words spoken by Nandkumar Chauhan, former president of the Madhya Pradesh unit of the BJP, according to a short six second video clip which has been shared on social media. नाम :- नंद कुमार चौहान पेशा :- राजनीति पद :- मध्य प्रदेश भाजपा अध्यक्ष, कई बार के सांसद हुआ क्या :- नंद कुमार ने मीडिया से बात करते हुए कहा कि यूपी में ऐसी भी महिलाएं हैं जो हर हफ्ते बच्चा देती है साल भर में 52 बच्चा!@vinodkapri @ajitanjum pic.twitter.com/lepaOoR43d — आचार्य साहिल آچاریہ ساحل (@AacharyaSahiiL) April 24, 2019 The video is being shared widely across different platforms including Twitter and Facebook. नंदकुमार सिंह चौहान के बिगड़े बोल महिलाओं को फिर किया अपमानित pic.twitter.com/nqLxPbY1k9 — Sumit Kashyap (@sumitkashyapjha) April 24, 2019 The above tweet has been posted with the words “नंदकुमार सिंह चौहान के बिगड़े बोल महिलाओं को फिर किया अपमानित” (Nandkumar Chauhan once again insults women- translation). The video has gone viral on Facebook where several individual users have uploaded it on their timelines, with an altered message. The video clip in question is edited. In fact, Nandkumar Chauhan was referring to Congress President Rahul Gandhi. According to the complete sound bite, Chauhan was saying that it was Rahul Gandhi who had made this ridiculous remark at a rally. The video posted below shows the complete exchange between Chauhan and the reporters around him. The translation of the same is posted below: Chauhan: What Congress says, can be seen in the video of Rahul Gandhi which has gone viral today Reporters: What kind of video? What is your reaction to this video? Chauhan: People are reacting. Today, he (Rahul Gandhi) in the video said that there are women in UP who give birth every week, who give 52 babies in a year. (translated from Hindi). Interestingly, Nandkumar Chauhan himself had fallen prey to misinformation. He was referring to a clipped video of Rahul Gandhi which was being circulated widely, and had been fact-checked by Alt News. The video in question is of an address by Rahul Gandhi in Phoolpur, UP in November 2011. In the complete video, Gandhi can be heard speaking in the context of the Janani Suraksha Yojana under National Rural Health Mission, in which pregnant women get an incentive of Rs 1400 for institutional delivery. In that context, Gandhi had claimed that according to a RTI response, there was massive corruption in this scheme, and that women with the same name were getting the incentive every week. The same is posted below. The relevant portion begins from 5:25 minutes. Rahul Gandhi’s exact words were, “Humne RTI manga, RTI mein jo hamein report mili, UP mein aisi mahilae hai, jo har saptah ek bacha paida kar sakti hai, aisi mahilae hai jo saal mein 52 bachha de rahi hai, ek hi naam hai, 1400 rupay har saptah uske jeb mein, aur ek hi ek mahila nahin hai, hazaro mahilae hai”. Translation: We filed an RTI, according to the RTI response, UP has such women who are giving birth to a child every week, there are such women who are giving birth to 52 children per year, all have one name, 1400 rupees in their pocket every week, and there are thousands of such women. From his speech, the part where he says, “UP mein aisi mahilae hai ho har saptah ek bachcha paida kar sakti hai, aisi mahilae hai jo saal mein 52 bachhe de rahi hai (UP has such women who are giving birth to a child every week, there are such women who are giving birth to 52 children per year)“, was clipped and circulated thus leading to a false impression. The tweet by Modi supporter Renuka Jain, posted below is an instance. 💥💥💥💥💥 Mega Breaking News : UP में ऐसी महिलाएं है जो हर सप्ताह एक बच्चा पैदा कर सकती है और साल में 52 बच्चे पैदा कर रही है – राहुल गांधी pic.twitter.com/ylJTyIEzDs — #RenukaJain Chowkidar 🇮🇳 (@RenukaJain6) April 24, 2019 In conclusion, it is ironical that the former MP BJP president became a victim of the same misinformation, while mocking Rahul Gandhi and attributing a false statement on the basis of an edited video clip. UPDATE: The article has been updated to state that Nandkumar Chauhan was the former MP BJP President. Arjun Sidharth is a writer with Alt News. He has previously worked in the television news industry, where he managed news bulletins and breaking news scenarios, apart from scripting numerous prime time television stories. He has also been actively involved with various freelance projects. Sidharth has studied economics, political science, international relations and journalism. He has a keen interest in books, movies, music, sports, politics, foreign policy, history and economics. His hobbies include reading, watching movies and indoor gaming. Following Saudi Arabia’s 2-1 win against Argentina in the ongoing FIFA World Cup, speculation about… Trigger Warning: The following story contains graphic imagery. Several users have shared images of the… The brutal murder of Shraddha Walker has been widely covered across news media over the… A 1:34-minute-long CCTV camera clip is being widely circulated on social media in which viewers… The teaser of a movie titled ‘The Kerala Story’ is being widely shared on social…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	25th April 2019 / 5:43 pm / Last updated: 25th April 2019	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/mp-bjp-president-falls-for-clipped-rahul-gandhi-video-social-media-clips-his-statement-and-targets-him/", "author": "Arjun Sidharth" }
1,993	MP Congress, Digvijay Singh share CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan's edited video - Alt News Priyanka Jha 22nd September 2020 / 1:52 pm Amid the coronavirus pandemic, political parties are campaigning in Madhya Pradesh ahead of the by-elections for 28 assembly seats in the state. On September 20, the official Twitter handle of Madhya Pradesh Congress posted a 12-second video of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan addressing a campaign rally. “Results of Madhya Pradesh by-polls have been declared: When Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who was in Mandsaur district’s Suwasra, asked “who’s the better CM Shivraj Chouhan (him) or Kamal Nath”, the public responded in one voice, Kamal Nath. With whom the public stands, his name is Kamal Nath.” In the video, after Chouhan asks who is the better CM for the state, the crowd can be heard answering “Kamal Nath” in one voice. Even when he repeats the question, the crowd takes Congress leader Kamal Nath’s name. (archive link) मध्यप्रदेश उपचुनाव का परिणाम घोषित: मंदसौर के सुवासरा पहुँचे मुख्यमंत्री शिवराज सिंह चौहान ने जनता से पूछा कि मुख्यमंत्री के रूप में शिवराज चौहान अच्छा या कमलनाथ, जनता ने एक स्वर में कहा कमलनाथ। जनता खड़ी जिनके साथ, उनका नाम है कमलनाथ। pic.twitter.com/aFWqjvgFEi — MP Congress (@INCMP) September 20, 2020 Congress leader Digvijay Singh also tweeted the video with the same claim. (archive link) मध्यप्रदेश उपचुनाव का परिणाम घोषित: मंदसौर के सुवासरा पहुँचे मुख्यमंत्री शिवराज सिंह चौहान ने जनता से पूछा कि मुख्यमंत्री के रूप में शिवराज चौहान अच्छा या कमलनाथ, जनता ने एक स्वर में कहा कमलनाथ। जनता खड़ी जिनके साथ, उनका नाम है कमलनाथ। pic.twitter.com/AMmneG9VMM — digvijaya singh (@digvijaya_28) September 21, 2020 Madhya Pradesh Congress Sevadal and Congress leader Premchand Guddu were among the other prominent handles who tweeted the video clip. A cursory glance at the video suggests that it is from a recent rally as Shivraj Singh Chouhan and MLA Hardeep Singh Dang from Suwasra constituency are seen wearing a mask. Upon searching through Chouhan’s YouTube channel, we found a video stream posted on September 20, 2020. It was titled, “A programme organized in Sitamau (Suwasra), district Mandsaur.” At 59:10 minutes in the video, the viral clip shared by MP Congress and Digvijay Singh can be seen. Shivraj Singh Chouhan, in the original video, says, “Answer one more question, who’s the better CM Kamal Nath or Shivraj Singh Chouhan?” to which the crowd responds, “Shivraj Singh Chouhan.” He then repeats, “Say it more loudly Shivraj or Kamal Nath?” and the crowds reiterates, “Shivraj.” This video is from a rally held in support of Hardeep Singh Dang, the by-election candidate from Suwasra constituency of MP’s Mandsaur district. He is a former Congress MLA who had left the party and joined the BJP in March 2020. Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra quote-tweeted MP Congress tweet and wrote, “Rather than going to the public to swing the public mood in their favour, Congress is playing dirty politics by making a fake video viral. However, people in the state are very wise. They very well know the difference between a fake and an original.” कांग्रेस उपचुनावों में अपने पक्ष में माहौल बनाने के लिए जनता के बीच जाने के बजाय फर्जी वीडियो वायरल कर डर्टी पॉलिटिक्स कर रही है। लेकिन प्रदेश की जनता बहुत समझदार है। वो असली और नकली का अंतर बखूबी जानती है।@BJP4MP @OfficeOfKNath @INCMP https://t.co/IctJ0o4Po5 pic.twitter.com/glAauwUKsX — Dr Narottam Mishra (@drnarottammisra) September 21, 2020 Therefore, Madhya Pradesh Congress and its leaders shared an edited video of CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan. The audio of people chanting “Kamal Nath” was added to the video to give a false impression that the electorate prefers the Congress leader over BJP’s Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Last week, a two-year-old video of a shoe thrown at Shivraj Singh Chouhan during a public rally was shared as recent. She specializes in information verification, examining mis/disinformation, social media monitoring and platform accountability. Her aim is to make the internet a safer place and enable people to become informed social media users. She has been a part of Alt News since 2018. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	22nd September 2020 / 1:52 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/mp-congress-digvijay-singh-shared-an-edited-video-of-bjp-leader-shivraj-singh-chauhan-and-claimed-crowed-at-rally-supporting-kamalnath/", "author": "Priyanka Jha" }
1,994	MP Congress falsely claims Shivraj Chouhan was stopped from walking with PM Modi - Alt News Priyanka Jha 24th November 2021 / 2:30 pm The Twitter handle of Madhya Pradesh Congress posted a video and wrote, “We will not tolerate this ill-treatment of the chief minister.” The clip shows Shivraj Singh Chouhan and PM Narendra Modi walking together when the former is stopped from behind but continues walking a few seconds later. It is claimed that Narendra Modi’s staff did not allow Chouhan to walk alongside the prime minister. (Archive link) हम मुख्यमंत्री के साथ हुये इस बर्ताव की निंदा करते हैं। pic.twitter.com/uXjZUSuuBQ — MP Congress (@INCMP) November 17, 2021 Madhya Pradesh Congress Facebook page also shared the video. हम मुख्यमंत्री के साथ हुये इस बर्ताव की निंदा करते हैं। Posted by Indian National Congress – Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday, November 17, 2021 A few other users amplified the visuals with the same claim. MP CM Shivraj Chouhan was asked to step aside by PM Modi’s guard as he was about to block camera view. pic.twitter.com/NUtSE5VHue — Arrow News (@ArrowBulletin) November 16, 2021 In a Facebook post dated November 16, journalist Anurag Dwari of NDTV clarified that Shivraj Singh Chouhan was not stopped by an SGP/PMO official, but Bhopal collector who wanted to speak to the CM. सुबह से सोशल मीडिया पर ये वीडियो वायरल है जिनको जानता था बता दिया कि ये SPG/PMO के अधिकारी नहीं @CollectorBhopal हैं जो @ChouhanShivraj से कुछ कहने आए थे,वाकई सोशल मीडिया पर खबरें यूं हीं दौड़ पड़ती हैं! लगता है किसी को तथ्योंं से मतलब नहीं है बस कुछ साबित करने की जल्दबाज़ी है! Posted by Anurag Dwary on Tuesday, November 16, 2021 We noticed that the Madhya Pradesh CM himself shared the video on November 17 calling out Congress for “lying”. Using subtitles, the video explains that Bhopal collector Vinash Lavanya stopped him to discuss some urgent matter, following which he continued walking next to the prime minister. झूठी कांग्रेस! pic.twitter.com/wMuUv1VqgE — Office of Shivraj (@OfficeofSSC) November 17, 2021 Bhopal Collector also rejected the claim from his Twitter handle. Lavanya mentioned that PM Modi’s security team did not ask the chief minister to step aside. सोशल मीडिया में वायरल हो रही बात कि माननीय प्रधानमंत्री श्री @narendramodi जी के भोपाल दौरे में सुरक्षा अधिकारी द्वारा माननीय सीएम श्री @ChouhanShivraj को रोका गया का मैं पूर्णतः खंडन करता हूँ । – @CollectorBhopal लवानिया@JansamparkMP — Collector Bhopal (@CollectorBhopal) November 17, 2021 Therefore, Madhya Pradesh Congress shared a false claim about PM Modi’s security staff preventing Shivraj Singh Chouhan from walking together with him. Alt News has found MP Congress circulating misinformation on several occasions. Some of which can be read below. She specializes in information verification, examining mis/disinformation, social media monitoring and platform accountability. Her aim is to make the internet a safer place and enable people to become informed social media users. She has been a part of Alt News since 2018. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	24th November 2021 / 2:30 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/mp-congress-false-claim-that-shivraj-shingh-chauhan-stopped-by-pm-security-staff/", "author": "Priyanka Jha" }
1,995	MP Congress falsely claims MP govt assigned women excise officers for sale of liquor - Alt News Archit 13th June 2020 / 10:34 pm / Last updated: 18th June 2020 On June 10, Chairperson of MP State Women’s Commission Shobha Oza tweeted, “MP government’s decision to put women on the duty of liquor sale is a shameful decision that goes against women’s dignity, safety and honour.” (archive link) (Translated from: मध्यप्रदेश सरकार द्वारा शराब की बिक्री के लिए महिलाओं को ड्यूटी पर लगाने का शर्मनाक फ़ैसला नारी की अस्मिता, सुरक्षा और उसके सम्मान के खिलाफ है।) The tweet was posted in the backdrop of the Madhya Pradesh government’s move to run liquor stores after around 70% of contractors in the state refused to open their shops fearing poor sales due to the economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus outbreak. The state excise department is supervising the process of opening and running the shops. MP Congress tweeted an image of a woman officer in a khaki uniform at a liquor store and wrote, “This picture brings shame. The Shivraj government, eager to sell liquor, has now shown its disgusting and sick thinking towards our sisters and daughters by making women sit at liquor shops.” This tweet has been retweeted over 2,700 times. (archive link) (Translated from: यह तस्वीर लज्जित करती है, शराब बेचने को आतुर शिवराज सरकार ने अब महिलाओं को शराब की दुकानों पर बिठाकर हमारी बहन-बेटियों के प्रति अपनी घृणित और कुत्सित सोच का प्रदर्शन किया है।) On June 12, Congress MLA Arif Masood protested by offering milk packets at a liquor store in Bhopal. He posted a few images of this protest on his Facebook page and wrote, “As a protest against making daughters sell alcohol, MLA Arif Masood distributed milk packets.” (Translated from: #बेटियों से शराब बिकवाने के विरोध में शराब की दूकान पर विधायक आरिफ मसूद ने बाटें #दूध के पैकेट !) (archive link) Congress member Arun Yadav tweeted an image of a government order that listed people who were assigned duty at liquor stores. Yadav wrote, “First female policemen sold liquor in MP and now teachers will sell liquor.” (Translated from: मप्र में पहले महिला पुलिसकर्मियों ने बेंची शराब और अब शिक्षक बेचेंगे शराब) (archive link) Along with the viral image of female cop at a liquor store, two government orders (one without a date and other dated June 9) issued by the excise department went viral on WhatsApp. Both the documents look identical and they list the names of liquor stores that are expected to function, the team members responsible for its operations and their designations. The team members, which include women, have not been assigned sales duty as per the order. On June 12, Deccan Herald published a news report also claiming that the MP government has engaged women in the sale of liquor. (archive link) In a video report by Patrika the female officer can be seen engaged in administrative work. The description of the video reads, “Female excise officer is getting the counting done. Shops might open in Bhopal today. (आबकारी महिला अधिकारी करवा रही काउंटिंग भोपाल में आज शाम खुल सकती हैं दुकान.)” शराब की दुकान खोलने की तैयारी दुकान की साफ सफाई शुरू आबकारी महिला अधिकारी करवा रही काउंटिंग भोपाल में आज शाम खुल सकती हैं दुकान Posted by Patrika Bhopal on Tuesday, 9 June 2020 Alt News was able to connect with the female excise officer. She works at Bhopal Excise Control Room but requested that her identity is not disclosed. The officer connected us with Atul Dubey, Deputy Controller, Bhopal Excise Control Room. “It is incorrect to say that the woman officer was involved in the selling of liquor. Excise officers were assigned duties at liquor stores due to the fact that the majority of contractors have surrendered their tenders. All women involved in the duty had a role of supervision. That’s the fundamental duty of an excise office irrespective of their gender,” Dubey told us. He clarified that the government order that mentions the date is authentic but the other is not. “Once the tender issue is settled excise officers will not have to work at liquor stores,” he added. We were unable to independently verify the authenticity of the government notice without a date. However, it’s pertinent to note that both documents look identical and a report by TV9 Bharatvarsh included the carried the undated order. We found another image of the same officer and noticed that in both the cases she does not seem to be involved in the sale of liquor. In the viral image (left), the officer is on the desk, possibly doing some paperwork, and in the other image (right) she is standing away from the counter while a man in civilian clothes is selling the liquor bottles. “It is very unfortunate that the woman excise officer is being unnecessarily propagated as a woman selling liquor in shops. One has to understand that irrespective of gender, our officers are equally trained to work on the field. The officer seen in the viral image has served the nation for over a decade now. Women officers are often assigned raid duties and in the investigation of organised crimes. At times women officers have to work where there aren’t any toilets. No one raises concerns on such issues,” said Dubey. The claim by MP State Women’s Commission Shobha Oza and Congress party that the MP government is making women sell liquor is not only misleading but also sexist. After the controversy over female excise officers at liquor shops, MP State Excise Department addressed a letter to various district collectors on June 12, instructing that only men are assigned the roles of salespersons (विक्रयकर्ता) and watchmen (चोकीदार). 🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… Following Saudi Arabia’s 2-1 win against Argentina in the ongoing FIFA World Cup, speculation about… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Trigger Warning: The following story contains graphic imagery. Several users have shared images of the…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	13th June 2020 / 10:34 pm / Last updated: 18th June 2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/mp-congress-falsely-claim-mp-govt-assigned-women-excise-officers-for-sale-of-liquor/", "author": "Archit" }
1,996	MP Congress posts old, erroneous report about arrest of Bajrang Dal members, links it to WB violence - Alt News Kinjal 17th June 2019 / 6:38 pm The political situation in West Bengal has become volatile after the result of the 2019 general election. According to some media reports, a BJP worker was killed in post-poll violence in the state. In the midst of all this, Madhya Pradesh Congress tweeted via its official Twitter handle, “BJP had got its workers killed in West Bengal, 11 Bajrang Dal members arrested…”(translation). Along with this tweet, a link to an article which appeared on Daily Hunt, was also shared. पश्चिम बंगाल मे बीजेपी ने ही करायी थी अपने कार्यकर्ता की हत्या, बजरंग दल के 11 कार्यकर्ता गिरफ्तार..! हैरान मत होईये ! फ़र्क़ बस इतना है कि भाजपा ने बंगाल में नकाब उतार रखा है। वैसे, अपने ही कार्यकर्ताओं की हत्या करना कुछ ज़्यादा घृणित नही हो गया..? https://t.co/8w93YrjEYA — MP Congress (@INCMP) June 11, 2019 This write-up has been shared with the identical narrative by several Facebook and Twitter users. It was also posted on the official Facebook page of INC Madhya Pradesh. पश्चिम बंगाल मे बीजेपी ने ही करायी थी अपने कार्यकर्ता की हत्या, बजरंग दल के 11 कार्यकर्ता गिरफ्तार..! हैरान मत होईये… Posted by Indian National Congress – Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday, June 11, 2019 This claim about the murder of BJP workers at the hands of 11 Bajrang Dal members, is based on an incident which had taken place in 2018. An article related to this had appeared in NewsHunt (DailyHunt) on June 4, 2018. This report had been published by ANI as well, but it was later removed. According to a report by NewsLaundry, the arrest of Bajrang Dal members was related to violence at Ram Navami, and not over the murder of BJP workers. ANI had told NewsLaundry that the article published by it was factually incorrect and hence, was taken off. Times of India and Deccan Chronicle too had published reports related to the incident, which were later removed. The claim by Madhya Pradesh Congress, that 11 Bajrang Dal members were arrested for the murder of BJP workers, is incorrect and based on an erroneous report which was later taken down. Moreover, the incident of the arrest of Bajrang Dal members is old, yet being shared currently on social media with a new, false narrative. Kinjal Parmar holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. However, her keen interest in journalism, drove her to pursue journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. At Alt News since 2019, she focuses on authentication of information which includes visual verification, media misreports, examining mis/disinformation across social media. She is the lead video producer at Alt News and manages social media accounts for the organization. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	17th June 2019 / 6:38 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/mp-congress-posts-old-erroneous-report-about-arrest-of-bajrang-dal-members-links-it-to-wb-violence/", "author": "Kinjal" }
1,997	MP Congress shares clipped video of Rajnath Singh rally; Crowd did not say 'Chowkidar chor hai' - Alt News Jignesh Patel 29th March 2019 / 5:17 pm / Last updated: 30th March 2019 Madhya Pradesh Congress tweeted a video of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh addressing a rally with a message, “चौकीदार चोर है :सुनिये, राजनाथ सिंह भी ग़लती से ये क्या नारा लगवा बैठे..? (Chowkidar chor hai: listen to what slogan did Rajnath Singh inadvertently got the people raise -translated)”. It is being claimed that Rajnath Singh had asked the people to raise a slogan and they responded with ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’. The slogan has been used to target the ruling BJP, which has sought to counter it with its own ‘Main Bhi Chowkidar’ campaign. This video was also posted on INC Madhya Pradesh’s Facebook page on March 29. चौकीदार चोर है : सुनिये, राजनाथ सिंह भी ग़लती से ये क्या नारा लगवा बैठे..? हर तरफ़ चौकीदार की चोरी के अफ़साने हैं, तुम मानो न मानो, लेकिन जग सारा जाने है। ये मंज़र तो अब आम हो गया, चोर उनका नया नाम हो गया। pic.twitter.com/zdDlhCbkBU — MP Congress (@INCMP) March 29, 2019 Multiples users on Facebook and Twitter have shared the video with an identical narrative. On March 28, one Gautam Krishna had posted the same video with a caption, “ले लोट्टा अब राजनाथ सिंह भी बोल रहे है” चौकीदार चोर है” (Now even Rajnath Singh is saying “Chowkidar chor hai” -translated)”. ले लोट्टा अब राजनाथ सिंह भी बोल रहे है” चौकीदार चोर है” 😆😆😆😆😆 Posted by Gautam Krishna on Thursday, 28 March 2019 Alt News found that the video of Rajnath Singh addressing a rally in East Delhi has been clipped to suggest that people, when asked to raise a slogan, said, “Chowkidar Chor Hai”. An extended version of the rally was also posted by news agency ANI on YouTube with a caption, “Chowkidar chor nahi, pure hai: HM Rajnath Singh”. At 1:10 min in the video, Rajnath Singh can be heard, “मैं कहना चाहता हूँ, जिसको तुम चौकीदार चोर कहते हो, चौकीदार चोर नहीं है, चौकीदार Pure है। बोलो चौकीदार…। चौकीदार का दोबारा PM बनना Sure है।वह देश की सभी समस्याओं का ‘Cure ‘ हैं। (I want to say this, the watchman whom you call ‘thief’, is not a thief. Watchman is Pure. Say Chowkidar.. It is sure that watchman will once again become the Prime Minister. He is the cure to the problems of this county -translated)” In his speech, after Rajnath Singh said, “chowkidar chor nahin hai, chowkidar pure hai”, there’s a pause in his speech, where the crowd reiterates, “chowkidar pure hai”. The part where Singh said, “Chowkidar Pure Hai”, was mischievously clipped from this video. In the clipped video, the response of the people in the rally, when heard without reference to what Rajnath Singh said earlier is likely to be misconstrued, as ‘Pure’ and ‘Chor’ are two words with similar phonetics. The crowd had actually responded with ‘Chowkidar PURE hai’, and not ‘Chowkidar CHOR hai’, as claimed. A clipped video of Rajnath Singh was shared with a false caption to mislead social media users into believing that he got the crowd to raise the slogan, “Chowkidar Chor Hai”. Last week, the official Twitter handle of Madhya Pradesh had shared an old video of a BJP worker harassing a woman with a false narrative. Jignesh is a writer and researcher at Alt News. He has a knack for visual investigation with a major interest in fact-checking videos and images. He has completed his Masters in Journalism from Gujarat University. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	29th March 2019 / 5:17 pm / Last updated: 30th March 2019	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/mp-congress-shares-clipped-video-of-rajnath-singh-rally-crowd-did-not-say-chowkidar-chor-hai/", "author": "Jignesh Patel" }
1,998	MP Congress shares old video of BJP worker harassing a woman with false narrative - Alt News Jignesh Patel 20th March 2019 / 1:02 pm / Last updated: 20th March 2019 On March 19, the official Twitter handle of Madhya Pradesh Congress tweeted a video of a woman beating a man with slippers and a corresponding news report. The tweet has been retweeted more than 800 times so far. The message attached to the video described the man, who is beaten up by a woman for harassing her, as Ashwini Arora, a BJP leader. छेड़खानी करते बीजेपी नेता की पिटाई : उत्तराखंड के बीजेपी नेता अश्विनी अरोड़ा की पिटाई का ये वीडियो देखिये, चप्पलों से पिटते बीजेपी नेता अश्विनी अरोड़ा एक आईएएस अफ़सर की पत्नी को छेड़ रहे थे। अब चाल, चरित्र और चेहरा तीनों ही छिपाने लायक़ हो चुका है..? pic.twitter.com/uHtsaplIwT — MP Congress (@INCMP) March 19, 2019 “उत्तराखंड से BJP का एक #चौकीदार विधायक लड़कियों से छेड़खानी करता हुआ रंगे हाथ पकड़ा गया। चप्पल से हुई उसकी पिटाई (A BJP MLA from Uttrakhand was caught red-handed harassing a woman. He was beaten up with chappals -translated)”. One Amit Mishra, who is an AAP supporter, tweeted the same video with the above message, which has been retweeted close to 600 times at the time of filing this article. It was retweeted by Ankit Lal, the social media in-charge of the Aam Aadmi Party and by a verified social media handle, @aartic02. The message also intends to take a jibe at the BJP’s “Main Bhi Chowkidar” campaign. While MP Congress’ account identified the man as a BJP leader, Amit Mishra claims that he is a BJP MLA. Many other individuals have quote-tweeted Mishra’s tweet with a similar narrative. A Facebook page, Save Maharastra From BJP, has also shared the video with an identical message. Alt News found that the video shared on social media is not only old but the information propagated along with the video is incorrect and incomplete. In Oct 2018, a video of a woman beating up a man with slippers went viral on social media. Later, it was reported that the video is of a BJP worker who was beaten up by the wife of an IPS officer for allegedly harassing her. ABP News also reported on this issue, a video of which was uploaded on their YouTube channel on October 7, 2018. Now, a video which has been created by merging the ABP News video with the viral clip is circulating on social media, but without adding adequate information, in order to mislead social media users. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKKRXFEhzMg The man beaten up by the woman is not a BJP MLA but a BJP worker named Ashwini Arora from Rudrapur, Uttarakhand. The woman in the video beating Arora with slippers is the wife of a police officer and not the wife of an IAS officer as claimed. Speaking to Hindustan Times in October 2018, Devendra Shahi, president of Metropolise resident welfare society said, “A BJP worker of Sitarganj lives with his family in our society. He was sending obscene messages on her mobile. She rang us and told about her plight on Saturday. On learning this, we went to the BJP worker’s flat, but instead of realising his fault, he started misbehaving with us”. Earlier, the same video had gone viral in October, where the woman was seen accusing the BJP worker of harassing her and beating him for the same. Jignesh is a writer and researcher at Alt News. He has a knack for visual investigation with a major interest in fact-checking videos and images. He has completed his Masters in Journalism from Gujarat University. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	20th March 2019 / 1:02 pm / Last updated: 20th March 2019	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/mp-congress-shares-old-video-of-bjp-worker-harassing-a-woman-with-false-narrative/", "author": "Jignesh Patel" }
1,999	MP Congress shares debunked mock drill clip in video targeting Shivraj Singh Chouhan - Alt News Jignesh Patel 16th October 2020 / 4:25 pm / Last updated: 16th October 2020 The upcoming by-elections in Madhya Pradesh have led political parties to take the support of misinformation for one-upmanship. A few days ago, MP Congress and Digvijay Singh had shared an edited video of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. On October 14, the Twitter handle of MP Congress shared another video. “The situation in Madhya Pradesh has become dismal in the last 15 years rule of Chouhan’s rule. Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s government has become synonymous to lies, performance, corruption and the death of farmers. The lust for power hidden behind his many masks is now seen by the public. Shivraj ji, the more lies you spread, the more you will fall in the eyes of voters,” reads the tweet. Between 19 to 39 seconds in the video, a clip shows policemen open firing at people. “When unarmed and poor farmers were killed by the police in public, were your sympathies asleep?” – is the background narration. शिवराज के 15 साल, मध्यप्रदेश हुआ बदहाल; झूठ, घोषणा, अभिनय, भ्रष्टाचार और किसानों की मौत का पर्याय बन चुके शिवराज और उनके बदलते नक़ाबों की पीछे छिपी सत्ता हवस अब जनता देख चुकी है। शिवराज जी, अब आप जितना झूठ फैलाओगे, मतदाताओं की नज़र से उतना ही गिरते जाओगे। pic.twitter.com/LxQPfZAXBm — MP Congress (@INCMP) October 14, 2020 The video has been shared across social media handles of MP Congress. The video clip used by Congress has been debunked by Alt News five times in the past when it was viral as armed forces shooting down Kashmiris, police firing at students opposing privatisation, MP police firing at farmers in Mandsaur, police firing in Kashmir after the revocation of Article 370 and cops firing during CAB protests in Assam. This is an old clip of a mock drill conducted by Khunti, Jharkhand police. A reverse-search of one of its keyframes led us to the same video uploaded on November 1, 2017, on YouTube. Alt News had spoken to the owner of a shop – “Jagdamba steel” – visible in the background who confirmed that a mock drill was conducted in the area on October 31, 2017. Despite the video being debunked numerous times in the past, the mock drill clip found its way to Congress’s video targeting MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan. However, it is noteworthy that during Shivraj Singh Chauhan’s governance in 2017, five farmers had died in police firing. In Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur in June 2017, farmers were agitating for fair price and loan waiver which sparked violence. In order to control the protests, the police fired at protesting farmers. JK Jain Commission report on the case was submitted to the state government one year later in June 2018 where the police were given a clean chit. “The commission said that there was no option for the police but to fire at protesters. Once the crowd dispersed, the firing stopped, it noted,” according to a report in The Indian Express. Jignesh is a writer and researcher at Alt News. He has a knack for visual investigation with a major interest in fact-checking videos and images. He has completed his Masters in Journalism from Gujarat University. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	16th October 2020 / 4:25 pm / Last updated: 16th October 2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/mp-congress-used-a-three-year-old-mock-drill-video-clip-from-jharkhand-as-shivraj-singh-chauhan-govt-open-fire-on-protesting-farmers/", "author": "Jignesh Patel" }
2,000	RSS mouthpiece, Sudarshan News scribes cook up MP rape convict's name, add communal twist - Alt News Kinjal 28th October 2022 / 3:36 pm Recently, the Indore Bench of the Madhya Pradesh high court delivered its verdict on an appeal made by a rape convict and reduced his life sentence to 20 years’ rigorous imprisonment. The court noted that he was “kind enough to leave the girl alive”. Following this, Sudarshan News’ Santosh Chauhan posted a tweet on October 23 claiming that the death sentence of Mohammed Firoz, a rape convict in Madhya Pradesh, had been commuted to life imprisonment. This post was retweeted by more than 276 handles at the time of the writing of this article. (Archived link) मध्यप्रदेश हाई कोर्ट ने रेप के दोषी मोहम्मद फिरोज की मौत की सजा को उम्रकैद में बदला। कहा , “दयालु था मोहम्मद फ़िरोज , लड़की को जिंदा छोड़ दिया।” — Santosh Chauhan Sudarshan News (@Santosh_Stv) October 23, 2022 Journalist Ashish Vyas of Sudarshan news also posted a tweet promoting the same claim. (Archived link) मध्यप्रदेश हाई कोर्ट ने रेप के दोषी मोहम्मद फिरोज की मौत की सजा को उम्रकैद में बदला! कहा , “दयालु था मोहम्मद फ़िरोज , लड़की को जिंदा छोड़ दिया!” — Ashish Vyas (@ashishvyas__) October 23, 2022 RSS mouthpiece Panchjanya also followed suit, though the tweet was later deleted. An archived version of the post can be accessed here. The claim is widespread on Twitter and Facebook. Alt News began its investigation and we came across an October 24 report by The Hindu. The article states that the Indore Bench of Madhya Pradesh reduced the life sentence of a rape convict to 20 years’ imprisonment. The bench said that the offender was kind and did not leave the four-year-old girl to die. The Hindu has identified the assailant as . According to the outlet, Ramu raped the girl by luring her with Re. 1 on May 31, 2007. Following the investigation, Ramu was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2009. Next, we conducted a search using time filter, which led us to a copy of the judgment made by the court in the matter. The name of the accused is also listed as Ramu alias Ram Singh here. It also states that Ramu had appealed against the life imprisonment sentence pronounced by the Additional Judge of Indore on April 25, 2009 under IPC Section 376(2)(F). According to a report by Live Law, “The appellant submitted before the court that he was falsely implicated in the case. He further stated that the FSL report was not brought on record by the victim. It was also argued that this is not a case in which he deserved life imprisonment. Thus, he appealed that his sentence be reduced to the time he had already spent in jail.” The Court argued in this case that the appellant was not eligible for leniency in any way, and his appeal should be rejected. However, keeping in mind that he left the girl alive, the Court reduced his sentence to 20 years’ imprisonment. Outlets like Aaj Tak, Hindustan Times and Indian Express covered this development. However, none of them listed the name of the criminal as Mohammad Firoz. To sum it up, right-wing media outlets and supporters circulated a false claim that the Madhya Pradesh High Court commuted the death sentence of a rape convict named Mohammad Firoz to life imprisonment. In reality, the name of the convict who raped the four-year-old girl in the said case is Ramu alias Ram Singh. Kinjal Parmar holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. However, her keen interest in journalism, drove her to pursue journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. At Alt News since 2019, she focuses on authentication of information which includes visual verification, media misreports, examining mis/disinformation across social media. She is the lead video producer at Alt News and manages social media accounts for the organization. In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The CCTV footage of a man violently flinging a child on the ground has created… A minute-long video clip of a woman being physically assaulted is viral on social media…. Trigger Warning: The following story contains graphic imagery. Several users have shared images of the… The brutal murder of Shraddha Walker has been widely covered across news media over the…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	28th October 2022 / 3:36 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/mp-highcourt-reduce-rape-convicts-sentence-to-20-years-right-wing-communalize-the-order/", "author": "Kinjal" }
2,001	Video of protest against Shivraj Singh Chouhan in 2018 falsely linked to upcoming by-polls - Alt News Kinjal 27th October 2020 / 1:29 pm Recently, a video of a crowd of demonstrators holding a mock funeral procession has been going viral on social media. The crowd can be heard chanting a Hindi slogan which translates to, “He has murderous intentions just like Lord Krishna’s uncle, Kuns.” The clip mentions that these are ASHA workers raising slogans against Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. A Facebook page called ‘Madhya Pradesh Congress’, a fan page of the party, posted the clip on October 22. Since then, it has garnered more than 2.7 lakh views (archived link to the post). The video has been linked to the upcoming bypolls in Madhya Pradesh which will decide the fate of 28 seats in the state assembly. Another Facebook user posted this video gathering more than 6,000 views at the time of writing (archive). ‘मामा नहीं कसाई है, कंस का जुड़वा भाई है’ Posted by Vibha Bindoo Dangore on Thursday, 22 October 2020 Since the last few days, this clip has been shared by multiple users and pages on Facebook. The logo of ‘MP Tak’ along with the graphic plate reading ‘Satna’ can be spotted on the screen. Alt News performed a keyword search and found a video posted by the YouTube channel of MP Tak on October 5, 2018. Its description states, “Asha workers in Satna protest by taking out a funeral procession of CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan.” The demonstration was held in October 2018. According to a photo story by The Times of India’s E-Times dated October 4, 2018, ASHA and USHA workers demonstrated outside the chief minister’s residence in Bhopal. They were dispersed from the area when the protest turned violent. A Nai Duniya article from October 3, 2018 also ran a story on the protest. According to this report, ASHA workers alleged that they were not paid their dues despite handling the same responsibilities as Anganwadi workers and helpers. “ASHA and USHA workers of the state are angry because their honorarium has not been increased. Their resentment began the day the state government only increased the honorarium of Anganwadi workers and helpers. Now, they too are demanding a hike in their wages along with regularisation of their jobs,” per the report. Thus a video of a protest held by ASHA and USHA workers against MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan in 2018 has been falsely linked to the upcoming by-elections in the state. Kinjal Parmar holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. However, her keen interest in journalism, drove her to pursue journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. At Alt News since 2019, she focuses on authentication of information which includes visual verification, media misreports, examining mis/disinformation across social media. She is the lead video producer at Alt News and manages social media accounts for the organization. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	27th October 2020 / 1:29 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/mp-polls-two-year-old-video-of-people-shouting-slogans-against-shiv-raj-singh-chauhan-is-viral-with-misleading-claims-2/", "author": "Kinjal" }
2,002	Muharram procession video doctored with slogans against PM, Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal - Alt News Jignesh Patel 22nd July 2019 / 8:33 pm A video of men wielding sticks and swords, where they can be heard raising slogans against PM Narendra Modi, Bajrang and Shiv Sena is being circulated on social media. Twitter user Sushil Kumar posted the video with a message, “भारत का डरा हुआ, खौफजदा, पीड़ित समुदाय, हाथों में तलवार लेकर शिवसेना हाय हाय और बजरंग दल हाय हाय के नारे लगा रहा है. भाई-भाई और सेक्युलरिज्म का विधवा विलाप करने वालों को नहीं दिखेगा यह सब. (India’s scared, intimidated, victim community, is wielding swords and chanting slogans against Shiv Sena and Bajrang Dal. People who talk about brotherhood and mourn like widows for secularism will not see this -translated)”. At the time of writing this article, the tweet has garnered more than 450 retweets. भारत का डरा हुआ, खौफजदा, पीड़ित समुदाय, हाथों में तलवार लेकर शिवसेना हाय हाय और बजरंग दल हाय हाय के नारे लगा रहा है.. भाई-भाई और सेक्युलरिज्म का विधवा विलाप करने वालों को नहीं दिखेगा यह सब….. हर हर महादेव🙏🏼🙏🏼 pic.twitter.com/tqzTGc7caL — Sushil Kumar (@chsushilkumar) July 20, 2019 At the beginning of July 2019, the same video was shared with the narrative that the Muslim community was out on roads in Agra to protest against the mob-lynching of Tabrez Ansari in Jharkhand. Videos posted with identical narrative by Facebook pages – Ai MiM Rayachoty youth and Dhaka New imim Club – have been shared close to 37,000 times and viewed in excess of 7 lakh times. Using the digital verification Invid, Alt News broke the video into multiple frames and found a fact-check article published by Aaj Tak. According to the article, the video is from Gopalganj, Bihar. The same video posted by a YouTube user on November 4, 2014, was one of the earliest instances that Alt News could trace. From 0:24 mins to 1:17 mins in this longer version of the same video, the 53-second viral clipping can be seen. Seeing this video, it is evident that the audio heard in the viral clip, now falsely shared as from Agra, was superimposed with the sloganeering against PM Modi, Shiv Sena and Bajrang Dal. In the unadulterated version of the video posted in 2014, only the sounds of drum beating can be heard. With a Google search of the slogan“हिंदुस्तान में रहना होगा अल्लाह हू अकबर कहना होगा (If you want to live in India then you will have to say Allah hu Akbar -translation)”, Alt News found a YouTube video posted on December 29, 2017. From the start till 53 seconds in the video posted below, the same audio which was superimposed over the viral clipping can be heard. According to a report by India TV, the said incident took place in Udaipur on December 13, 2017, where similar slogans against Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal and PM Modi were chanted. The protest took place in the backdrop of the brutal killing of a Muslim labourer, by a man named Shambu Lal Regar. It was held at Chetak Circle in Udaipur, Rajasthan. In conclusion, it may be stated, 1. The video is of a Muharram procession which took place in Bihar in 2014 2. The audio is from a protest which took place in Udaipur, Rajasthan in 2017 This clip was manufactured by superimposing the audio from the Udaipur protest on to the video from Bihar. Jignesh is a writer and researcher at Alt News. He has a knack for visual investigation with a major interest in fact-checking videos and images. He has completed his Masters in Journalism from Gujarat University. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	22nd July 2019 / 8:33 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/muharram-procession-video-doctored-with-slogans-against-pm-shiv-sena-bajrang-dal/", "author": "Jignesh Patel" }
2,003	Mulayam Singh Yadav did not say BJP will win UP polls; statement from 2015 Bihar polls - Alt News Pooja Chaudhuri 28th December 2021 / 6:12 pm A breaking news graphic plate that carries a quote by SP leader and ex-Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav is circulating on social media. The purported quote, “I can see that BJP will come to power (मुझे बीजेपी सत्ता में आती दिख रही है),” has been shared in the context of the upcoming elections in UP. Another graphic plate has been shared along with this that shows Yadav saying that BJP and SP follow the same ideology on nationalism, borders and language (राष्ट्रवाद, सीमा और भाषा पर बीजेपी-सपा की एक). Several users have shared the graphic plate and criticised Yadav for colluding with the RSS. ओवैसी साहब सही बोलते थे ये समाजवादी पार्टी के मुल्लाह मुलायम सिंह यादव नही है ये आरएसएस के हाफ चड्डी गैंग पार्टी के लोग हैं pic.twitter.com/YqcLrDbDOI — Md Hussain AIMIM (@MdHussa95623008) December 22, 2021 A few users have also linked the alleged statement to Yadav’s recent meeting with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat at the wedding reception of vice president Venkaiah Naidu’s granddaughter in Delhi. संघ प्रमुख मोहन भागवत से मिलने के बाद मुलायम सिंह यादव को लग रहा है उत्तर प्रदेश में बीजेपी सरकार बन रही है!! जुम्मन बजाओ ताली 😂😂😂😂 Posted by Imran Ansari on Tuesday, 21 December 2021 The image has also been shared by users who identify as AIMIM members. Posted by SaadMustaqim AIMIM on Thursday, 23 December 2021 We found that the video which carried these graphic plates was shared on social media in 2017. This itself proves that Mulayam Singh Yadav’s statement was not made ahead of the 2022 UP elections. मुलायन सिंह यादव का बड़ा बयान। मुझे बीजेपी सत्ता में आती दिख रही है – मुलायम सिंह यादव। Posted by Pankaj Kumar Baliyan on Sunday, 12 February 2017 A keyword search on Google took us to the original video from 2015. It was posted by Samachar Plus on YouTube. “Lucknow: The Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Monday said that the wave was in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party and that the saffron party was going to form the next government in Bihar,” reads the video description. The statement was also reported by other news channels ahead of the 2015 Bihar elections. It must be noted that the SP had pulled out of the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) of political parties to contest Bihar polls against the BJP. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTzxX03igJs Mulayam Singh Yadav’s statement from 2015 ahead of Bihar polls has, therefore, been misrepresented as a remark made ahead of the upcoming UP elections where SP is fighting against the BJP. Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	28th December 2021 / 6:12 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/mulayam-singh-yadav-did-not-say-bjp-will-win-up-polls-statement-from-2015-bihar-polls/", "author": "Pooja Chaudhuri" }
2,004	Multiple fake accounts impersonating Indian/Pak army officers spread fake news - Alt News Jignesh Patel 21st August 2019 / 6:05 pm / Last updated: 21st August 2019 On August 19, Republic TV Consulting Editor Major Gaurav Arya (Retd) quote-tweeted a tweet by a user who claims to be Pakistani Lieutenant Colonel Adnan Gulmirza (@AdnanGMpk). Arya’s tweet said, “In Pakistan, anyone who is not Sunni Punjabi is Wajib-ul-Qatl. The story of this Lt Col is not surprising. According to Pakistan’s Constitution, an Ahmadi can be jailed for simply calling his place of worship a masjid. Ahmadis in Pakistan are treated worse than animals.” In Pakistan, anyone who is not Sunni Punjabi is Wajib-ul-Qatl. The story of this Lt Col is not surprising. According to Pakistan’s Constitution an Ahmadi can be jailed for simply calling his place of worship a masjid. Ahmadis in Pakistan are treated worse than animals. https://t.co/zW1ukI419p — Major Gaurav Arya (Retd) (@majorgauravarya) August 19, 2019 Arya’s commentary was based on a supposed thread by a Pakistani army officer who talked about his voluntary retirement and that of 17 other army personnel who belonged to the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam. In the thread, it was claimed that Ahmadiyyas in the army are facing discrimination on religious grounds. “This is utterly shameful. Our Country is doomed”, reads the concluding line of the thread. Swarajya has published an article on the tweets allegedly put out by ‘Pakistani Ahmadiyya soldier’. Alt News found that the account which claims to be handled by Lt Col Adnan Gulmirza is fake. This account was recently created in August 2019 and the man in the profile picture is not Lieutenant Colonel Adnan. In fact, Lt Col Adnan Gulmirza does not even exist. The original photo finds a place in two news articles published on April 23, 2019, when former Lt General Syed Mohammad Adnan was appointed as the Commander of Bahawalpur Corps. This was reported by Pakistani newspaper Dawn. Imran Mir, a Pakistani journalist, had posted another photograph of Commander Adnan on April 19, saying, “New postings in top Army hierarchy. Lt Gen Syed Mohammad Adnan is posted as Commander 31 corps Bahawalpur.” In the comparison posted below, the image of the fictional Lt Col Adnan Gulmirza is juxtaposed with the original photograph of Commander Syed Mohammad Adnan. The manipulations are clearly visible – red emblem removed from the collar, beard added to the face, and a slight change in eye colour. Analysing a screenshot of the profile, taken earlier, we found that it first carried the original image of Commander Syed Mohammad Adnan but later changed it with the photoshopped image. Major Gaurav Arya, who had ironically called out an account impersonating him on Twitter, has now quote-tweeted a fake account posing as a Pakistani army man. Hello @TwitterSupport @Twitter here is another fake account impersonating me. @FollowHelp100k8 is a fake account and he has managed to get 3000 followers too. Please block this account. pic.twitter.com/k1LTQynzWg — Major Gaurav Arya (Retd) (@majorgauravarya) August 19, 2019 Several Twitter accounts impersonating army personnel and public figures have sprung-up after the central government’s move to revoke provisions of Article 370 of the Indian constitution. Here are two more instances of fake accounts impersonating as Indian and Pakistani army personnel: On August 16, a fake profile of Colonel Vijay Acharya was created on Twitter. A tweet put out by the handle claimed that he is resigning from the Indian Army due to the ‘killings in Kashmir’. According to a Zee News broadcast, ex-army personnel Vijay Acharya took retirement in March this year. He informed the media outlet that a fake handle is impersonating him. The colonel said, “After the abrogation of Article 370, their aspirations are so high, they have made social media a platform for information warfare. I am a victim of this. On August 16, my account was cloned/replicated.” Twitter handle @LtAsimZamal had shared a message which targeted the Pakistani government for violating human rights in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. This profile was created recently in June 2019 and has used a photograph General Asim Bajwa. Social media users are advised to self-verify accounts before sharing tweets. One method to confirm a profile’s authenticity is to check for a blue-tick. In case this is absent, users can check the date of creation of the account and the nature of tweets by the person. Jignesh is a writer and researcher at Alt News. He has a knack for visual investigation with a major interest in fact-checking videos and images. He has completed his Masters in Journalism from Gujarat University. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	21st August 2019 / 6:05 pm / Last updated: 21st August 2019	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/multiple-fake-accounts-impersonating-indian-pak-army-officers-spread-fake-news/", "author": "Jignesh Patel" }
2,005	Multiple imposter accounts created in farmer leader Rakesh Tikait's name - Alt News Archit 30th January 2021 / 6:40 pm Several accounts in the name of Bharat Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait have surfaced on Twitter. Tikait is the son of BKU founder Mahendra Singh Tikait. The 51-year-old is former Delhi police constable and has fought elections in the past on varied party tickets. Tikait claims to have voted for the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. But has proven to be a strong adversary to the party especially after his emotional video following the administration’s order to vacate protesting sites went viral. On January 28, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal quote-tweeted a tweet by the handle @rkeshtikait expressing his support towards the farmers. CM Kejriwal quote-tweeted believing that he is responding to Tikait. His tweet gained over 5,000 retweets. What is Rakesh Tikait’s official account? Based on the official Facebook page of Tikait, that has close to four lakh followers, his official Twitter account is @RakeshTikaitBKU that has about 75,000 followers, and his official Instagram handle is rakesh.tikait that has approximately 25,000 followers. On January 29, The Tribune tagged @RakeshTikaitBKU in one of their tweets. Additionally, several other verified accounts have tagged the official account of Tikait. @RakeshTikaitBKU ‘s tears do the trick, number of protestors expected to increase at #Ghazipurborder https://t.co/lezLCs2cnk @Vibha_Tribune — The Tribune (@thetribunechd) January 29, 2021 Prominent imposter accounts impersonating Tikait Several imposter accounts created in the name of BKU leader Rakesh Tikait have gathered a large following on Twitter. Several tweets by the above-mentioned accounts prove that they cannot be the official handle of Tikait. (1, 2, 3 and 4) The official Twitter account of Rakesh Tikait is @RakeshTikaitBKU. Since his account is not verified, several people including the Delhi chief minister were led to fall for fake accounts created in Tikait’s name. 🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023. Following Saudi Arabia’s 2-1 win against Argentina in the ongoing FIFA World Cup, speculation about… Trigger Warning: The following story contains graphic imagery. Several users have shared images of the… The brutal murder of Shraddha Walker has been widely covered across news media over the… A 1:34-minute-long CCTV camera clip is being widely circulated on social media in which viewers… The teaser of a movie titled ‘The Kerala Story’ is being widely shared on social…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	30th January 2021 / 6:40 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/multiple-fake-twitter-accounts-have-come-up-in-bkus-rakesh-tikaits-name/", "author": "Archit" }
2,006	Multiple fake videos circulated on social media claiming Indian Muslims celebrated Pakistan's victory - Alt News Pratik Sinha 20th June 2017 / 6:27 pm / Last updated: 22nd June 2017 At least two misleading videos are currently viral on social media and WhatsApp with the claim that Indian Muslims celebrated Pakistan’s victory over India in Champion’s trophy. While one of the videos is from Pakistan, the other video is many months old and was shot in Vadodara, Gujarat. They are being circulated stating these celebrations happened in Delhi, Vadodara and Mira Road in Mumbai. One of the prominent right-wing Twitter account that circulated the fake video from Vadodara claiming that Indian Muslims were celebrating Pakistan’s win is Sonam Mahajan (@AsYouNotWish). She has now deleted her misleading tweet. Sonam Mahajan’s account had recently been suspended by Twitter. The suspension was later revoked after a right-wing backlash. Prominent right-wing websites and supporters such as OpIndia, Raveena Tandon, Madhur Bhandarkar had extended support to her. Is Twitter going to ignore her action of circulating a fake video with a hateful message? The video has been shared extensively on Facebook as well. A page called Bajrang Dal (unofficial) even edited the video to a misleading text to the video, “Indian Muslims celebrating India’s loss to Pakistan in Delhi“. This video initially became viral as Muslim youth celebrating Pakistan’s victory in Vadodara, Gujarat and was circulated immediately after India’s loss. In reality, this video has been around on social media for many months and has got nothing to do with Pakistan’s victory over India in Champion’s trophy. This same video was posted on Youtube on March 15, 2017. This original video without a watermark was posted on Instagram account of one Safwaan Khan with the hashtags #miabhai #ki #dairing #raees #safwaankhan. While the stunts carried out in the video cannot be appreciated, this video itself has got nothing to do with Pakistan’s victory. The flag which many alleged on social media as Pakistan’s flag is in reality the Islamic flag. The version of this video that has been available on Youtube since March 2017 can be seen below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2nVfpBZMSQ That the bridge in question is indeed the Akota-Dandiabazar Over Bridge in Vadodara can be seen in another Youtube video of the same bridge. While those who initially made the video viral might have specified the location correctly, but as pointed out earlier, it has got nothing to do with the Champion’s Trophy final. This video was first reported and debunked by SM Hoax Slayer. The other video that is being made viral is of a hall full of kids and adults celebrating Pakistan’s victory and is being passed off as a celebration by Indian Muslims. A page called “We Support Arnab Goswami” has more than 11,000 shares for this video on their page. This video has also been posted on Youtube and Facebook multiple times. However, if one closely observes the logo of the TV channel which can be seen in this celebration video, you’ll see that the logo is that of PTV Sports. We have juxtaposed a PTV sports video available on Youtube with the screenshot of the viral video. While the video is grainy, a distinct resemblance can be seen in the logos. PTV’s broadcast is banned in India and hence this video is either of Pakistan or any other country where PTV is broadcasted. Also, the logo doesn’t remotely match that of any of the Indian sports channels which is an additional pointer to the fact that this video is not from India. A YouTube user has uploaded this video with the title, “Pakistani Dawoodi Bohra’s Celebration On Pakistan’s Win In Champions Trophy against India !” and it can be seen below. While sports should ideally be watched for the entertainment value and the support of an individual or a group of people for a specific team should not be a reason to deride anyone, India-Pakistan matches are a different cup of tea due to historical reasons. Already, police action has been taken in atleast three states where certain individuals from the minority community have been arrested for allegedly celebrating Pakistan’s victory. The basic idea behind circulating these fake videos is to exploit these very emotions linked to an Indian-Pakistan cricket match and to propagate the idea that Indian Muslims are Anti-Indian/Pro-Pakistan. This sense of enmity that is created by the circulation of such fake videos is then used to further the ideology of Hindu majoritarianism so as to keep the ‘Anti-Indians’ at bay. Co-Founder Alt News, I can be reached via E-mail at [email protected] and on Facebook at https://fb.com/freethinker. Follow @free_thinker Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	20th June 2017 / 6:27 pm / Last updated: 22nd June 2017	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/multiple-fake-videos-circulated-social-media-claiming-indian-muslims-celebrated-pakistans-victory/", "author": "Pratik Sinha" }
2,007	Multiple Indian media channels play old footage as IAF strike on JeM camps - Alt News Arjun Sidharth 26th February 2019 / 5:27 pm / Last updated: 15th March 2019 With India waking up to news of the Indian Air Force bombing JeM terror camps at Balakot in Pakistan in the early hours of February 26, multiple news channels have broadcasted a video, purported to be of IAF jets inside Pakistani territory. India Today has claimed that this video is the first visual of India’s cross-border strike which was conducted at around 3:30 am. Other news channels have broadcasted the video as taken in the aftermath of the strike. “What you see on your screens right now is the Pakistani Air Force scrambling post the IAF multiple jets going in and striking jaish camps. The extent of damage right now we dont know, but what we have are first pictures, this is first footage of the aftermath we are told, of the strike“, said the News18 anchor in the video clip, the screenshot of which has been posted above. The tweet was later deleted. The footage has been broadcasted by several news channels, including India Today, Economic Times, Aaj Tak, Times Now and News18. The video has also been relayed by the JioTV Twitter handle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w45O1hvSqHM The video shows a fighter jet deploying flares. It has been used extensively as ‘real’ footage of the cross-border operation carried out by the Indian Air Force against Pakistani territory. “On your screens right now, the big picture, the big video that India Today has accessed of one of these jets dropping bombs, dropping 1000 kilogram bombs at 3:30 am on JeM terror camps in Balakot area. This is first and exclusive on India Today”, said the anchor on the channel as these visuals played out. Expectedly, the video has been shared widely on Twitter and Facebook. For instance, the tweet below posted by a social media user was retweeted over 600 times. Supreme Court banned Pataki on Deepawal[/embedi but Indian army celebratedit in a majestic way. #Surgicalstrike2 pic.twitter.com/zEaR5Op6dS — Chakravarty Sulibele (@astitvam) February 26, 2019 On Facebook, it has been viewed over 225,000 times alone from the page The India Eye, which has posted an extract from a India TV broadcast. भारतीय वायुसेना ने सीमा पार जाकर उड़ाए जैश के कई ठिकाने भारतीय वायुसेना ने सीमा पार जाकर उड़ाए जैश के कई ठिकाने… वायुसेना ने मिराज 12 जेट से आतंकी कैम्पों पर बरसाए 1000 किलों बम Posted by The India Eye on Monday, February 25, 2019 According to reports, the air strike by the Indian Air Force on JeM terror camps was conducted at around 3:30 am on February 26, 2019. Alt News found that this video, used by multiple news organisations reporting the attack by IAF, was first posted in 2017. In September 2017, a YouTube channel uploaded a video titled ‘Flares at night Paf F-16’. The video is posted below. It can be seen from 0:34 onwards that a part of this very video has been used by the news channels. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNHs7FMtSwc?t=34] Moreover, Alt News found that the same video was posted by a Pakistani Facebook page on February 24. It had been posted by the page Fans Of Imran Khan. It was also tweeted by a Pakistani user on February 25, with the narrative that it showed Pakistani fighter jets engaged in a military exercise in the Cholistan region. The fighter aircraft of Pakistan Air Force at midnight demonstrated tactical preparedness by releasing flares in Cholistan say the channels of military enthusiasts. pic.twitter.com/rUjgm7jqSw — Ibrahim Qazi (@miqazi) February 25, 2019 This conclusively establishes that the video is NOT representative of the cross-border operation conducted by the IAF, since it was already on social media from 2017. The question then arises- how did this video end up being broadcast as footage of the operation, repeatedly and relentlessly by multiple media outlets? Alt News found that the video, used by multiple news organisations in the wake of the attack, was posted by a Pakistani Twitter user early morning at around 6 am on February 26, claiming that it showed Pakistan fighter aircraft ‘retaliating’ against the IAF. BREAKING: Pakistani JF17 immediate retaliate back to Indian Air Force volition at Line of Control. Pakistan Retaliate Karne Ka Soche Ga Nahi, Pakistan Retaliate Karega!! #PMIK pic.twitter.com/37OSr3e3a0 — Arsalan Siddiqy (@ArsalanISF) February 26, 2019 The video was also posted by a Pakistani journalist at 10:35 am on February 26, after which it was likely picked up by the Indian media, without due verification. Arjun Sidharth is a writer with Alt News. He has previously worked in the television news industry, where he managed news bulletins and breaking news scenarios, apart from scripting numerous prime time television stories. He has also been actively involved with various freelance projects. Sidharth has studied economics, political science, international relations and journalism. He has a keen interest in books, movies, music, sports, politics, foreign policy, history and economics. His hobbies include reading, watching movies and indoor gaming. Following Saudi Arabia’s 2-1 win against Argentina in the ongoing FIFA World Cup, speculation about… Trigger Warning: The following story contains graphic imagery. Several users have shared images of the… The brutal murder of Shraddha Walker has been widely covered across news media over the… A 1:34-minute-long CCTV camera clip is being widely circulated on social media in which viewers… The teaser of a movie titled ‘The Kerala Story’ is being widely shared on social…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	26th February 2019 / 5:27 pm / Last updated: 15th March 2019	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/multiple-indian-media-channels-play-old-footage-as-iaf-strike-on-jem-camps/", "author": "Arjun Sidharth" }
2,008	Multiple videos falsely claim Congress workers thrashed by police for chanting ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ - Alt News Pooja Chaudhuri 11th February 2019 / 5:16 pm Three separate videos are being circulated on social media with claims that ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans were raised in Congress meetings, causing the police to lathi-charge the party’s politicians. The accompanying text in Marathi says – “काॅग्रेस मिटींगमघ्ये पाकिस्तान झिंदाबाद,पोलीसांनी नेते ठोकले,द्या काँग्रेसला मत?उघडा डोळे,बघा निट…. बोला जय हिंद (Pakistan Zindabad slogans in Congress meeting, police thrashed politicians. Will you vote for Congress? Open your eyes and look properly. Say Jai Hind.)” All the three videos have been shared with this caption and numbered 1, 2, 3. The first video shows Congress workers chanting slogans at an event. From a Facebook page धर्मवीर छत्रपती संभाजी महाराज, it received over 18,000 views. काॅग्रेस मिटींगमघ्ये पाकिस्तान झिंदाबाद,पोलीसांनी नेते ठोकले,द्या काँग्रेसला मत?उघडा डोळे,बघा निट…. बोला जय हिंद व्हीडिओ नं -१ Posted by धर्मवीर छत्रपती संभाजी महाराज on Saturday, 9 February 2019 Alt News has debunked this video in the past when it was tweeted by Madhu Kishwar who claimed that ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans were raised by Congress workers. The video had been doing rounds on social media since before the start of the 2018 assembly elections and had already been debunked by multiple media outlets, including BBC Hindi, AFP, The Times of India and India Today. If one watches the video carefully, a banner placed on the stage reads – ‘Nagar Congress Committee Rajsamand’, and the crowd of Congress workers actually chants – “Mai lai lalkar hai, hamaki sau ke paar hai. Bhati Saab Zindabad (We have accepted the challenge. This time we will score more than 100. Long live Bhati Saab).” Narayan Singh Bhati was the Congress candidate from Rajsmand, Rajasthan. Alt News has broken down that part of the video where the crowd chanted his name. When heard multiple times over, “Bhati Saab Zindabad” is audible more clearly. धर्मवीर छत्रपती संभाजी महाराज posted a second video with the same caption. It attracted more than 30,000 views. Here, police can be seen coming down heavily upon Congress workers. The Facebook page attempted to justify the police lathi-charge with claims that Congress workers raised ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans. काॅग्रेस मिटींगमघ्ये पाकिस्तान झिंदाबाद,पोलीसांनी नेते ठोकले,द्या काँग्रेसला मत?उघडा डोळे,बघा निट…. बोला जय हिंद व्हीडिओ नं -२ Posted by धर्मवीर छत्रपती संभाजी महाराज on Saturday, 9 February 2019 If one carefully watches the video, the banner on the stage reads – “Zilla Congress committee Bilaspur”. Last year, on September 19, Chhattisgarh police thrashed Congress party workers in Bilaspur. The incident was reported across mainstream media channels and none of them said that pro-Pakistan slogans were raised by Congress workers. “In a shocking incident, the Chhattisgarh Police on Tuesday brutally thrashed Congress workers in Bilaspur city, leaving seven of them injured. The visuals of the incident show the cops raining blows on the Congress activists, who had returned from carrying out a protest against Urban Administration Minister Amar Agrawal, with lathis,” according to Timesnow. The third and last video is the most viral. This too was posted by धर्मवीर छत्रपती संभाजी महाराज, among other Facebook pages and individual users (1, 2, 3). In this video too, police can be seen thrashing people claimed to be Congress workers who raised ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans. काॅग्रेस मिटींगमघ्ये पाकिस्तान झिंदाबाद,पोलीसांनी नेते ठोकले,द्या काँग्रेसला मत?उघडा डोळे,बघा निट…. बोला जय हिंद व्हीडिओ नं -३ Posted by धर्मवीर छत्रपती संभाजी महाराज on Saturday, 9 February 2019 This incident also pertains to police lathi-charge on Congress workers last year in Bilaspur, where no media reports claim that party members raised ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans. Police lathi charged Congress workers who were protesting in Bilaspur, yesterday. Police official says, ‘Congress had planned this protest. We had put barricades in the area. Protesters misbehaved with the police & as a result police had to take action against them’ #Chhattisgarh pic.twitter.com/dDH4IS9Pln — ANI (@ANI) September 18, 2018 “At least seven Congress workers were injured on Tuesday when police beat them with sticks in Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur city after they allegedly threw garbage inside a minister’s house. The opposition party claimed its workers were carrying out a peaceful protest against Urban Administration Minister Amar Agrawal but were brutally beaten up by police,” reported The Times of India. Congress president Rahul Gandhi had taken to Twitter to condemn the police action. नरेंद्र मोदी की हुकूमत में तानाशाही एक पेशा बन गया है\| बिलासपुर में रमन सिंह की सरकार द्वारा कांग्रेस कार्यकर्ताओं के मौलिक अधिकारों पर बुज़दिली से किए गए इस प्रहार को वहाँ की जनता सियासी ज़ुल्म के रूप में याद रखेगी\| pic.twitter.com/to7LDkXzEt — Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 19, 2018 In the past as well, Congress has been targeted using misinformation to suggest that the party has a pro-Pakistan position. This includes false claims suggesting that Pakistani flags were raised at Congress rallies or that party president Rahul Gandhi supported the idea of Rs 5,000 crore loan to the country; the accusations are relentless. Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	11th February 2019 / 5:16 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/multiple-videos-falsely-claim-congress-workers-thrashed-by-police-for-chanting-pakistan-zindabad/", "author": "Pooja Chaudhuri" }
2,009	Murder-accused brutally beaten in Bihar; police deny communal angle - Alt News Jignesh Patel 5th October 2019 / 10:46 pm / Last updated: 2nd January 2020 A video of a man brutally beating another in the middle of the road is circulating on social media. The man can be seen thrashing the unconscious victim’s face and later jumping on his abdomen with full force while passers-by watch as mute spectators. Twitter user Sadiya posted the video with the claim that it represents one more lynching incident in Bhabua Nagar where a Muslim youth was killed. In the message, it was pointed out that the perpetrator took the man’s life while chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’. The tweet has garnered more than 1,100 retweets so far. The video is brutal in nature, viewer discretion is advised. एक और लिंचिंग ये घट्ना भभुआ नगर की बताई जा रही है जहां आतंकी भीड ने एक मुस्लिम युवक की जान ले ली जय श्री राम बोल कर….#NewIndia pic.twitter.com/0WA7AN12Cq — ★Sadiya★ (@SadiyaSadaf3) October 3, 2019 Several others have shared the video. ये आतंकी घट्ना भभुआ नगर का बताया जा रहा है जहां फ़िर से आतंकी भीड ने एक मुस्लिम युवक की जान ले ली जय श्री राम बोल कर…. @asadowaisi @AshrafFem @Zubi786_ @sakshijoshii @LambaAlka @SadiyaSadaf3 @shadab_chouhan1 pic.twitter.com/1GvPeJiHww — Waquarah (@WaquarA89319114) October 3, 2019 A Facebook user shared the same video alleging that a BJP worker was beating a man from a backward community (OBC, ST, SC). CPI (M) leader Md Salim also tweeted the video suggestively linking the attack with BJP. Alt News has received several requests on its official mobile application to verify the video. Here, it was claimed along with the video that the attacker was a BJP MP in Lok Sabha. Journalist Gurpreet Gary Walia tweeted the video informing that he didn’t know where and when the incident in the video occurred, however, the police should arrest the assailant as soon possible. The tweet now stands deleted. Congress leader Acharya Pramod Krishnam tweeted the video saying that one who kills cannot be a ‘Hindu’ and these are all ‘demons’. हत्या करने वाला “हिंदू” नहीं हो सकता,ये सब “राक्षस” हैं……….pic.twitter.com/IAiI0CkxVz — Acharya Pramod (@AcharyaPramodk) October 5, 2019 Alt News found that the incident took place in Bhabua Nagar of Bihar’s Kaimur district on October 2, 2019. The man who was thrashed is Shahid Rain, son of Bhabua ward councillor. He was beaten by a duo after allegedly shooting Madhav Singh, a resident of Sikhathi village. Singh died in the attack. In one of the videos, the police can be seen carrying the body of the victim shot dead while Rain is being beaten by two unidentified men who also chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’. According to a report by Dainik Jagran, one live round, as well as a country-made gun, was recovered from the spot. There was an ongoing dispute between Rain and Singh. The latter was allegedly shot while on his way back to his village. Soon after, a group of people beat up Rain. Police took both the victims to the hospital. “On hearing that the victim [Singh] died at the hospital, outraged people started demanding the police to kill the accused [Rain], who is undergoing treatment there. Following this, the matter escalated and angry locals broke open the gate of the emergency [ward],” reported India Today on October 5, 2019. Furthermore, a Dainik Bhaskar report of on October 4 also stated that due to some clashes after the incident, military force was deployed in the city. Alt News contacted Bhabua police regarding the matter. “There is no communal angle to the crime. They had some land dispute”, said SHO Shashi Bhushan rubbishing social media claims. Kaimur SP Dilnawaz Ahmed also reiterated that there was no communal motive behind the incident. He further informed that the parties involved – the one who was beaten after allegedly shooting Singh and the duo who beat him up later – have a criminal history. An FIR has been lodged against Rain and the men who beat him up. A video where a man, accused of shooting another, beaten up in the middle of the road, was shared on social media with a communal narrative. The one thrashing Shahid Rain can be heard chanting Jai Shri Ram, however, the police have refuted communal motives behind the attack. Jignesh is a writer and researcher at Alt News. He has a knack for visual investigation with a major interest in fact-checking videos and images. He has completed his Masters in Journalism from Gujarat University. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	5th October 2019 / 10:46 pm / Last updated: 2nd January 2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/murder-accused-brutally-beaten-in-bihar-police-deny-communal-angle/", "author": "Jignesh Patel" }
2,010	Murder of child in Aligarh: Fact-checking social media claims - Alt News Arjun Sidharth 6th June 2019 / 7:35 pm / Last updated: 7th June 2019 The body of a two and a half-year old girl was found on June 2 in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. The accused- Zahid and Aslam have been arrested by the police. Several netizens expressed outrage over the incident. Many among those who tweeted about the incident have claimed that the young girl was raped before she was murdered. It has also been claimed that her eyes were gouged out and acid was poured on her body. …and her body was disposed in garbage, left to be eaten by stray dogs. pic.twitter.com/oGCYe8qtzd — Madhur (@ThePlacardGuy) June 5, 2019 The above tweet has been retweeted close to 10,000 times so far. Others who asserted the same in their condemnation of the murder include Prashant Patel Umrao , Koena Mitra, Shefali Vaidya and Raveena Tandon. Remember this? A systematic, vicious paid campaign to malign icons sacred to Hindu Dharma that was carried out in media and SM after the #Kathua case? Where are all those people now? Why no such outrage over Mohammed Zahid raping and killing a 3 yr old Hindu girl in #Aligarh https://t.co/4UvybBWh4m — Shefali Vaidya ஷெஃபாலி வைத்யா शेफाली वैद्य (@ShefVaidya) June 6, 2019 The post-mortem report conducted on the deceased has no mention of rape. This was clarified by Aligarh police via a tweet, in response to a social media user who claimed that the victim had been raped. मृतक ट्विंकल के शव के पोस्टमार्टम रिपोर्ट में दुष्कर्म का होना नही पाया गया है। रूपये के लेन-देन को लेकर बालिका का गला घोटकर हत्या की गई है। अभि0 जाहिद व असलम को गिरफ्तार कर जेल भेजा जा चुका है। अभि0 पर NSA के तहत कार्यवाही की जा रही है। पुलिस द्वारा FTC कोर्ट में पैरवी की जायेगी — ALIGARH POLICE (@aligarhpolice) June 6, 2019 According to Aligarh police, the post-mortem report reveals the victim was strangulated. Two persons- Zahid and Aslam were arrested and sent to jail. Financial dispute was the motive for the crime. The same was reiterated by SSP Aligarh in a video bite posted on Twitter by Aligarh police. उक्त प्रकरण मे @sspaligarh @ips06akash महोदय द्वारा दी गयी बाईट । pic.twitter.com/DgnmIHtIwe — ALIGARH POLICE (@aligarhpolice) June 6, 2019 Alt News contacted Akash Kulhary, SSP Aligarh who confirmed that the post-mortem report does not mention rape, adding, “The post-mortem report mentions death by strangulation as the cause. The claims circulating on social media that the victim’s eyes were gouged out and her arm amputated, are also false. Also, the claim that acid was poured on her body, is untrue. No such thing has occurred. The post-mortem report has been shared with the family of the victim.” UPDATE: After this article was published on June 6, the post-mortem report of the victim was posted on social media. The report states, “right arm detached (amputated)…and nibbled by insect up to the limit that bone exposed at places”. Alt News contacted SSP Aligarh once again, who said that the victim’s right arm was amputated, but that the cause of amputation is not clear. The article has been updated accordingly. OpIndia was among those who had falsely claimed that the victim’s eyes were gouged out. The incident has resulted in an outpouring of rage, and rightly so. The brutality of the incident is shocking to say the least. However, it may be noted that there is no mention of rape, and neither were the victim’s eyes gouged out nor acid poured on her body, as claimed on social media. The misinformation surrounding the incident, which has been shared by social media users has the potential to further exacerbate tension and mistrust. Alt News advises readers and followers to verify information before sharing it on social media, particularly if it is of such sensitive nature. UPDATE: The article has been updated with new information since it was published on June 6. For details, kindly refer to the article. Arjun Sidharth is a writer with Alt News. He has previously worked in the television news industry, where he managed news bulletins and breaking news scenarios, apart from scripting numerous prime time television stories. He has also been actively involved with various freelance projects. Sidharth has studied economics, political science, international relations and journalism. He has a keen interest in books, movies, music, sports, politics, foreign policy, history and economics. His hobbies include reading, watching movies and indoor gaming. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	6th June 2019 / 7:35 pm / Last updated: 7th June 2019	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/murder-of-child-in-aligarh-fact-checking-social-media-claims/", "author": "Arjun Sidharth" }
2,011	Murder of RSS worker by alleged BJP member in Tamil Nadu shared with false claims - Alt News Archit 2nd July 2020 / 3:50 pm Indu Makkal Katchi, a Tamil Nadu-based right-wing political party, tweeted a picture (disturbing imagery, viewer discretion is advised) of a brutally injured man lying dead. As per their claim, a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was killed by “extremists” in Kumbakonam municipality in Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu. This tweet has been retweeted over 3,000 times (archived link). Similarly, several Twitter and Facebook users shared the image along with same text, “Swayam Sevak’s father murdered by extremist In Kumbakonam”. Some users have added a communal angle to the claim (archived link). Twitter user @AnitaShivyogi tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah and wrote, “This is unacceptable! Naxals and Jihadis are carrying out these murders of @RSSorg members and Hindu Sadhus. Are police and judiciary incapable of dealing with this one-sided violence? We haven’t forgotten the Palghar lynchings yet” (archived link). [Also read: Palghar lynching incident falsely communalised on social media] Another user @singhakh who identifies as a swayamsevak also claimed that the RSS worker was killed at the entrance of the Kumbakonam Perumal temple because he opposed the temple’s takeover and illegal sand mining. Bharatiya Hindu Parivar Tamil Nadu went a step further and claimed that the man in the viral image was assassinated by the terrorists during a pro-CAA protest at Nachiyar Temple in Kumbakonam. As per this post, the man in the viral image is 65-year old Gopalakrishnan (archived link). Alt News performed a keyword search on Twitter and found a Tamil news report by One India which said that RSS member Gopalan (65) was murdered over a property dispute. The accused is BJP member Saravanan. The same was reported by Tamil Nadu-based newspaper Dinamalar. 65 வயது ஆர்எஸ்எஸ் பிரமுகரை.. கத்தியால் சரமாரியாக குத்தி கொன்ற.. பாஜக நிர்வாகி.. ஷாக்கில் கும்பகோணம்! https://t.co/hKjSgPmxvG #bjp #murder #kumbakonam #oldman — Oneindia Tamil (@thatsTamil) July 1, 2020 We spoke with Kumbakonam Town DSP. He said, “The murder happened due to property dispute. There is no communal angle. Both accused and the victim hail from the Hindu community. The accused was arrested on July 1.” The accused has been booked under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including 302 (Punishment for murder). The DSP also informed, “Sarvanan worked as a tailor and was affiliated with the BJP.” Alt News was able to access a copy of the FIR which states that Gopalan was stabbed by Saravanan on June 30 at 9.20 pm because of a property dispute. Therefore, the murder of an RSS worker over a properly dispute was communalised on social media. The accused is a BJP member from the same community yet the incident has sparked an anti-Muslim wave. Furthermore, opponents of the Citizenship Act are also being falsely blamed for the murder. 🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The CCTV footage of a man violently flinging a child on the ground has created… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… A minute-long video clip of a woman being physically assaulted is viral on social media….	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	2nd July 2020 / 3:50 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/murder-of-rss-worker-by-alleged-bjp-member-in-tamil-nadu-shared-with-false-claims/", "author": "Archit" }
2,012	With murders of Rafiquddin Shaikh and Naveed Pathan, the cycle of fake news rolls across the border - Alt News Bruce Vain 2nd August 2017 / 2:36 pm / Last updated: 2nd August 2017 It is with headlines like ‘This is the real face of Indians’, ‘Religiously motivated murder by Hindu fanatics’ that Pakistani media shared the news and video of the murder of ‘body builder, Naveed Pathan’. Some even went through the trouble of finding images of Naveed posing in body building competitions and posted them in the same articles where the lead image was of a man who looked nothing like a body builder. The cycle of fake news had rolled across the border. The news in question is the brutal public murder of Rafiquddin Shaikh in Dhule, Maharashtra, committed by a group of armed men on July 20. There was no communal angle to the murder. How did the video make it to Pakistani media as the murder of body builder Naveed Pathan by Hindu fanatics? Let us find out. The murder of Shaikh was caught on a nearby CCTV camera. Soon enough, the video was being circulated on social media and with no definitive coverage available, users took the liberty to create their own accompanying accounts. In the melee, the video was somehow picked up by social media users in Pakistan too, one of them being a Twitter user named Rabia Baluch – who appears to be a person of Pakistani origin located in Belgium. Rabia first posted a clip from the video on July 20. Content warning: Graphic violence Rabia’s first tweet about this incident was retweeted 400+ times and an almost identical tweet the next day was retweeted more than 2,000 times. The tweets made some very specific claims: Now, at first glance, all of these seem plausible. Several incidents of violence over alleged consumption of beef or transportation of cattle have been in the news recently. As it turns out, that is not the case here. As we mentioned above, this shocking video is from Dhule in Maharashtra, not Ahmedabad in Gujarat. Additionally: While Rafiquddin Shaikh is indeed Muslim, he is not a meat seller, but a convicted criminal and alleged gangster. The reason behind Rafiquddin’s murder is not beef related. His murderers aren’t communally charged strangers, but members of a rival gang – one of whom has already been arrested. So, by the looks of it, debunking these claims should have been easy enough. However, as is often the case with hate, it somehow manages to find incomplete information and avoid actual facts. A seemingly well-meaning Indian user @realpongapandit tried to correct Rabia that it was not a communally incited murder over beef. However he wrongly attributed the video to the murder of a bodybuilder named Naveed Pathan in Amravati (also Maharashtra) and even attaches a Hindi newspaper clipping describing the crime. It was easy to get confused between the Rafiquddin and Naveed murders as they happened around the same time. There were other similarities between the two as both were Muslim men from Maharashtra who were killed publicly by a group of attackers known to them. Most importantly, neither was a communally motivated murder. Both incidents occurred over personal animosity – while the former was a gang rivalry, the latter was reportedly over a gym-related dispute. As a matter of fact, Naveed’s alleged murderers are themselves Muslim. Sadly, those facts weren’t enough. While some apparently believed Ponga Pandit’s word about the video grab being of a bodybuilder named Naveed, the faulty narrative about it being a communal incident over beef remained unchanged. It didn’t help that the newspaper clipping Pandit included was in Hindi and therefore could not be read by most users in Pakistan. This is evident from this tweet by Rabia Baluch where she uses the same clipping along with communally divisive language – even as the clipping itself tells a different story: While twitter users with easily-inflamed tempers and un-researched information are expected to fall for propaganda, one expects more from large publications and media houses. Sadly, in this case, that was found absent too. By July 23, only three days after Rabia’s first tweet on the matter, sections of Pakistani media were running the video grab of Rafiquddin’s killing as that of Naveed Pathan. Each of these stories by Media outlets such as Tribune, Samaa TV, News TV and Pakistan Khuda Hafiz was shared hundreds of times by readers who obviously believed each word. A simple search on Twitter using hashtag #naveedpathan pulls up hundreds of results from Pakistan. Unsurprisingly, most of them are attributing the killing to Hindu fanatics: While a murder like this is heinous and horrible – even when the victim is an alleged criminal – what is even worse is use of such footage to peddle hate and divisiveness. We have seen communally sensitive situations in India being inflamed by right wing elements through use of old images of violence from other countries. As if the actual incidents of communal mob violence towards Muslims in India weren’t enough, now we have fake news stories along with disturbing visuals being passed off in Pakistan as religiously motivated murders of Muslims in India. Something like this can easily lead to inciting hate and violence against Hindus, who are a religious minority in Pakistan. The cycle of fake news is a vicious and self sustaining one. We must put the brakes on it with all our might. Following Saudi Arabia’s 2-1 win against Argentina in the ongoing FIFA World Cup, speculation about… Trigger Warning: The following story contains graphic imagery. Several users have shared images of the… The brutal murder of Shraddha Walker has been widely covered across news media over the… A 1:34-minute-long CCTV camera clip is being widely circulated on social media in which viewers… The teaser of a movie titled ‘The Kerala Story’ is being widely shared on social…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	2nd August 2017 / 2:36 pm / Last updated: 2nd August 2017	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/murders-rafiquddin-shaikh-naveed-pathan-cycle-fake-news-rolls-across-border/", "author": "Bruce Vain" }
2,013	Muslim cleric's photo misused to show him encouraging Muslim women to lure Hindu men - Alt News Archit 19th July 2021 / 10:14 pm / Last updated: 19th July 2021 On July 18, pro-BJP propaganda outlet @KreatelyMedia tweeted a graphic that shows a screenshot of a tweet allegedly posted by one Ansar Ahmad Ali (@Ansar2Ali2) and a photograph from the wedding of Rajasthan Royals cricketer Shivam Dube and his girlfriend Anjum Khan. Kreately claimed that Ali is a Muslim cleric who had tweeted, “Hindu men are BJP’s main vote bank. I request all Muslim women that for the next six months, lure Hindu men in love and convince them to vote for Congress so that BJP loses.” Kreately suggested that Anjum Khan ‘lured’ Shivam Dube into marriage. This tweet gained over 2,000 retweets. मौलवी ने कहा..अंजुम खान ने किया..! pic.twitter.com/rcxuu6PcUD — Kreately.in (@KreatelyMedia) July 17, 2021 [Alleged tweet in Hindi: बीजेपी के मुख्य वोटर है हिंदू लड़के सभी मुस्लिम लड़कियों से गुजारिश है अगले 6 महीने तक हिंदू लडको को प्रेमजाल में फसाओ फिर कांग्रेस को वोट देने के लिए मनाओ जिससे बीजेपी हार जायेगी.] The alleged tweet in the above-mentioned graphic is massively widespread on Facebook and Twitter. Alt News could neither find the tweet in question nor the account. But a Twitter user had replied to @Ansar2Ali2 on July 18 which meant that the account indeed existed but has now been deleted. We performed a reverse image search of the profile image in the viral screenshot and found a higher resolution image on Wikimedia which said that the man is Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi. We performed yet another reverse image search on the higher resolution Wiki image and found that it was published by Rajasthan Patrika, a Hindi-language daily newspaper, in 2016. As per the article, Rizvi is the national general secretary of All India Jamaat Raza-e-Mustafa. Over a telephonic call, Rizvi told Alt News that he hails from Bareilly and added, “I have been informed that my image is being shared on social media with an inappropriate statement. I am not on Twitter. I plan to legal action against this. I have already informed my advocate about the same.” He also said, “I am no longer associated with All India Jamaat Raza-e-Mustafa. I’m currently the general secretary at Delhi-based All India Tanzeem Ulama-e-Islam.” This is also mentioned on his YouTube channel. To conclude, an image of Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi was misused in a tweet that showed one ‘Ansar Ahmad Ali’ encouraging Muslim women to lure Hindu men to break BJP’s main vote bank. We did not find any credible reference for an Islamic cleric named Ansar Ahmad Ali. 🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023. In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The CCTV footage of a man violently flinging a child on the ground has created… A minute-long video clip of a woman being physically assaulted is viral on social media…. Trigger Warning: The following story contains graphic imagery. Several users have shared images of the… The brutal murder of Shraddha Walker has been widely covered across news media over the…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	19th July 2021 / 10:14 pm / Last updated: 19th July 2021	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/muslim-clerics-photo-misused-to-show-him-encouraging-muslim-women-to-lure-hindu-men/", "author": "Archit" }
2,014	J&K: Protest against mob lynchings in Delhi shared as 'Show of Strength' rally by Muslims - Alt News Kinjal 8th August 2019 / 12:52 pm A message warning people of a massive ‘Show of Strength’ rally organised by the Muslim community in Delhi is floating on social media. The warning claims that 2-4 lakh members of the Muslim community have gathered near Talkatora stadium and blocked roads in Central Delhi. It alerts people to stay safe. THIS IS THE LEVEL OF HATRED THIS GOVT IS CREATING THAT PEOPLE ARE SENDING OUT SUCH XENOPHOBIC MESSAGES Pls, to all…….. Posted by Jitamber Singh Bedi on Tuesday, 6 August 2019 The full message reads – “Pls, to all….. All along from Columbus school, to Shankar road on either side of the road 2 lines of Buses from various villages of UP, Haryana are parked… More then 2/4 laks Muslims are assembling around Talkatora Stadium.. for “” MUSLIM EKTA SOLITITARY SHOW OF STRENGTH “”… …. also with 2/3 laks Muslims assembling & situation in J&K as it it… with house arrest of Mehoboba, Shah, Abdullah & all Institutes closed….. U never know…. So, pls BE CAREFUL & DONT VENTURE OUT to Central Delhi….. as a safety measure.” The warning has also been circulated on WhatsApp along with a video. The video can be watched below. Alt News contacted Delhi police to enquire if a ‘Muslim Ekta Show of Strength’ rally was organised near Talkatora stadium. The police informed that no such procession was taken out but a protest against mob lynchings was held on August 5 near the stadium. Taking this as a hint, we looked for news reports with specific keywords and found that Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind had organised ‘Aman Ekta Sammelan’ at Talkatora stadium to protest mob lynchings. According to a Times of India report, the rally was held the day after the government stripped Jammu and Kashmir of its special status by diluting Article 370. The protestors demanded the enactment of a stringent law against mob lynchings. The report furthered that leaders of other minority faiths also participated in the rally. The event was also reported by Business Standard, Caravan Daily and The Week. Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind also provided details of the protest on its website. Alt News found several videos of ‘Aman Ekta Sammelan’ online. The photomontage below shows Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind flags visible in the viral video and protest videos on YouTube and Facebook. Another clue which linked the viral video to the protest rally near Talkatora stadium is a signboard which we found upon watching the video in slow motion. The board reads – ‘Mandir Marg’ – which is an area barely a kilometre from the stadium. While the event did cause traffic snarls in Central Delhi, it was not a ‘Show of Strength’ rally organised by members of the Mulsim community. The viral video represents a protest march organised by Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind on August 5 against mob lynchings. Kinjal Parmar holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. However, her keen interest in journalism, drove her to pursue journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. At Alt News since 2019, she focuses on authentication of information which includes visual verification, media misreports, examining mis/disinformation across social media. She is the lead video producer at Alt News and manages social media accounts for the organization. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	8th August 2019 / 12:52 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/muslim-communitys-protest-in-delhi-against-mob-lynchings-shared-as-show-of-strength-rally/", "author": "Kinjal" }
2,015	Muslim family beats Hindu man to death in a train? Incident given false communal angle - Alt News Archit & Ketan 15th February 2020 / 6:29 pm / Last updated: 15th February 2020 On February 14, several social media users claimed that a man named Sagar was lynched by 12 members of a Muslim family. It is being alleged that the man was murdered after a fight broke-out onboard a train when he requested a “burqa-clad” woman for her seat. Most posts claim that the media hasn’t reported the incident. Among those who propagated the claim was @RealHistoriPix tweeted (archive link), garnering close to 5,000 retweets. It is noteworthy that @RealHistoriPix had tweeted (archive link) a Navbharat Times link, which drew over 1,000 retweets, despite claiming that no mainstream media outlets covered the incident. The report does not carry any details of a communal nature. @KarunaGopal1 also tweeted (archive link) the claim, adding that out of the 12 people involved in the incident, seven were women. This was retweeted over 2,000 times before she took it down. Similarly, several Twitter users promoted the claim. Alt News did a keyword search on Google and noted several media outlets had reported the incident including Navbharat Times, India Times, Catch News, Lokmat and NDTV. However, none of the reports mentions that a ‘burka-clad woman’ was involved in the brawl. As per the report by NDTV, the incident took place in the general compartment of Mumbai-Latur-Bidar Express during the early hours of February 14. Sagar Markand was travelling with his wife Jyoti and two-year-old daughter. Superintendent of Police, Railways, Deepak Satore, informed NDTV that Sagar requested some women to offer his wife and daughter a place to sit. The report added, “Apparently enraged over the request, the women started abusing him, leading to a huge spat and then at least a dozen others thrashed him, kicking and punching Sagar. Despite Jyoti’s pleas to stop, they continued beating him up for almost an hour until the train finally reached from Pune to the next halt at Daund. At Daund station, the Government Railway Police rushed Markand to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries later.” According to the report, Markand was beaten to death by at least 12 people, including six women. While speaking with Alt News, SR Gaud, senior police inspector, Government Railway Police, Pune said, “I can confirm there is no communal angle to the incident. Out of twelve people involved in the death of the passenger, one was minor. Seven women and four men have been arrested in the incident.” A Maharashtra Times report has identified the names of people involved in the incident – Tarabai Maruti Pawar, Jamuna Dutta Kale, Tai Hanumant Pawar, Kalawati Dhondiba Chavan, Gangubai Namdev Kale, Rupali Somnath Chavan, Nikita Ashok Kale, Hanumant Ganpat Pawar, Ashok Apa Kale, Sonu Appa Kale and Ganesh Shivaji Chavan. On February 15, the official Account of Central Railway responded to @RealHistoriPix, “There were no two communities involved in this incident. It was a fallout of a tiff over seat-sharing in a compartment of the train. Refrain from giving a communal angle to it. Please do not spread unverified and fake news.” However, the tweet remains. There were no two communities involved in this incident. It was a fallout of a tiff over seat-sharing in a compartment of the train. Refrain from giving a communal angle to it. Please do not spread unverified and fake news. — Central Railway (@Central_Railway) February 15, 2020 The claims on social media that people from the Muslim community were responsible for Sagar’s death is false. Moreover, the incident was widely covered in the media, unlike claimed on social media. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	15th February 2020 / 6:29 pm / Last updated: 15th February 2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/muslim-family-beats-hindu-man-to-death-train-altercation-given-false-communal-angle/", "author": "Archit & Ketan" }
2,016	Muslim girl raped by Hindu mob in Delhi? Pak propaganda website runs fake news - Alt News Pooja Chaudhuri 2nd March 2020 / 7:47 pm / Last updated: 4th March 2020 An article from the website ‘republicofbuzz.com’ is being widely shared on social media. It claims that a 13-year-old girl Deeba was gang-raped by a Hindu mob in northeast Delhi’s Jafrabad. Among those who shared the link is a spokesperson of Telangana-based political party MBT, Amjed Ullah Khan. Below is an excerpt from the article: “The charged Hindu mob stormed into her residential colony, torching homes and rounding up Muslims. She took an opportunity to escape, Deeba says, members of the mob chased Deeba through out the streets as she was on the run, slogging through alleys in the dark, crying and shouting for help but to her misery, she was finally caught by the Hindus who then took her to an abandon cottage nearby.” Link 👇 http://republicofbuzz.com/hindu-mobs-gang-raped-13-year-old-muslim-girl-in-jaffrabad-delhi/ Posted by Md Irfan Baaghi on Sunday, 1 March 2020 A Google search with key phrases from the article does not lead to any results. This acts as the first clue that the news might be manufactured. A subsequent reverse-image search of the girl’s photograph from the article redirects to random links from 2018. Below is a screenshot of a January 28, 2018, post on Facebook page ‘We are all GIRL’s আমরা সবাই মেয়ে’. Speaking with Alt News, SHO Jafrabad clarified that no such incident has been reported in the area. “This is fake news. Had such an incident occurred, it would have come to our attention,” he said. A quick rummage through ‘Republic of Buzz’ reveals that it is a shoddy website that often promotes misinformation targeting India. Earlier this month, India Today had debunked an article on the website which used pornographic images to manufacture a story about rape by Indian soldiers. The website, in fact, routinely shares such distasteful articles. One of its most popular pieces is ‘77% Hindu women cheat due to small penises of their Hindu partners’. The ‘page transparency’ details of the website’s Facebook page reveals that it is managed by six individuals from Pakistan. The original Twitter handle of republicofbuzz.com was suspended and it now functions under @buzzrepublic. A Pakistani user Muhammad Tariq Kahut had welcomed the handle in 2018 and congratulated ‘@FKahut‘ – an account which is suspended. The handle @FKahut belonged to Pakistani user Fahad Kahut who describes himself as a ‘filmmaker’ and now runs his handle under the username @KahutFahad. Another Twitter conversation between Muhammad Tariq Kahut and Fahad Kahut reveal that they are father-son. Below, Muhammed says “seriously thinking of launching a YouTube channel…told by son @KahutFahad to be ready for this…under the banner of #RepublicOfBuzz”. A scroll through Kahut’s Facebook page shows that he is associated with ‘Republic of Buzz’. The Facebook page of ‘Republic of Buzz’ also routinely shares his posts. Suffice to say, ‘Republic of Buzz’ was started to run anti-India propaganda. Their YouTube channel is replete with videos that spew hate against India as a country. The claim that a 13-year-old Muslim girl was gang-raped by a Hindu mob in Jafrabad was manufactured by a fake news and propaganda website from Pakistan. Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	2nd March 2020 / 7:47 pm / Last updated: 4th March 2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/muslim-girl-raped-by-hindu-mob-in-delhi-pak-propaganda-website-runs-fake-news/", "author": "Pooja Chaudhuri" }
2,017	Muslim man disguised as BJP worker caught stone-pelting in Vidyasagar College? No, video from Jharkhand viral - Alt News Pooja Chaudhuri 17th May 2019 / 9:38 pm “Real Name – Mohammad Nisar Orange T-shirt, Tilak on Forhead. Now you can understand many things. You can also connect this to the so called “Bhagwa Goons” doing Violence during Amit Shah Road Show in Kolkata, They were all TMC Goons,” a Twitter user Ravi Singh shared this caption with a video of a man dressed in a saffron t-shirt being questioned by the police. An RAF (Rapid Action Force) officer points at the man and says, “He was stone-pelting”. When asked by others what his name was, the man replied, “Mohammed Nisar”. Singh, the editor of fake news website Dainik Bharat, wrote, “You can also connect this to the so-called “bhagwa goons” doing violence during Amit Shah’s roadshow in Kolkata.” Real Name – Mohammad Nisar Orange T-shirt, Tilak on Forhead Now you can understand many things You can also connect this to the so called “Bhagwa Goons” doing Violence during Amit Shah Road Show in Kolkata, They were all TMC Goons pic.twitter.com/AkkRZNnJwF — ravi singh (@mitthu) May 16, 2019 His video was retweeted by multiple users, a bulk of those followed by BJP leaders, including the Prime Minister – Dr Shobha, Maria Wirth, Anil Kohli. Several people propagated that this man was caught stone-pelting at Amit Shah’s Kolkata rally and that the violence was orchestrated by the TMC. Shocking how #TMC orchestrated the Violence during @AmitShah Road Show in Kolkata yesterday. This guy in this Clip is Mohammed Nissar. Just observe he’s made to wear a #SaffronTShirt and a #Tilak on his forehead. He was caught pelting stones at @AmitShah Road Show. Shameful. pic.twitter.com/Dib6W3x3BG — Sunil Baitmangalkar (@SunilBaitman) May 16, 2019 The video is also viral on Facebook. There are several hints in the video itself that suggest that it does not depict the aftermath of the violence at Kolkata’s Vidyasagar college. Firstly, the men are speaking a dialect uncommon in West Bengal. The accent sounds similar to that of the people from Hindi-speaking East Indian states – Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh or Chattisgarh. Secondly, the site where the man was caught does not resemble the Calcuttan streets where violence during Shah’s roadshow took place. Alt News found a user who commented that the video is from Jharkhand. “No this is stone pelting incident from Jugsalai #Jamshedpur #Jharkhand on polling day May 12 in a booth. His name Md Irshad, arrested and sent to jail,” he alleged. No this is stone pelting incident from Jugsalai #Jamshedpur #Jharkhand on polling day May 12 in a booth. His name Md Irshad, arrested and sent to jail. — Debashish Sarkar 🇮🇳 (@DebashishHiTs) May 17, 2019 When we looked for media reports on the said incident, we came across a News18 Jharkhand broadcast where the same man can be seen caught by the police at 2:19 seconds. On May 12, clashes had broken out between BJP and JMM workers outside a polling booth. A heavy police force was deployed that used tear gas and resorted to lathi-charge to control the violence. According to a Times of India report, the police had arrested two stone-pelters. The viral video, therefore, stands unconnected to Vidyasagar College violence. Multiple claims were raised with regard to the clashes in West Bengal and Alt News’s fact-check on the assertions can be read here. Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	17th May 2019 / 9:38 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/muslim-man-disguised-as-bjp-worker-caught-stone-pelting-in-vidyasagar-college-no-video-from-jharkhand-viral/", "author": "Pooja Chaudhuri" }
2,018	Muslim shops sell biryani laced with birth control pills to Hindus? Fictional story viral - Alt News Archit 2nd March 2020 / 8:21 pm / Last updated: 30th March 2022 A massively widespread message claims that Biryani laced with pills that cause impotence was sold to Hindu customers by Muslim shop owners in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. From the Facebook page Modi The Legend, the claim received 1,000 shares as of this writing. ಹಿಂದುಗಳಿಗೆ ನಪುಂಸಕತೆ ಉಂಟುಮಾಡುವ ಮಾತ್ರೆಗಳನ್ನು ಬೆರೆಸಿದ ಬಿರಿಯಾನಿ ಮಾರುತ್ತಿದ್ದ ಸಾಬರನ್ನು ತಮಿಳುನಾಡಿನ ಕೊಯಮತ್ತೂರಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಪೊಲೀಸರು… Posted by Modi The Legend on Monday, 28 March 2022 It is also circulating on Twitter. * Biryani Jehad in Coimbatore…* Police found Biryani mixed with drugs to served to Hindu customers and plain Biryani for the Muslims. The drugs have harmonal effects on the sexual potency of persons. This is Jehad for Demographic change. 🤨🤨🤨 Gsk @JurnoAjit pic.twitter.com/MsQ18H4lzQ — Shivakumar G S (@Shivaku52174119) March 28, 2022 A similar message that claimed Muslim-owned hotels on highways across Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra are mixing the food served to Hindus with tablets that cause impotence was shared last year. It further alleged this step is being taken to reduce the population of Hindus in India and added that Muslims are also secretly mixing meat in the food. सावधान, सावधान,!!👆👆मित्रों, राजस्थान, गुजरात, और महाराष्ट्र के हाईवे पर सभी मुस्लिम होटलों में हिन्दू लोगों के लिए👉👉नपुंसकता की दवाईयां खाने में मिलाते है। मुस्लिम होटलों से सावधान रहें। ये लोग हिन्दूओ की आबादी कम करने के लिए। #India #RSSorg #BJP #Hindu #8_अगस्त_दिल्ली_चलो pic.twitter.com/kXfpcSwUwv — मनु (देशभक्त) (@ManuRamDa) August 4, 2021 The message was widespread with a set of images on Facebook. Alt News had received multiple requests for fact-checking the message on our official mobile application. Below is a Facebook post carrying the same story earlier in January 2021. सावधान, सावधान,!!👆👆 मित्रों,राजस्थान,गुजरात, और महाराष्ट्र के हाईवे पर सभी मुस्लिम होटलों में हिन्दू लोगों के लिए… Posted by Gharad Saab Shanker Gurjar on Wednesday, 20 January 2021 The complete message reads the following in Hindi, “सावधान, सावधान,!! मित्रों, राजस्थान, गुजरात और महाराष्ट्र के हाईवे पर सभी मुस्लिम होटलों में हिन्दू लोगों के लिए नपुंसकता की दवाईयां खाने में मिलाते है। मुस्लिम होटलों से सावधान रहें। ये लोग हिन्दूओ की आबादी कम करने के लिए और हिन्दूओं का धर्म नष्ट करने के लिए नानवेज भी मिलाकर खिलाते हैं। ऐसे केमिकल रसायनों का इस्तेमाल करते हैं जिससे हमारी सेहत को नुक्सान पहुंचे। राजस्थान से आने वाली सभी बस वालो को मुस्लिम होटलों पर ठहरने रोके। आगे सावधान रहें।” That this is happening in Coimbatore was also claimed last year. थुकण्यापर्यंत ठीक होते हे जरा जास्तच झाले. 🥺 ज्यांना अपत्य होत नाही त्यांना किती तरी त्रास सहन करावा लागतो.🙏🙏 किती तरी… Posted by सचिन गमे on Thursday, 25 February 2021 The claim had been circulating on Facebook for months. Coimbatore city police informed via a tweet that the handle @RD_BANA is spreading “fake news”. This tweet was posted on 2020. Don’t spread fake news. Be responsible user of social media. No one should believe this tweet handle as it is spreading fake news. CCP is working to trace this handle. — Coimbatore City Police (@policecbecity) March 2, 2020 Alt News performed a reverse image search on Google, Yandex and TinEye and found that all the images shared along with the viral message were lifted from random websites. Image 1 This image was be found on Street Food Now, a food blog on WordPress. The post carried a YouTube video where the image was used as the thumbnail. The video was uploaded on June 30, 2016. Image 2 This image is a screenshot of the first frame of a video uploaded by @shoprest17 in 2017. If one looks closely, the white ingredient is eggs. Images 3 and 4 These are lifted from a 2019 article in IBC Tamil, a London-based news website which covers news related to Tamil diaspora in Sri Lanka. Alt News performed a keyword search on Google and found a report by Prime News, a Sri Lanka-based news website. According to the report, Special Task Force recovered a large stock of sexually stimulating pills and abortion pills from “the warehouse of extremists linked to the Easter raid in Colombo”. Image 5 This image was lifted from Dreams Time, royalty-free photos and stock photography website. Image 6 The official Twitter handle of Bijnor Police had tweeted this image on July 11, 2019. Its statement said – “Serkot police station @bijnorpolice have arrested 6 people accused in the smuggling of illegal arms in a madrasa where they were found with 1 pistol 4 tamanche and a large number of cartridges.” थाना शेरकोट @bijnorpolice द्वारा मदरसे में अवैध शस्त्रों की तस्करी करते 06 अभियुक्तगण 01 पिस्टल, 04 तमंचे व भारी मात्रा में कारतूसों सहित गिरफ्तार। #uppolice @Uppolice @adgzonebareilly @digmoradabad @News18India pic.twitter.com/WDj3kkBfIu — Bijnor Police (@bijnorpolice) July 11, 2019 A false claim was therefore propagated on social media by combining photographs from varied websites and videos. The claim that Muslim-run shops are mixing biryani with pills that cause impotency is false. Moreover, no restaurant named ‘Masha Allah of Rehman Bismillah’ in Coimbatore was found on Google search results. Twitter user @RD_BANA posted (archive link) a collage of four images in March 2020 to depict a Muslim man serve biryani laced with pills. “Biryani is cooked in separate vessels for Muslims & Hindus. The Biryani for Hindus is laced with tablets that make one impotent. Restaurant in Coimbatore called Masha Allah of Rehman Bismillah was caught selling such Biryani. Beware! They’re getting at you in every possible way,” he wrote. Facebook user Sasikala Kathiresan shared a similar claim (archive link), adding that the pills are birth control tablets served to Hindus. “We have learnt that the biryani served in Muslim-run hotels are mixed with birth control pills to restrict the birth of Hindu babies. There are reports that Muslims are indulging in such techniques. Hindus please don’t buy stuff from Muslim shops as it would result in grave danger,” read the message. [Translated from முஸ்லிம்களால் நடத்தப்படும் ஹோட்டல்களில் பிரியாணி உணவுகளில் கருத்தடை மாத்திரைகள் பயன்படுத்தப்படுவது தெரியவந்துள்ளது இந்துக்கள் யாருக்கும் குழந்தை பிறக்க கூடாது என்பதற்காக இந்த வேலைகளின் முஸ்லிம்கள் ஈடுபட்டு வருவதாக தகவல்கள் தெரிவிக்கின்றன இந்துக்கள் யாரும் முஸ்லிம்களின் கடைகளில் பொருட்களை வாங்காதீர்கள் அவை உங்களுக்கு நிச்சயம் ஆபத்தை விளைவிக்கும்.] Similarly, several Facebook users shared the viral images along with Tamil text. The same claim had also been shared in Hindi – “कोयम्बटूर में “माशा अल्लाह” नाम से फ़ास्ट फ़ूड बेचने वाला मुल्ला 2 बर्तनों में बिरियानी पकाता था….एक मुस्लिमों के लिए और एक हिन्दुओं के लिए। हिन्दुओं के बर्तन में लड़के व लड़कियों को नपुंसक बनाने की टेबलेट मिलाता था ताकि हिन्दुओं की जनसंख्या वृद्धि को रोका जा सके.” [Note: This is recurring misinformation and the fact-check report is updated as and when the claim resurfaces.] 🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023. In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The CCTV footage of a man violently flinging a child on the ground has created… A minute-long video clip of a woman being physically assaulted is viral on social media…. Trigger Warning: The following story contains graphic imagery. Several users have shared images of the… The brutal murder of Shraddha Walker has been widely covered across news media over the…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	2nd March 2020 / 8:21 pm / Last updated: 30th March 2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/muslim-shop-sells-biryani-laced-with-abortion-pills-to-hindus-fictional-news-viral/", "author": "Archit" }
2,019	Muslim student from JNU falsely blamed for 'masterminding' violence at the university - Alt News Jignesh Patel 7th January 2020 / 8:38 pm / Last updated: 7th January 2020 On January 6, 2019, Bollywood filmmaker Ashoke Pandit tweeted two screenshots – a Facebook post by JNU student Afzal Husain Khan and a screenshot of Khan’s Facebook bio – and claimed that a Muslim student of the varsity had ‘planned’ an attack on ABVP members. Pandit’s tweet came after JNU ABVP members alleged violence by students associated with Left-affiliated bodies. The highlighted text in the Facebook post reads, “We are planning to move into phase 2, and work on a flash mob strategy used by Hong Kong, and spread it across cities.” It was #AfzalGuru first & now we see #AfzalHussainKhan who is one of the masterminds of #JNUattack on @abvpjnu. #ArrestAfzalHussainKhan. #ShutdownJNUUniversity pic.twitter.com/sSoEEIzlXe — Ashoke Pandit (@ashokepandit) January 6, 2020 The complete Facebook post informs about Shaheen Bagh coordination committee calling off the 20 day-long blockades in the area and remodelling the protests around individual agitations. It reads, “Shaheen Bagh Coordination Committee has #called off the blockade that has continued for more than 20 days. Protest will continue in the form of individual campaign to teach community and make them aware of future plan of actions. We’ll call for Bharat Bandh before hearing of the before the honourable Supreme Court. Our Committee and volunteers have withdrawn themselves from the protest site. We request all of you to stop sending any assistance to this stage which has been now hijacked by Congressis, and cash hungry gangs who don’t care about riots and its implications for the community. We are planning to move into Phase 2, and work on a flash mob strategy used by Hong Kong, and spread it across cities. Please share it as much as possible. – Shaheen Bagh Coordination Committee”. Twitter handle @RealHistoriPix also posted the same screenshots with the message, “As per reports, @DelhiPolice has arrested Afzal Hussain Khan, JNU student who planned violence in campus”. Multiple Twitter users have circulated the same claim. Chayan Chatterjee, grandson of Ashutosh Mukherjee, also shared the video with the false claim. Alt News found that Pandit’s claim about Khan ‘masterminding’ the attack on JNU is false. Afzal Husain Khan was formerly associated with the All India Students Association (AISA). Khan edited his post after it went viral to clearly state what ‘phase 2’ meant, “We are planning to move into Okhla Phase 2. Please share it as much as possible,” the post now reads. Alt News contacted Afzal Husain Khan who denied having any association with the Shaheen Bagh coordination committee and said that he was merely sharing the statement posted by Sharjeel Imam, one of the organizers of anti-CAA protests at Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh. We have called off the Shaheen Bagh road blockade today to avoid the impending violence from party goons and to avoid… Posted by Sharjeel Imam on Thursday, 2 January 2020 “I just shared the statement regarding calling off of the Shaheen Bagh road blockade. It was shared in multiple WhatsApp groups and on Facebook as well. Actually there was much confusion among people regarding the call-off. So I took to FB and shared the same. As of now, I’m not associated with any party or organisation. I don’t know why BJP IT cell picked up my post and is trying to put my life in jeopardy. I’m receiving open threats on FB. I’m being framed by an FB post that has nothing to do with any kind of violence,” Khan said. Refuting the claim of his arrest, he added, “On Twitter “History of India” claimed that I have been arrested, this is worrisome, my family members, friends and well-wishers are deeply concerned for my safety.” According to media reports, arrests for the January 5-6 violence are yet to be made. Delhi police has however filed an FIR against JNUSU president Aishee Ghosh and named 19 others for “attacking security guards and vandalizing server room on January 4.” Khan’s post reads the same as Imam’s who had shared the information earlier. Imam’s statement about using “flash mob strategy” was also reported by mainstream media outlets like India Today, Outlook and The Finiancial Express on January 2, 2019. According to a Reuters report, pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong adopted a “be water” strategy where demonstrators pop-up in different locations to catch the authorities flat-footed. The strategy has already been mirrored by anti-CAA protesters in Hyderabad. “The location of the protests, which change daily, are posted just an hour or two in advance, with the exact spots shared just minutes ahead of time,” stated the article published on January 4, 2019. It interestingly also refers to Sharjeel Imam who talks about utilising the same strategy in Delhi. Filmmaker Ashoke Pandit compared a JNU student with Afzal Guru and put out a bogus claim of Afzal Husain Khan ‘masterminding’ the violence. Pandit has been found sharing multiple instances of misinformation around the JNU violence. The filmmaker had falsely claimed that SFI activist Soori Krishnan faked injuries sustained in the attack. He also retweeted a video which was shared with the false narrative that ABVP members were assaulted in the violence when in fact the opposite was true. Jignesh is a writer and researcher at Alt News. He has a knack for visual investigation with a major interest in fact-checking videos and images. He has completed his Masters in Journalism from Gujarat University. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	7th January 2020 / 8:38 pm / Last updated: 7th January 2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/muslim-student-from-jnu-falsely-blamed-for-masterminding-violence-at-the-university/", "author": "Jignesh Patel" }
2,020	Muslim tanga drivers in UP hounded after false claim of painting Pakistan flag on tanga - Alt News Pooja Chaudhuri 26th August 2021 / 4:00 pm “Pakistan’s flag is imprinted on the tanga owned by Noor Alam and Wasir that they have been using for 20 years and they claim they are unaware (that Pakistan’s flag is imprinted on the tanga). They have a problem saying ‘Hindustan Zindabad’ but have no shame saying ‘Pakistan Zindabad’,” a man alleges in a video posted by Newsroom Post The man harasses two poor tanga drivers from the Muslim community, forcing them to chant ‘Hindustan Zindabad’, ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ and ‘Pakistan Murdabad’. He continues to hound them to sloganeer even after the poor drivers make the chants. Angered by the unreasonable coverage, Wasir questions the man why should they make the chants and ends the conversation by saying that he will hail both countries. लखनऊ में एक तांगे पर पाकिस्तान जैसे झंडे का वीडियो वायरल, पाक मुर्दाबाद के नारे पर छिड़ गई बहस pic.twitter.com/uF7h9Brdir — Newsroom Post (@NewsroomPostCom) August 24, 2021 Dainik Jagran also carried a story claiming that the tanga was painted with the flag of Pakistan. The video was earlier viral on social media. The earliest instance that we could locate was shared at 9:25 AM on August 24 by a Twitter user. @योगी आदित्यनाथ लखनऊ तेलीबाग के सामने तागे पर दिखा पाकिस्तान का लगा झंडा, और तो और यह पाकिस्तान जिंदाबाद के नारे लगा रहे हैं, इनको इतना शेयर करिए ताकि योगी जी इनकी खबर ले सके, जय श्री राम🚩🚩 pic.twitter.com/pSMYZDEqky — Parveen (@Parveen18921993) August 24, 2021 Pro-BJP propaganda website Kreately shared the video tagging UP and Lucknow police. ‘हां हमने झंडा लगा रखा है,हम तो पाकिस्तान जिंदाबाद भी बोलेंगे..’ यह वीडियो सोशल मीडिया से मिला है, जिसका पता “तेलीबाग” है..नूर आलम नामक व्यक्ति ने तांगे पर पाकिस्तान का लगा झंडा लगा रखा है, कृपया मामला संज्ञान में लेकर उचित कार्रवाई करें.🙏 @Uppolice @lkopolice pic.twitter.com/c46vci7JEF — Kreately.in (@KreatelyMedia) August 26, 2021 Newsroom Post also published an article on the video. While the article claimed, “People stopped a tanga driver after they spotted Pakistan’s flag on the tanga,” the second paragraph stated that the police found the tanga was painted with ‘karbala symbol’ and not the flag of Pakistan. The police spoke to both parties – the tanga driver and people who accused him of driving a tanga with Pakistan’s flag – and the matter was sorted after it was concluded the tanga adorned an Islamic symbol. Lucknow police confirmed the same to Alt News. “The tanga was painted with moon and star. Not the flag of Pakistan. After the controversy, the tanga driver painted that area with black colour. No complaint was filed,” the police said. Any action against the people who harassed the tanga driver is yet to be taken. The police said that he did not file a complaint. Newsroom Post omitted this crucial detail while running the video on Twitter. A cursory look at the paint job is enough to discern that it is not the flag of Pakistan. The latter has a crescent and star at a 45-degree angle and a white stripe on the left. It must be noted that the crescent is a common Islamic symbol. Two tanga drivers were hounded by locals. Certain media outlets, journalists and propaganda websites amplified the misinformation online. Below is a tweet by Dainik Jagran editor Pawan Tiwari. भारत में पलो बढ़ो..नारा लगाओ पाकिस्तान जिंदाबाद #Lucknow के पीजीआई एरिया का वाक़या pic.twitter.com/nElmEuiM2i — Pawan Tiwari🇮🇳 🇮🇳 (@pawan_pawant) August 25, 2021 Tiwari shared another video that shows the drivers were forced to raise the Indian flag and sloganeer ‘Hindustan Zindabad’. He mockingly wrote in another tweet that the drivers turned into ‘nationalists’ after the police’s intervention. pic.twitter.com/ydshDcuGNq — Pawan Tiwari🇮🇳 🇮🇳 (@pawan_pawant) August 25, 2021 Alt News has published several reports in the past when Islamic flags or flags of Islamic organisations were misrepresented as the Pakistan flag. Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News. Inter-faith relationships between Hindu women and Muslim men have been a sore point for the… Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… Right after Elon Musk took over the reins of microblogging site Twitter, the organization carried… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	26th August 2021 / 4:00 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/muslim-tanga-drivers-in-up-hounded-after-false-claim-of-painting-pakistan-flag-on-tanga/", "author": "Pooja Chaudhuri" }
2,021	Guwahati puchka seller caught mixing water with urine is not Muslim, unlike claimed online - Alt News Kinjal 24th August 2021 / 4:02 pm A video of a street food vendor urinating into a mug that he later empties into a bucket kept on his cart has been going viral on social media platforms. Twitter user Pawan Saxena shared the footage. (Archive link) पहले जग में पेशाब किया और वह पेशाब पीने वाले पानी में आधा डाला और आधा बाहर फेंक दिया ताकि ग्राहक को भी पता ना चले बाहर खाने पीने के शौकीन लोगों इन हरामियो का क्या करोगे😡😡 pic.twitter.com/EVgD75mFif — पवन सक्सेना (@RealPawanSaxena) August 18, 2021 Facebook user ‘Bhagwa Rakshak’ garnered more than 16,000 views for the video. (Archive link) रिकार्ड तोड़ हरामीपना 😡😡😡 पहले जग में पेशाब किया और वह पेशाब पीने वाले पानी में आधा डाला और आधा बाहर फेंक दिया ताकि ग्राहक को भी पता ना चले बाहर खाने पीने के शौकीन लोगों इन जिहादियों का क्या करोगे😡😡 Posted by भगवा रक्षक on Thursday, August 19, 2021 Twitter handle ‘हम लोग We The People’ tweeted the video identifying the man as Khalil Bhai. (Archive link). Another handle named @cbpunjabi also shared it with the same claim. खलील भाई की दुकान पर हर जाति धर्म के लोग मिल कर भाईचारे के साथ बिरयानी खाया करते थे.. पर उनको शिकायत थी कि खलील भाई बिरयानी में नमक ज्यादा डालते है.. एक दिन किसी ने वीडियो बना कर सेकुलर लोगों को बता दिया बिरयानी में ज्यादा नमक की वजह.. असल मे खलील भाई बिरयानी में पेशाब करते थे.. pic.twitter.com/C45l7I8e17 — हम लोग We The People (@humlogindia) August 20, 2021 The video is widespread on Facebook with the claim that the man caught urinating was ‘Khalil Bhai’. Alt News performed a reverse image search using stills from the video which led us to a few media reports. On August 20, Pratidin Time reported that a puchka vendor was arrested in Guwahati for mixing his urine with water. A video of this incident had gone viral on social media which is how the incident came to light. The accused was identified as 60-year-old Akrul Sahani, a resident of the Bhoothnath area. Once the visuals surfaced, locals were quite angered. According to Pratidin Time, the police are still investigating the whole matter. Media organizations like Time 8, Parag News, Guwahati Plus also covered the incident. A news channel named ‘DY365‘ similarly identified the man in the video as Akrul Sahani. Parag News also released a video report on the matter. We found that the oldest instance of the video was posted on August 14 by Amar Jyoti Bordoloi. আপুনি চাটো (chatwa) খাই নেকি……??? যদি খাই তেনেহলে সাৱধান!! গুৱহাটীৰ আঠ গাওঁ কবৰ স্থানৰ সমিপত chatwa বিক্ৰী কৰি থকা জনলৈ চাওক, তেওঁ এটা মগত দুটা কাম কৰিছে, কিদৰে ব্যক্তি জনে একেতা মগত প্ৰস্ৰাৱ কৰি আকৌ সেইটোকেই ব্যাবহাৰ কৰিছে। এনেকুৱা ব্যৱসায়ী উচিত শাস্তী পাবনে ? মানুহে খোৱা খাদ্যত এনেকুৱা কাম কৰিছে।। Posted by Amar Jyoti Bordoloi on Saturday, August 14, 2021 Alt News reached out to Bordoloi and he informed, “I recorded this video on August 14. I also shared it on Facebook. The police arrested the accused in this case. As far as I know, this hawker is not from the Muslim community.” Bharalumukh police station in charge Jyoti Lahana confirmed the same to Aaj Tak. The outlet reported that Lahana said the hand-cart is owned by Akrul Sahani, a resident of Bihar, who hails from the Hindu community. Kinjal Parmar holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. However, her keen interest in journalism, drove her to pursue journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. At Alt News since 2019, she focuses on authentication of information which includes visual verification, media misreports, examining mis/disinformation across social media. She is the lead video producer at Alt News and manages social media accounts for the organization. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	24th August 2021 / 4:02 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/muslim-vender-mixing-urine-in-pani-puri-false-claim-viral-with-video/", "author": "Kinjal" }
2,022	Photo of Muslim woman in solidarity with farmers at Tikri border viral with misleading claim - Alt News Kinjal 19th January 2021 / 8:22 pm A photograph of a group of women seated onstage in front of a Punjabi banner has been shared with the text, “Women power on the Kisan stage – When did the spirited women of Punjab start wearing burqas?” The image has been shared to allude a ‘Muslim angle’ to the ongoing farmers’ protests. Twitter user ‘Tinku’ posted the image writing, “These are the ones who will not show their documents.” Hashtags like #Khalistan and #Khalistani were used in the post. (Archive link) ये वहीं हैं…जो कागज नहीं दिखाएंगे#Khalistan #khalistani #FarmersProtestHijacked #Ghazipur #border #FarmersProtest #किसान_आंदोलन #Tikait pic.twitter.com/iqjRr8Nmyq — Tinku (@Tinku59733052) January 15, 2021 Another Twitter user, @ThePushpendra_, tweeted this picture and wrote, “What are these Muslim women doing at the farmers’ protests? What kind of farming do they do?” (Archive link) किसान आंदोलन में ये आपाएं क्या कर रही हैं? कौन सी खेती करती हैं ये?🤔 pic.twitter.com/FNVQqSNOdv — Pushpendra Kulshreshtha (@ThePushpendra_) January 16, 2021 A website called India Viral shared the picture in one of its articles, claiming that the farmers’ movement has been taken over by ‘Islamists’ and others who follow the faith. It also questions whether those wearing the burqas are actually women. The article makes every effort to discredit the movement. (Archive link) Several other users have shared the photo across Twitter and Facebook. Alt News performed a keyword search on Facebook which led us to a post by a page called ‘Indias Muslims’ dated January 14. According to the post, the Muslim community had participated in demonstrations at the Tikri border. The same stage seen in the viral photo appears in the pictures accompanying this post. “Muslim Community Arrived at Tikkri Border to Participate in Protest. We are United.” #FarmersDemandJustice #FarmersProstests Via Bharatiya Kisan Union Ughran Posted by Indias Muslims on Thursday, January 14, 2021 Furthermore, we also found some images resembling the photo in question on the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) Facebook page. Here, people from the Muslim community are seen reading prayers and addressing the crowd. Posted by Bharti Kisan Union Ekta Ugrahan / ਭਾਰਤੀ ਕਿਸਾਨ ਯੂਨੀਅਨ ਏਕਤਾ ਉਗਰਾਹਾਂ on Thursday, January 14, 2021 The BKU shared these images on its Twitter handle as well. The accompanying tweet reads, “Muslim women from Punjab’s Malerkotla participated in the ongoing demonstrations at the Tikri border”. They have also been uploaded on BKU’s Instagram page. The Muslim community came to Tikri Border in support of the farmers From Malerkotla (Punjab) a group of Muslim women reached Tikri border. pic.twitter.com/RXkw1nm9Pz — BKU_EKTA_UGRAHAN (@Bkuektaugrahan) January 14, 2021 A January 13 report in The Times of India quoted Dr. Nasir Akhtar of Malerkotla, who said that 30 people from Malerkotla were in attendance. They were all from the Muslim community. He has been running a langar service at the Singhu border for the last 40 days. Dr. Akhtar and his colleagues have also installed waterproof tents so that farmers can sleep comfortably in the cold. Apart from this, they have arranged 100 mattresses and sheets. Shaheed Tantray, the assistant photo editor at The Caravan, tweeted a picture of Muslim attendees offering prayers at the Tikri border. Indian Punjabi Muslims from Maler Kotla offering evening prayers, expressing their solidarity with farmers protesting against farm laws at Tikri border. The farmers have blocked the highway for the last 50 days to express their discontent with the Modi regime.#farmersrprotest pic.twitter.com/y5U5Q45HlB — Shahid Tantray- شاہد تانترے (@shahidtantray) January 15, 2021 Journalist Saahil Murli Menghani tweeted a video of the Tikri border on January 15. His tweet stated that women of different faiths had gathered there in support of the farmers’ movement. #Verified #FarmersProtest 👉Haters will not like this video 👉Hindu-Muslim-Sikh unity on display 👉Women of various religions gather at Tikri Border 👉’Hindu-Muslim-Sikh-Isai, Assi hain sare bhai-bhai’ 👉Meet is on between Modi sarkar & farmers at Vigyan Bhawan pic.twitter.com/XqtCIurUkm — Saahil Murli Menghani (@saahilmenghani) January 15, 2021 Therefore, it is clear that Muslim women had joined demonstrations at the Tikri border in support of the protesting farmers. A photo of this incident was shared on social media with a misleading claim. In fact, there have been several such attempts to suggest that the protests have been hijacked by Muslims. Kinjal Parmar holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. However, her keen interest in journalism, drove her to pursue journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. At Alt News since 2019, she focuses on authentication of information which includes visual verification, media misreports, examining mis/disinformation across social media. She is the lead video producer at Alt News and manages social media accounts for the organization. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The CCTV footage of a man violently flinging a child on the ground has created… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… A minute-long video clip of a woman being physically assaulted is viral on social media….	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	19th January 2021 / 8:22 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/muslim-women-join-in-support-of-farmer-protest-image-shared-to-give-communal-narrative/", "author": "Kinjal" }
2,023	Muslim youth stay up all night to protect a newly born calf when animal welfarists refused to take responsibility - Alt News Alt News Desk 18th April 2017 / 9:11 pm / Last updated: 18th April 2017 In a Muslim-dominated area in a town called Rehmatnagar in Surendranagar district in Gujarat, the life of a newly born calf and the mother cow was in grave danger because of excessive heat and the dogs in the area. Especially, the calf’s life was in extreme danger because of the many dogs in that area. That is when the youth from Muslim community in that area stayed up all night to make sure that no harm is done to either the calf or the cow which had just delivered. However, those who constantly talk about cow protection were nowhere to be seen. [Source: Divya Bhaskar] This incident happened on the Surendranagar-Mudi road. A cow used to frequent the area of Rehmatnagar and was regularly fed by the local Muslim community. However, on Friday evening, this cow got into labour and delivered a baby calf. As soon as this news reached Rajabhai Ghori, Mohsinbhai and Shabbir bhai and other members of the community, they came down and started taking care of the mother and the calf. However, since they had no previous experience of taking care of a newborn calf or a cow which has just delivered, they contacted the local animal welfarists. The animal welfarists did come down to the spot, talked a lot but refused to help in the end. None of them was ready to take the responsibility of the cow and the calf. Since the animal welfarists refused to take the cow and the calf along with them, the Muslim youth in the area stayed up all night to look after the two and to protect them from the many dogs in that area. Finally, when this information reached Gelabhai Bharwad who lives in Kumbharpura, he made arrangements to transport the cow and the calf to a safe place. Also, when the local Nagar Palika officer Girish Saraiya found out about this issue, he came forward to take care of the calf and the mother cow. This episode yet again shows the hypocrisy of those who profess their love for cows all the time and are even ready to kill fellow humans for the same. Follow @free_thinker Following Saudi Arabia’s 2-1 win against Argentina in the ongoing FIFA World Cup, speculation about… Trigger Warning: The following story contains graphic imagery. Several users have shared images of the… The brutal murder of Shraddha Walker has been widely covered across news media over the… A 1:34-minute-long CCTV camera clip is being widely circulated on social media in which viewers… The teaser of a movie titled ‘The Kerala Story’ is being widely shared on social…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	18th April 2017 / 9:11 pm / Last updated: 18th April 2017	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/muslim-youth-stay-night-take-care-newly-born-calf-animal-welfarists-refused-take-responsibility/", "author": "Alt News Desk" }
2,024	Muslim youth's assault in Karnataka falsely linked to 'The Kashmir Files' - Alt News Mohammed 27th April 2022 / 7:57 pm / Last updated: 27th April 2022 On April 14, Maktoob Media published a report headlined, “Muslim youth attacked with a sword by man returning after watching ‘Kashmir Files’.” Siasat also reported that the accused was on his way back home after watching ‘The Kashmir Files’ when he attacked the youth. Based on this report, several Facebook accounts made the same claim including verified page Indian American Muslim Council, AMU Citizens [over 1.5 lakh followers] and AIMIM Samastipur – Bihar [over 1 lakh followers]. Some Twitter accounts also made this claim. Karnataka State Police Fact Check said that the incident took place in Uttara Kannada District of Karnataka on April 13. The accused is 30-year-old Honnappa Bovi and the victim is 18-year-old Amanullah Irfan. Both are neighbours. “Though the incident of assault is true, the motive for the same is not ‘The Kashmiri Files’ movie as alleged. It took place purely due to personal reasons. However, the incident has been twisted to depict as if it is a hate crime,” wrote the police. Detailed post;https://t.co/oGcBBi0iY2 https://t.co/mHYiqqgGW0 — Karnataka State Police Factcheck (@kspfactcheck) April 15, 2022 An FIR was registered at Haliyal police station under Indian Penal Code sections 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by using dangerous weapons), 307 (an attempt to murder), and 504 (an intentional insult to provoke breach of peace). Alt News contacted Nilammanavar Ranganath at Haliyal PS. He said, “There is neither any communal angle to the incident nor does it have anything to do with ‘The Kashmir Files’. The accused was arrested on the same day of the crime.” He added, “The preliminary probe has revealed that it is purely the outcome of personal reasons. The arrested accused stated in custody that his mother is specially-abled and Amanullah, who lives in the same locality, used to tease her. To avenge his mother, he stabbed him with a sharp-edged weapon.” We also spoke with sub-inspector Shivanand. He said, “The accused used a knife. The social media claim that the accused used a sword is false.” Furthermore, the victim’s father told Alt News, “It is absolutely wrong to give communal colour to the incident. My son was attacked by a man who was in an inebriated state. Hindus from the village have come forward in our support and they are the ones who even helped us get the FIR registered.” We contacted Amanullah’s uncle Sameer Jamnur, who is the complainant in the FIR. He said, “We were completely in dark about the exact cause that led to the incident. Later the police informed us about the confession the accused made in custody.” Thus, it is concluded that pictures of an injured Muslim youth are being circulated with the false claim that a Hindu man attacked him after watching ‘The Kashmir Files’. According to the police and the victim’s father, the incident did not have a communal motive. A day after the story was published, Maktoob Media tweeted, “We are retracting the story” and apologised for the error. We are withdrawing the story and apologising for our poor judgement. We will be committed to upholding integrity in work. 2/2 — Maktoob (@MaktoobMedia) April 15, 2022 Fact-checking journalist Following Saudi Arabia’s 2-1 win against Argentina in the ongoing FIFA World Cup, speculation about… Trigger Warning: The following story contains graphic imagery. Several users have shared images of the… The brutal murder of Shraddha Walker has been widely covered across news media over the… A 1:34-minute-long CCTV camera clip is being widely circulated on social media in which viewers… The teaser of a movie titled ‘The Kerala Story’ is being widely shared on social…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	27th April 2022 / 7:57 pm / Last updated: 27th April 2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/muslim-youths-assault-in-karnataka-falsely-linked-to-the-kashmir-files/", "author": "Mohammed" }
2,025	Muslims attacked Hindus in Rajasthan after polls? Video from Bangladesh shared with false claim - Alt News Arjun Sidharth 24th December 2018 / 6:46 pm / Last updated: 15th March 2019 राजस्थान में कांग्रेस सरकार बनते ही पाकिस्तान से लगे जैसलमेर के दार्ती गांव में शांतिदूत मुस्लिमो द्वारा मारवाडी हिन्दूओ के घर जलाये गए और दो हिंदूओ को मौत के घाट उतार दिया (After Congress formed govt in Rajasthan, peaceful muslims in Darti village near Jaisalmer attacked Marwari Hindus, burning their houses. Two Hindus killed- translation). This message is circulating on Facebook along with a video which shows women wailing over the loss of their loved ones in violence. राजस्थान में कांग्रेस सरकार बनते ही पाकिस्तान से लगे जैसलमेर के दार्ती गांव में शांतिदूत मुस्लिमो द्वारा मारवाडी हिन्दूओ के घर जलाये गए और दो हिंदूओ को मौत के घाट उतार दिया Posted by कट्टर हिंदू छोरा जाटव on Thursday, December 20, 2018 The above post by a user Kattar Hindu Chora Jatav, posted on December 20 has been viewed over 19000 times and shared over 1400 times. It has also been posted by other social media users and on a Facebook page Bhagwa Raj, Page Like Kare from where it has been shared over 600 times. Alt News fact-checked this provocative claim. Using software tools, we broke down the video into individual frames. We reverse searched some of the frames and found that the video not only dates back to 2013, but that it is not from India. The video posted below lays out the technique for fact-checking that Alt News adopted in this instance. We found that the same video had been uploaded in March 2013 on YouTube by a user with the title ‘Muslims attacked 76 Hindu families and 5 Temples in Noyakhali, Bangladesh. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skoZL_JgMrw Communal violence had erupted in Noakhali, Bangladesh in March 2013 after an Islamist leader had been sentenced to death by a special tribunal over war crimes committed during the war of independence in 1971. A report by the BBC states, “The attack started hours after a senior hardline Islamist leader was sentenced to death by a special tribunal in late February. Jamaat-e-Islami party Vice President Delwar Hossain Sayedee was given a death sentence for crimes committed during the war of independence from Pakistan in 1971.” The report mentioned that after the verdict was announced, supporters of the party went on a rampage, targeting the Hindu and Buddhist communities. 60 people were killed in clashes with security personnel. An old incident from Bangladesh was falsely and maliciously shared as recent communal violence in Rajasthan following the assembly election. Disinformation as a weapon for political propaganda continues to be wielded even after polling has ended, and in most such instances, the Congress party is at the receiving end. Arjun Sidharth is a writer with Alt News. He has previously worked in the television news industry, where he managed news bulletins and breaking news scenarios, apart from scripting numerous prime time television stories. He has also been actively involved with various freelance projects. Sidharth has studied economics, political science, international relations and journalism. He has a keen interest in books, movies, music, sports, politics, foreign policy, history and economics. His hobbies include reading, watching movies and indoor gaming. Following Saudi Arabia’s 2-1 win against Argentina in the ongoing FIFA World Cup, speculation about… Trigger Warning: The following story contains graphic imagery. Several users have shared images of the… The brutal murder of Shraddha Walker has been widely covered across news media over the… A 1:34-minute-long CCTV camera clip is being widely circulated on social media in which viewers… The teaser of a movie titled ‘The Kerala Story’ is being widely shared on social…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	24th December 2018 / 6:46 pm / Last updated: 15th March 2019	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/muslims-attacked-hindus-in-rajasthan-after-polls-video-from-bangladesh-shared-with-false-claim/", "author": "Arjun Sidharth" }
2,026	Muslims demand separate state in Assam? No, old video from UP - Alt News Kalim Ahmed 5th May 2022 / 3:52 pm A 2:12 minute-long video montage where the police can be seen violently attacking civilians is viral on social media with the claim that Muslims in Assam took out a rally demanding a separate nation, and this was how the police responded to their demands. The video is accompanied by a Hindi caption that reads, “Muslims took out a procession in Assam to demand a separate country, look at their condition now. The Chief Minister of Assam is two steps ahead of Yogi”. The video was shared on Twitter by user @DRajlaxmisaini, who claims to be a doctor. आसाम में मुसलमानों ने अलग देश बनाने के लिए जुलूस निकाला, फिर उनका हाल देखिए आसाम के मुख्यमंत्री योगी से भी दो कदम आगे हे 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/E6pRbru3LB — Dr.RajlaxmiSaini (@DRajlaxmisaini) May 2, 2022 The video is widely circulating on Twitter with this claim. पा गए आजादी 🤭🤭 आसाम में मुसलमानों ने अलग देश बनाने के लिए जुलूस निकाला, फिर उनका हाल देखिए आसाम के मुख्यमंत्री योगी से भी दो कदम आगे हे . 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/OtRrMU4YWU — Laxmi Reddy 🇮🇳 (@Laxmi47584355) May 2, 2022 आसाम में मुसलमानों ने अलग देश बनाने के लिए जुलूस निकाला, फिर उनका हाल देखिए आसाम के मुख्यमंत्री योगी से भी दो कदम आगे हे 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/Is6k7JVrxj — महेश🕉️पटेल🔱भगवा🚩योद्धा🏹 (@maheshspatel51) May 4, 2022 It is also viral on Facebook with the same claim. We watched the video carefully and observed a few anomalies: Taking these clues, we broke down the video into keyframes and performed a Yandex reverse image search on one of the stills. This led us to various videos of this incident uploaded in April 2020, which suggests that the video could be from the Phase-I of the lockdown due to COVID-19. One of these videos was uploaded on April 6, 2020, where we can clearly see the name of the police station where the incident took place, as well as an SUV with an Uttar Pradesh number plate. The description of the YouTube video suggested that the video is from UP’s Bareilly where police were enforcing lockdown orders. We performed a keyword search on Google and came across various articles and video reports about this incident. As per an article by The Times of India, published on April 6, 2020, a police team had visited the Karampur Chaudhary village in the Bareilly district to enforce lockdown orders. During this, the villagers gathered and attacked the police, and additional forces were called in. We also came across two video reports where the same visuals can be seen. As per News18 India, cops had visited the village to enforce lockdown orders, however, the villagers did not comply and attacked the team. Few cops sustained injury due to this attack. They later called for reinforcement and retaliated with force, detaining around 40 people. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKuUFWAz0nY] Similarly, Times Now also carried visuals that can be seen in the viral video. The report by Times Now reiterated that the police team was attacked first and they retaliated with force. The video report is age-restricted by YouTube due to the depiction of violence. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph5TA7GmwgY] Thus, a video montage of police enforcing lockdown orders through force was shared with the misleading claim that in Assam, Muslims demanded a separate nation for which they received a thrashing from the police. Previously, a different video was viral with the same false claim. Kalim is a journalist with a keen interest in tech, misinformation, culture, etc Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	5th May 2022 / 3:52 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/muslims-demand-separate-state-in-assam-no-old-video-from-up/", "author": "Kalim Ahmed" }
2,027	"Muslims fed bomb to cow", fake news peddler ShankhNaad puts out yet another misleading video - Alt News Arjun Sidharth 13th December 2017 / 11:47 pm ‘Muslims fed bomb to cow which blew inside her mouth’, screamed ShankhNaad on its twitter page. The communal rabble rousing website posted a video shot in Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh, in which a cow is seen with its mouth blown off and is bleeding profusely. BREAKING: #Muslims fed bomb to cow which blew inside her mouth. #Cow critically injured in Vidisha, MP. No arrests by police. #Hindus not allowed to protest. @PetaIndia silent. @ChouhanShivraj pic.twitter.com/pwzHOgtSpn — ShankhNaad (@ShankhNaad) December 11, 2017 ShankhNaad expectedly claimed that it was the handiwork of Muslims who deliberately planted a bomb inside the cow’s mouth by forcefully inserting it and exploding it. The news of the cow attacked by muslims was picked up by right wing twitter handles in no time. Waiting to hear from you @PetaIndia. You better get these terrorists arrested or wait for countrywide protests. https://t.co/QRI9VCzthc — Sonam Mahajan (@AsYouNotWish) December 12, 2017 This is extremely cruel and vicious. No empathy, no outrage from anyone of note! Human race is really a curse to other species and this planet. If this does not bother you, I just hope you die https://t.co/le4YsgHHQh — True Indology (@TrueIndology) December 12, 2017 A crowd soon gathered at the site when the news that the cow’s mouth had been blown off spread, and protests took place. Some of the protesters set fire to the shacks where the cow had been injured. Bajrang Dal activists rushed to the site but so did the police and the situation was contained. So what really happened? How did the cow’s mouth get blown off? Was it done by members of the Muslim community as alleged? A report by a local news channel Sagar TV revealed the truth. The incident occurred in an area called Ahmadpur road in the town of Vidisha. The cow had chewed on an explosive that was kept inside a plastic bag. The area has been encroached upon and it was in one of the shacks that the bag with the explosive was kept. The protesters who had gathered at the spot were demanding that the encroachments be removed as the area according to them had become unsafe. Alt News spoke to the SP of Vidisha Vineet Kapoor who confirmed that the cow had indeed been injured due to accidentally chewing an explosive. “The explosive, known as ‘suar maar bomb’ (handmade bomb) is used by the nomadic tribe presently inhabiting the area for hunting wild pigs and are triggered by pressure. The cow accidentally chewed on the bomb when it was grazing the area, as a result of which it exploded. There is no Muslim or communal angle“, he told Alt News. Local publications also reported the same while covering this incident. A similar incident wherein a cow died after chewing on a similar country bomb happened in Malvan Taluka in Maharashtra in January 2017. An unfortunate accident was portrayed as a communal attack, and the Muslim community was blamed by ShankhNaad in its inflammatory post which was as usual full of lies. Alt News recently did an expose on ShankhNaad revealing its poisonous agenda. The issue of the cow is a sensitive one with religious sentiments of the majority community involved, and the way ShankhNaad sought to foment hate by spreading an outright lie once again brings focus on why no action is taken against the website and its owner. Arjun Sidharth is a writer with Alt News. He has previously worked in the television news industry, where he managed news bulletins and breaking news scenarios, apart from scripting numerous prime time television stories. He has also been actively involved with various freelance projects. Sidharth has studied economics, political science, international relations and journalism. He has a keen interest in books, movies, music, sports, politics, foreign policy, history and economics. His hobbies include reading, watching movies and indoor gaming. Following Saudi Arabia’s 2-1 win against Argentina in the ongoing FIFA World Cup, speculation about… Trigger Warning: The following story contains graphic imagery. Several users have shared images of the… The brutal murder of Shraddha Walker has been widely covered across news media over the… A 1:34-minute-long CCTV camera clip is being widely circulated on social media in which viewers… The teaser of a movie titled ‘The Kerala Story’ is being widely shared on social…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	13th December 2017 / 11:47 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/muslims-fed-bomb-cow-fake-news-peddler-shankhnaad-puts-yet-another-misleading-video/", "author": "Arjun Sidharth" }
2,028	Muslims hold funeral procession for suicide bomber? No, unrelated 2012 video from Syria viral - Alt News Arjun Sidharth 13th June 2019 / 7:45 am / Last updated: 13th June 2019 “Don’t MISS The WORLD’s greatest protest. A Suicide bomber was shot dead by Israeli Forces, Muslims took up his body and Started Protesting for the ‘innocent muslim’. But they did not know that a Suicide Belt was Still Tied to the Bomber’s body they were carrying. What Happend Next is the Video.” This is a message which has been shared by several social media users along with a video. The video is 1:52 minutes long and shows a funeral procession as it passes through a street. A little later, there is an explosion. Due to the disturbing nature of the video, Alt News is not uploading it here. A screenshot of the video is posted below. Several individual users have shared the video with identical text. Alt News found that the video had been posted on Facebook in May 2018 by the page NaMo Mantra: Nation FIRST. It is also circulating on WhatsApp. Alt News broke up the video into several keyframes using InVid software. Reverse-searching one of the frames showed that the incident had taken place in Syria in 2012. According to several news reports, an explosion had ripped apart a funeral procession as it was passing through the streets of Zamalka, a suburb of Damascus. The cause of the explosion was a car bomb. According to LA Times, people had gathered to honour a resident of the town who had been killed by gunfire when government troops had stormed Zamalka. The car bomb went off as the procession passed a mosque. Social media claim that the blast was caused by a suicide belt attached to the dead body of a suicide bomber, for whom the funeral procession was held, is not substantiated with facts. According to media reports, the video in question is of 2012, and from Zamalka in Syria, where a car bomb caused the explosion during the last rites of a resident. Arjun Sidharth is a writer with Alt News. He has previously worked in the television news industry, where he managed news bulletins and breaking news scenarios, apart from scripting numerous prime time television stories. He has also been actively involved with various freelance projects. Sidharth has studied economics, political science, international relations and journalism. He has a keen interest in books, movies, music, sports, politics, foreign policy, history and economics. His hobbies include reading, watching movies and indoor gaming. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	13th June 2019 / 7:45 am / Last updated: 13th June 2019	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/muslims-hold-funeral-procession-for-suicide-bomber-no-unrelated-2012-video-from-syria-viral/", "author": "Arjun Sidharth" }
2,029	Muslims in Jhansi tortured by Hindus? Old video shared with a false communal angle - Alt News Jignesh Patel 25th May 2019 / 8:08 pm / Last updated: 25th May 2019 A video of a woman, who is seen wailing with a bloodied mouth, has been shared in the Pakistani social media ecosystem. Facebook Page Pakistani Defence Command has shared the video with a communally charged message –“Endian Hindus are entering Muslim’s Homes and killing them for no Reason. Here a Muslim sister calling us for help. This is Muslims life in Endia. My dear sister we will take your Revenge. Dear Pakistanio Pls Value your PakArmy who are protecting u from these Hindus since 70yrs.” The message suggests that Hindus in India are arbitrarily killing Muslims. It is being claimed that this Indian Muslim woman seen in the video is desperately calling out for help. There is also a narration in the background, which suggests that this incident took place at Barau Sagar in Jhansi district, UP. Endian Hindus are entering Muslim’s Homes and killing them for no Reason. Here a Muslim sister calling us for help. This is Muslims life in Endia. My dear sister we will take your Revenge. Dear Pakistanio Pls Value your PakArmy who are protecting u from these Hindus since 70yrs. Posted by Pakistan Defence Command on Thursday, 23 May 2019 Few other individual users on Facebook and Twitter had shared the video with an identical narrative. Hubaib Yousefzai, a Twitter handle based out of Pakistan had earlier tweeted the same video, which now stands deleted. Alt News found that the video is actually from Telangana and NOT Jhansi. It’s a 2018 video related to an incident in which a sub-inspector was caught on camera beating his wife and mother-in-law. “The incident happened at his residence where the victim had gone to confront him over his alleged illicit relationship with another woman”, stated a Times Now report published on August 31, 2018. At 0:56 minutes in the video below, the corresponding visuals of a wailing woman can be seen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_R0c5AtTBs This video was earlier debunked by The Print. An old and unrelated video of domestic violence, over an alleged extramarital affair, was circulated in Pakistani social media ecosystem in order to portray the state of minorities in India. Jignesh is a writer and researcher at Alt News. He has a knack for visual investigation with a major interest in fact-checking videos and images. He has completed his Masters in Journalism from Gujarat University. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	25th May 2019 / 8:08 pm / Last updated: 25th May 2019	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/muslims-in-jhansi-tortured-by-hindus-old-video-shared-with-a-false-communal-angle/", "author": "Jignesh Patel" }
2,030	Muslims thrashed Brahmin in West Bengal? Old video, false claim - Alt News Pooja Chaudhuri 2nd May 2019 / 9:30 pm / Last updated: 24th March 2021 A video of a crowd of people thrashing a man dressed in white is being circulated on social media with the claim that a man was attacked for performing Puja at his home in West Bengal. “It is dangerous to even perform Puja at home in West Bengal. A man who follows Sanatana Dharma performed aarti at home and was beaten on the streets in front of his daughter,” reads the viral message. बंगाल में घर में भी पूजा अर्चना करना खतरा है, सनातनी ने अपने ही घर में आरती की, तो बेटी के सामने खींचकर बीच सड़क पर पीटा, इतना रीट्वीट करें की बंगाल ही नहीं देश के हर व्यक्ति तक पहुंचे🙏#कितनी_पीढ़ियों_तक_आरक्षण@BJP4India@AmitShah @narendramodi @BJP4Bengall pic.twitter.com/pvp6E1mfzE — विपिन शर्मा🇮🇳 (@Bipin_Hindu) March 21, 2021 [Translated from: बंगाल में घर में भी पूजा अर्चना करना खतरा है, सनातनी ने अपने ही घर में आरती की, तो बेटी के सामने खींचकर बीच सड़क पर पीटा, इतना रीट्वीट करें की बंगाल ही नहीं देश के हर व्यक्ति तक पहुंचे.] The video has also been shared on Facebook. The same clip was shared in April 2019 with the claim that a Brahmin was beaten in West Bengal and this is common in Muslim dominated areas. “Muslims beating one Brahman in WB in front of his daughter. During Pooja in his house, the bell sound should not be heard by anybody. This is common in West Bengal in Muslim dominated areas. No media is covering the atrocities on Hindus. Whereas human rights wings are crying for shelter of Rohangya [Rohingya] Muslims in India,” was the caption used to share the video. On Twitter, the same incident recorded from a different angle was in circulation. Muslims beating one Brahman in WB in front of his daughter . During Pooja in his house , the bell sound should not heard by any body. This is common in West Bengal in Muslim dominated areas. No media is covering the atrocities on Hindus.Whereas human rights wings pic.twitter.com/FxH49K4XZQ — देशभक्त हिन्दू (@Sarvesh77479109) April 30, 2019 The identical video has been doing social media for the last four years. It was also shared in 2018. The claim that a Brahmin was beaten by Muslims to stop him from praying is false. The message was debunked by the Kolkata police in a series of tweets when it was viral in 2017. According to the police’s statement, the man was a Hindu priest who allegedly molested a woman and was manhandled by her family as a consequence. A video posted on Youtube two years ago shows moments before the priest was thrashed. Here, he can be seen attempting to allegedly molest the woman. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knXgczWx8Yo&feature=youtu.be The viral video was debunked by The Quint and Boomlive in 2017. A man was beaten by the family members of the woman he allegedly attempted to harass. A video of the incident was revived on social media with the false claim that members of the Muslim community attacked a Brahmin in West Bengal, thus, giving the incident a communal angle. If one carefully listens to the men conversing in the video, one of them can be heard saying in Bengali that the priest had misbehaved with his ‘bou ma’, which could either mean wife or daughter-in-law. The upcoming elections in West Bengal have given rise to a deluge of misinformation mostly trying to paint the false picture that the state is unsafe for the Hindu community under the TMC government. Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The CCTV footage of a man violently flinging a child on the ground has created… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… A minute-long video clip of a woman being physically assaulted is viral on social media….	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	2nd May 2019 / 9:30 pm / Last updated: 24th March 2021	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/muslims-thrashed-brahman-in-west-bengal-no-old-video-false-claim/", "author": "Pooja Chaudhuri" }
2,031	Video: A journalism student's bold take on Demonetisation - Alt News Pratik Sinha 26th February 2017 / 8:15 pm / Last updated: 26th February 2017 Kartavya Khanna, a journalism student of Jagran College of Management and Mass Communication, spoke about the issue of demonetisation in a college program. In his speech, he highlighted how the policy that was thrust upon the people of India on November 8th has been a failure on multiple fronts. He spoke about how not a single cent has been given in form of compensation for all the people who died due to demonetisation, how when multiple families were struggling for cash for the weddings in their families with many having to cancel their weddings, some BJP leaders had lavish weddings for their offsprings. He also spoke about how demonetisation has failed in its stated aims of stalling terrorism and separatism in Kashmir. In this day and age of WhatsApp based propaganda, it is heartening to watch young voices speak out in a discerning fashion on such issues when even adults seem to have lost their sense of judgement. It will soon be four months since demonetisation was announced and we still do not have an official figure from RBI as to how many of the banned 500-1000 notes were deposited. Many media reports have stated that a majority (97%) of the banned notes have come back into the system. If these media reports are to be believed, then after an exercise which is expected to cause a 1-2% drop in GDP, had a huge adverse impact on the informal sector with many daily wagers losing their jobs, caused the deaths of dozens of people, especially senior citizens, and brought untold misery to people in rural areas which have much less density of banks and ATMs as compared to urban areas, what has the country gained? And while this wrecking ball was being swung at the people of this country, every second day, the Government would announce a new objective of demonetisation, every few hours RBI would change its policies, thus giving further credence to the belief that the Government undertook this exercise purely with political dividends in mind and without any planning. Co-Founder Alt News, I can be reached via E-mail at [email protected] and on Facebook at https://fb.com/freethinker. Follow @free_thinker Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	26th February 2017 / 8:15 pm / Last updated: 26th February 2017	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/must-watch-journalism-students-bold-take-demonetisation/", "author": "Pratik Sinha" }
2,032	My Nation spreads fake news about "Rahul Gandhi stumped by a 14-year-old girl" in Dubai - Alt News Alt News Desk 13th January 2019 / 9:25 pm / Last updated: 15th January 2019 “Rahul Gandhi dumbfounded in Dubai by little girl’s questions” reads the headline of a story on the ‘My Nation’ portal. The article claims that during Rahul Gandhi’s recent visit to Dubai, a 14-year old girl asked him two questions that stumped him. According to the article, the questions embarrassed the Congress President who “dismissed it with a smile” and the live telecast was cut by Congress. The write-up says that the first question she asked “was on how Rahul Gandhi, who speaks about how caste distinction is rampant, embraced Hinduism while applying ashes on his forehead in Gujarat and wore the kufis (traditional cap that Muslims wear) while visiting Kashmir.”, whereas the second question asked to the Congress president was, “Congress prides itself for having ruled India for several decades. The welfare and development that were not achieved then, will be done now?” The article by My Nation has no accompanying video to back its claim. Quite predictably, the article was soon found circulating on social media. Notable among those who shared it was additional RBI director, Gurumurthy who has a penchant for falling for hoaxes. The fake news website Postcard News was also at the forefront sharing the news. The Postcard News article titled, “Deadly Dubai” made the same claim of the broadcast being stopped because Rahul Gandhi could not answer a 14-year old girl. Alt News found that the claim originated from a Tamil website and was picked up by My Nation followed by Postcard News and Rightlog. A picture of a young girl was circulated in all the articles and in social media posts. Using reverse image search, Alt News found that the picture of the girl was taken from a 3 year old Youtube video titled, “SAVE GIRL CHILD Powerful Speech by SIDDHI BAGWE”. According to the description, this video was shot at St. Joseph’s High School in Vikhroli, a suburb of Mumbai. The My Nation article stated that at a convention, Rahul Gandhi “addressed the crowd and was all set to take on questions from the public. A 14-year old lifted her hand….“. Alt News found that Rahul Gandhi addressed one public event at a stadium and two other events in which he spoke to university students in one and the workers at the Labour camp in another one. In the event at the stadium, he made a speech and took no questions while in his interaction with university students, he first took questions from the students and then addressed them briefly towards the end of the event. In his interaction at the labour camp, he addressed the audience and then heard grievances of the people attending the meeting. His interaction with the Indian diaspora at the stadium was broadcast live and is also available on video. In this interaction, Rahul Gandhi doesn’t take any questions from the audience, and walks away at the end of his speech. The only evidence of interaction with the audience is when he refers to a woman from Andhra Pradesh, who might have been in the audience, and promises to give special status to Andhra Pradesh if Congress is voted to power. LIVE: Congress President @RahulGandhi addresses Indian diaspora in Dubai. #RahulGandhiInDubai https://t.co/HKtxhaZnzZ — Congress (@INCIndia) January 11, 2019 The second interaction that Rahul Gandhi had was with university students at IMT Dubai University. During this interaction, Rahul Gandhi took questions from the students, and addressed the students briefly. The whole event was broadcasted live, without any interruption, and the questions from the 14-year-old girl as claimed in the My Nation article did not feature in this session. LIVE: CP @RahulGandhi interacts with students at IMT Dubai University. #RahulGandhiWithDubaiStudents https://t.co/vQCzfm3F4F — Congress (@INCIndia) January 12, 2019 The third interaction at the Labour camp did not feature any questions from any 14-year-old girl either. Congress President @RahulGandhi was greeted with loud cheers & an abundance of love & admiration at his address to the labour community in Dubai.#RahulGandhiInUAEhttps://t.co/U81GFhwKnc — Congress (@INCIndia) January 11, 2019 All the events were covered extensively by the media, however, there was neither a video of the 14 year old girl asking questions nor any mention of it in any credible media publication. Even though in the absence of a supporting video, the claim would seem to be prima facie false, Alt News decided to investigate it further. Alt News spoke to two journalists who covered Rahul Gandhi’s Dubai trip and were present at all his public interactions. Elvis Chummar, who heads Jai Hind Middle East was one such journalist. He told us that this is “100% fake news”. Raju Mathew from Manorama also denied that any such question was raised. Later, ‘My Nation’ updated the story to add a new sentence – “During a private event where Rahul Gandhi interacted with children…”. The backup of the older version of the story can be found here. However there was no such event that included interaction with children in Rahul Gandhi’s itinerary. There were only three interactions – with workers in a labour camp, with University students and the public event at the cricket stadium. The misleading claim continues to be viral on social media with many pro BJP handles sharing it with an identical narrative, with the editor of My Nation, Abhijit Majumder himself tweeting the claim. Others who tweeted this claim include Ashutosh Muglikar who’s a contributor to OpIndia and Gaurav Pradhan who we have shown has put out misinformation multiple times in the past. BREAKING: Rahul Gandhi dumbfounded in Dubai with little girl’s questions \| ⁦@PratibaRaman⁩ in ⁦@MyNation#RahulGandhiPressMeet https://t.co/Qky2I006rA — Abhijit Majumder (@abhijitmajumder) January 12, 2019 14 Year Old Girl Stuns Rahul Gandhi in Dubai ! Live Relay stopped by Congress IT Team ! Embarassment ! Questions asked: 1) You Claim India has become communal,but during Gujarat Elections u visited temples with Vibhooti & In Kashmir With Skull Cap,isn’t that communal? Cont.. pic.twitter.com/UEbzOAmPM1 — maniangopi 🇮🇳 (@maniangopi) January 12, 2019 We have seen in the past several instances of political propaganda when cropped or doctored videos are shared to push a false narrative. It is surprising that this time even in the absence of a supporting video, a large number of social media handles including a RBI director, are willing to believe and share a news that is outright fake. Update (14/01/2019): After the Alt News article was published, Abhijit Majumder, editor of My Nation, tweeted that their article had been updated with a statement from Arathi Krishna, who is the Secretary of Indian Overseas Congress, suggesting that the questions were asked and that Rahul Gandhi responded to them. However, Arathi Krishna, refuted this claim via a tweet from her Twitter account and stated that she had been misquoted and that no such questions were asked. I have been misquoted. I’d like to reiterate, no such question was asked at the interaction. @INCIndia @INCOverseas https://t.co/4rNPrDhfKy — Dr Arathi Krishna (@arathikrishna68) January 14, 2019 Follow @free_thinker Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	13th January 2019 / 9:25 pm / Last updated: 15th January 2019	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/my-nation-spreads-fake-news-about-rahul-gandhi-stumped-by-a-14-year-old-girl-in-dubai/", "author": "Alt News Desk" }
2,033	MyNation reports Pak army training video as soldiers punished for desertion - Alt News Jignesh Patel 13th March 2019 / 5:45 pm / Last updated: 18th March 2019 Major Surendra Poonia, an Indian army veteran, tweeted a video of personnel in military uniform thrashing a group of blindfolded men, whose hands are tied behind their back, with a cane. Tweeting the video, he claimed that these were the Pakistan army’s Special Service Group (SSG) commandos flogging the “Baloch freedom fighters in Mand Area of Kech District in Pakistan”. At the the press-time, it has been retweeted close to 6,000 times. (UPDATE: Major Poonia has now deleted his video, a screenshot of which can be seen below and archived version is available here.) On March 12, My Nation published a report titled, “‘Peace loving’ Pakistan assaults its own security force”. The article based on the same video said, “A video accessed by MyNation shows atrocity of Pakistan Army Special Service Group (SSG) who can be seen brutally thrashing soldiers of Pakistan Frontier Corps who deserted their posts and fled away after the Baloch Republic Army (BRA) soldiers attacked them”. According to the report, soldiers of the Baloch Republic Army had attacked the Pakistani army outpost on February 27, 2019, raising slogans against the Pakistani army after which the soldiers of the Pakistan Frontier Corps fled the location. The narrative propagated by My Nation suggests that the video pertains to an incident of the soldiers of Pakistan Frontiers Corps fleeing the camp on February 27. Alt News found that these are Pakistan’s SSG personnel training other soliders under a torture-proofing exercise. We did a YouTube search with keywords, “SSG commando training”, and found the same video titled, “Pak Army SSG training” posted on February 5, 2019. While the My Nation report claims that the video is related to an incident of Pakistani soldiers being thrashed after they deserted the army on February 27, the same video has been available on YouTube atleast since February 5, 2019. Thus, the core assertion in My Nation’s article is false. Watching the video frame-by-frame, one can see the word “instructor” written on the back of the t-shirt of one of the personnel, further indicating that this is a training process. The slow motion video can be seen below. The attire worn by the soldiers is also a give away that these are NOT Baloch freedom fighters, but Pakistani army soldiers. Moreover, there are several videos available on YouTube where the SSG commandos can be seen tortured by a group of army personnel in a training module called Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape (SERE). A reportage of Express News, an Urdu News channel also explains about the torture resistance training given to the Pakistani army soldiers. At 7:20 mins in the video below, he can be heard talking about the survival skills imparted in their training module. Video of Pakistani army’s SSG training with their own personnel was passed off as Pakistani army soldiers thrashing Baloch freedom fighters. In the past as well, Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir had shared a video of the same training module as of the Indian army flogging Kashmiri civilians. Jignesh is a writer and researcher at Alt News. He has a knack for visual investigation with a major interest in fact-checking videos and images. He has completed his Masters in Journalism from Gujarat University. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	13th March 2019 / 5:45 pm / Last updated: 18th March 2019	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/mynation-reports-pak-army-training-video-as-soldiers-punished-for-desertion/", "author": "Jignesh Patel" }
2,034	Controversial Krishna cartoon wasn't designed by Myntra but third party 5 years ago - Alt News Priyanka Jha 25th August 2021 / 4:57 pm Kalpana Srivastava, national president of the Shankaracharya Gurukul Trust, tweeted a controversial cartoon and claimed it was designed by e-commerce website Myntra. It depicts the disrobing of Draupadi, a character from the Indian epic ‘Mahabharata’. In the picture, Krishna is shown searching for a long saree on the Myntra website. It is claimed that the e-commerce website mocked Hinduism by displaying such an image on its site. Users are sharing the image calling for a boycott of the platform. (Archive link) ..@myntra क्या आपमें अन्य धर्मों के पूज्य देवताओं की छवियों का गलत उपयोग करके एक समान अभियान करने की हिम्मत है? यदि नहीं तो माफी मांगें और इसे अपने सभी प्लेटफॉर्म से हटा दें अन्यथा हम #BoycottMyntra और जिस कर्मचारी ने यह बनाया है उसके ख़िलाफ़ FIR के लिए तैयार हो जाएं। pic.twitter.com/xuDtJyK80B — कल्पना श्रीवास्तव 🇮🇳 (@Lawyer_Kalpana) August 23, 2021 One such tweet by @Chopdasaab was liked by over 4,000 handles. The user has written that he has uninstalled the Myntra app from his phone and mentions that he will not be buying from the platform in the future. (Archive link) Several other handles have also demanded a boycott of Myntra while circulating the image, including prominent accounts like @Nimki_911, @VaaNi0094, and @HinduTreasure. It is being widely circulated with the hashtag #BoycottMyntra. One Shejal Joshi, who describes herself as a BJP worker, also shared the viral image along with another screenshot that showed her deleting the Myntra app from her phone. (Archive link) A keyword search on Google about this clears the air. According to a Times of India story from August 26, 2016, this image was originally posted online in 2015. However, it had nothing to do with Myntra and was actually made by an advertising website named ScrollDroll. Following the controversy and flak that the graphic was generating, ScrollDroll apologized and quickly took it down. In a tweet from August 2016, ScrollDroll clarified that the artwork had nothing to do with Myntra. The tweet read, “We take responsibility for this artwork. Myntra has nothing to do with this directly or indirectly.” Myntra also quote-tweeted the post, adding that neither did it create this graphic and nor would it endorse such art. We did not create this artwork nor do we endorse this. https://t.co/EWyWUEsky5 — Myntra (@myntra) August 26, 2016 Myntra had explained in a Twitter thread that the graphic was created by a third party without the knowledge and approval of the company. There was also talk of the e-commerce platform taking legal action in the matter. Following this, ScrollDroll issued an apology via Twitter for hurting religious sentiments. We apologize and deeply regret if any of our artwork has hurt the sentiments of anyone. — ScrollDroll (@ScrollDroll) August 25, 2016 To sum it up, a caricature already taken down after generating widespread controversy in 2016 is being circulated again with a call to boycott Myntra. She specializes in information verification, examining mis/disinformation, social media monitoring and platform accountability. Her aim is to make the internet a safer place and enable people to become informed social media users. She has been a part of Alt News since 2018. In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The CCTV footage of a man violently flinging a child on the ground has created… A minute-long video clip of a woman being physically assaulted is viral on social media…. Trigger Warning: The following story contains graphic imagery. Several users have shared images of the… The brutal murder of Shraddha Walker has been widely covered across news media over the…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	25th August 2021 / 4:57 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/myntra-didnt-make-controversial-graphic-krishna-draupadi-disrobing/", "author": "Priyanka Jha" }
2,035	Mysterious apocalyptic planet spotted in the sky? No, old hoax video viral - Alt News Archit 20th March 2020 / 4:45 pm On March 19, Alt News received several requests to fact-check a 45-second video on WhatsApp (+91 76000 11160) and on our official Android application. This was shared with the text, “It was seen in the skies of iraq today & peopel were crying & scared thinking the end of the world is near.” The viral video, which is also circulating on Twitter and Facebook, shows a planetary object or a moon rotating next to a circular rainbow. Throughout the video, we can hear people scream in terror. It was seen in the skies of iraq today & peopel were crying & scared thinking the end of the world is near pic.twitter.com/dO0A1hHWn2 — Hasan Ahmad Qasmi (@hasanqasmi) March 16, 2020 A Twitter user posted the viral video and claimed it is from Uttar Pradesh. Alt News received an app request where it was suggested that the clip was shot in “Jalalpur Ambedkar Nagar”. A Facebook user shared the viral video along with Gujarati text, “Today in the skies of Iraq, strange structures were seen and people started crying for fear that this was the beginning of the end of the world! [Translated from આજે ઇરાકની આકાશમાં વિચિત્ર રચનાઓ જોવા મળી હતી અને લોકો ડરતા ડરતા રડવાનું શરૂ કરતાં વિચાર્યું કે આ વિશ્વના અંતની શરૂઆત છે!]” Another Facebook user shared the viral video with the same claim in Hindi [viral text in Hindi हाल ही में इराक में आसमान में, अजीब संरचनाएं देखी गईं और लोग डर से रोने लगे, कि यह दुनिया के अंत की शुरुआत है!]. Alt News found that the same clip was uploaded on YouTube in 2017 however, there are no screams in the background. This suggests that the voices of people panicking were superimposed to the clip. According to the title, the video shows a ‘mysterious planet Nibiru.’ However, this is not an actual event but related to a popular doomsday theory debunked by NASA in 2017. Using InVid, a video verification tool, Alt News analysed the viral video by performing a reverse image search on Yandex. We found a 2018 report by Turn Back Hoax, an Indonesia-based fact-check platform. The outlet debunked the video when several people claimed to post a ‘Facebook live’ of the event. As per Turn Back Hoax, the video was created using clips that already existed on the internet. “One of them is published in Youtube here: https://goo.gl/ebNMBm, about “Planet Nibiru” conspiracy theories,” reads the report. The YouTube video is however unavailable now. Turn Back Hoax also cites a 2017 article from The Telegraph which said, “Planet X, or Nibiru, refers to a mythological planet in our solar system that will supposedly crash into Earth and wipe out the human race, however it has been consistently dismissed by Nasa and other experts as an internet hoax.” NASA republished an article around the conspiracy theories in 2012. “The biggest missing link in the doomsday prophecy is Nibiru itself. Because no giant, rogue planet has been found in the outer solar system to play the role of Nibiru…” reads the article which also quotes NASA’s David Morrison: “The fact is that these folks are constantly changing their story. For some, Nibiru is no longer the Sumerian god or planet that is supposed to be returning to Earth in late 2012. It has become a catchword for almost any cosmic catastrophe.” Therefore, the claims that the viral video is from Iraq or shows a catastrophic planet is false. If you are interested in knowing more about the conspiracy theory, watch the YouTube by The Infographics Show attached below. 🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023. Following Saudi Arabia’s 2-1 win against Argentina in the ongoing FIFA World Cup, speculation about… Trigger Warning: The following story contains graphic imagery. Several users have shared images of the… The brutal murder of Shraddha Walker has been widely covered across news media over the… A 1:34-minute-long CCTV camera clip is being widely circulated on social media in which viewers… The teaser of a movie titled ‘The Kerala Story’ is being widely shared on social…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	20th March 2020 / 4:45 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/mysterious-apocalyptic-planet-spotted-in-the-sky-no-old-hoax-video-viral/", "author": "Archit" }
2,036	A mysterious Twitter hacker to the rescue after embarrassing tweets - Complete list - Alt News Alt News Desk 10th August 2017 / 6:56 pm “My Twitter account got hacked” is the new “The dog ate my homework”. Social media accounts have a habit of getting hacked just before a controversial post. In some cases, almost magically, they are also instantly restored after the tweet. And sometimes, the ‘mischievous’ tweets get deleted before the ‘victim’ gets back access to the account. Recently, in a shocking attempt of victim shaming, the twitter handle of BJP spokesperson, Shaina NC posted a misleading photograph of the victim of the Chandigarh stalking incident. As the outrage against the post built up, Shaina claimed that her account was hacked. Requests to substantiate the claim with a copy of the restoration email from twitter went unanswered. Just gt access back to my account; some mischievous folks had hacked the account. Please ignore any activity on my account of past few hours — ShainaNC (@ShainaNC) August 7, 2017 Please post a screenshot of the email sent by Twitter after you recovered your supposedly hacked account. https://t.co/2t0iRmrb34 — Pratik Sinha (@free_thinker) August 7, 2017 Shaina is not alone when it comes to claims of account being hacked. Alt News has compiled an interesting list of some other notable instances. Much earlier in 2013, BJP leader Meenakshi Lekhi’s account mysteriously tweeted the last name of the victim of the sexual assault case involving former Tehelka editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal. As reported by DNA, Lekhi initially admitted her mistake and apologized but later denied her statement. She claimed her account was hacked. In April 2017, the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia’s twitter account retweeted a few tweets calling Anna Hazare a BJP agent and a fraud. Hazare had earlier blamed Arvind Kejriwal for the poor performance of the Aam Admi Party in the Delhi civic polls. It was a unique “hacking” situation where Sisodia had access to his account and was able to tweet that his account was hacked but was unable to delete the offensive tweets. My account hacked. Someone retweeting anti Anna Hazare messages from account. Trying to delete them, not even getting deleted. 1/N — Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) April 29, 2017 Pls don't believe them. I have greatest respect for Anna ji. Can never say such things against him. Pls don't believe them. 2/N — Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) April 29, 2017 Those who have been around on twitter for long enough know of this famous case where the twitter handle of the veteran right wing journalist Kanchan Gupta posted a porn link. #RightWing #Journalist posted #Porn link no doubt real news is not getting due attention #Shame on @KanchanGupta pic.twitter.com/ZiQZ1iqqiW — Wolverine (@quuuu2) August 16, 2014 Of course everyone believed Kanchan Gupta that it was not him but twitter doing “amazing things” with his account. It is not always the hacker, you see. The twitter onslaught against Arun Jaitley by BJP MP Kirti Azad’s account went viral in December 2015. The handle tweeted, “I was visited at home by so many agencies to take precaution against threat to my life. Dear @arunjaitley darta nahin hoon napunsako se.” Just as speculation about the rift between the two went viral, came the anticlimax. Kirti Azad claimed his account was hacked. My A/C is hacked statement on @arunjaitley as napunsak is not my tweet — Kirti Azad (@KirtiAzadMP) December 21, 2015 Cricketer Suresh Raina also had a similar moment with an unsportsmanlike tweet. A tweet from Raina’s account mocked the Pakistan cricket team after they were ousted from the tournament after losing a semi-final against Sri Lanka: “Ek do din late gaye ghar !!!! Woh bhi besharam ki tarah Gaye… Bye bye Pakistan!!!!” After it was condemned widely on Twitter, Raina deleted the tweet and blamed his nephew. Smart phones r dangerous. Discovered it last night after my nephew posted random tweets. I'm a sportsman and would never disrespect. — Suresh Raina (@ImRaina) October 5, 2012 More recently, just two weeks ago, the Twitter handle of the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) retweeted an anti-Congress post. Many similar cases have surfaced in recent times when the social media team member handling the account mistakenly tweets from the official government handle instead of his personal account. In this case however, IGIA claimed they were hacked. The airport apologized and claimed that its handle was “subjected to a hacker attack”. Interestingly, like in the case of Shaina NC, the alleged “hacker” tweeted only one inappropriate post which was removed and the account recovered, all in a matter of minutes. Our clarification. pic.twitter.com/yDjAxG1hAO — Delhi Airport (@Delhi_Airport) July 25, 2017 We hope you enjoyed the collection. No, we are not insinuating anyone of any wrongdoing. Dogs are known to have eaten homework. Nephews and interns are known to have tweeted from people’s accounts. Twitter is known to have done amazing things. It is not impossible. Follow @free_thinker Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	10th August 2017 / 6:56 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/mysterious-twitter-hacker-rescue-embarrassing-tweets-complete-list/", "author": "Alt News Desk" }
2,037	Mystery of the beard: Did Zee News play morphed footage of Bharat bandh protests? - Alt News Alt News Desk 7th April 2018 / 8:05 pm / Last updated: 11th July 2018 A collage of two photographs is currently viral on social media. The photographs were taken during the violence that followed the recent Bharat Bandh called by Dalit organizations to protest Supreme Court’s dilution of the provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Both photographs show the same man with a gun but his beard is longer in the image from Zee TV as compared to the image of NDTV. Many social media users have suggested that the image has been photoshopped to show a visibly Muslim looking man holding a gun. What is the truth behind these images? Let us find out…. तेल देखिये और तेल की धार देखिये…. @ndtv से @ZeeNews के स्टूडियो में ख़बर पहुंचते पहुंचते इस व्यक्ति की दाढ़ी इतनी बढ़ गयी कि आप मुस्लिम बोलकर गाली दे सकें…बाकी सब खैरियत है….!!pic.twitter.com/OlPmJyIKyM — काकावाणी (@AliSohrab007) April 6, 2018 Alt News accessed the footage from various channels to uncover the truth behind the images. Zee used the video of the same person multiple times across different shows. In all of these broadcasts, the person is circled and his picture is zoomed in. From one of the videos, we took a screen-grab which can be seen below. The timestamp on the top left has been added programmatically and isn’t present in the original footage. In case of NDTV and ABP, they have also used the same base video as Zee News did. However, the moment the clip is frozen and zoomed in, the longer beard as it could be seen in the Zee News video cannot be seen here. In case of CNN-IBN, atleast in the tweet that they posted online, they do not freeze the video. This person who is being zoomed-in in the above channels namely NDTV, Zee and ABP is visible in the first 2 seconds of the video below. Also, in the CNN IBN footage, immediately after this person who’s the focus of the story is seen, Raja Singh Chauhan who allegedly fire shots in Gwalior can be seen. #BREAKING — #DalitProtests takes an ugly turn in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh; Man fires gunshots amid protests #BharatBandh LIVE UPDATES: https://t.co/3vTX82rHsN pic.twitter.com/CybwgmpXxG — News18 (@CNNnews18) April 2, 2018 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Since CNN-IBN’s video was closest to the original without any special effects, we used this to analyze the issue by splitting the video into multiple frames (60 frames per second). What we found was that in case of the CNN-IBN video, the person in various frames seemed to have beards of varying lengths. As can be seen in the below collage, in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 6th frame, the person’s beard doesn’t appear to be long. However, in the 4th and 5th frame, the person’s beard appears to be much longer. In the base video used by CNN-IBN, possibly because of a glitch in videography and because of camera’s shutter speed, there are a few frames wherein the person appears to have a longer beard than he actually does. However, in rest of the frames, the person’s actual size of the beard can be clearly seen. When we converted Zee News’s videos into individual frames (15 frames per second), we saw that the frames in which this person’s beard appears normal are absent in their video. Instead, they have chosen the frame where the person appears to have a longer beard and zoomed into that particular frame. So does the man have a short beard as shown by NDTV or a longer beard as shown by Zee News? Has the image been photoshopped by one of the channels? The answer is that Zee News hasn’t manipulated the image as alleged. All the channels including Zee News have used the same base video. However, Zee News chose to freeze their video on the frame when a distorted image of the person with a longer beard can be seen. In conclusion, Zee News did not photoshop/manipulate/morph the footage. The image with the longer beard is part of the base video. However, the reason as to why they chose to freeze the video and focus on a distorted version of the image cannot be ascertained. It is impossible to tell whether this was deliberate or simply a case of poor editing. Follow @free_thinker Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	7th April 2018 / 8:05 pm / Last updated: 11th July 2018	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/mystery-of-the-beard-did-zee-news-play-morphed-footage-of-bharat-bandh-protests/", "author": "Alt News Desk" }
2,038	Mystery of the 'third hand' in Rahul Gandhi's image embracing elderly woman in INC ad - Alt News Pooja Chaudhuri 8th April 2019 / 4:03 pm / Last updated: 8th April 2019 Delhi BJP spokesperson Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga tweeted a recent Congress advertisement of the minimum income guarantee scheme and raised doubts about a “third hand” visible in the photograph (archive). The ad showcased Rahul Gandhi embracing an elderly woman. At the extreme right of the image, an unidentified hand can be seen near the woman’s waist. “ये तीसरा हाथ किसका है Rahul Gandhi ji i told u yesterday na, Hire Good PR,” tweeted the BJP spokesperson. ABP News journalist Vikas Bhaudauria also raised doubts about the “third hand”. BJP minister Smriti Irani replied to Bhaudauria tweet saying that Congress’s “sleight of hand” depicts the party’s corrupt mindset. “जब इशतहार में ही ‘ sleight of hand ‘ नज़र आए तो विचार करें CONgress की भ्रष्ट मानसिकता की जड़ें कितनी गहरी हैं (When advertisement itself has a “sleight of hand”, one can only imagine how deeply corrupt is Congress’s mindset.)” read her tweet (archive). जब इशतहार में ही ‘ sleight of hand ‘ नज़र आए तो विचार करें CONgress की भ्रष्ट मानसिकता की जड़ें कितनी गहरी हैं । — Chowkidar Smriti Z Irani (@smritiirani) April 8, 2019 Co-incharge of BJP’s National Literature Department Vikas Preetam quote-tweeted Bhaudauria tweet. The photograph used by Congress for the advertisement of NYAY (Nyuntam Aay Yojana) is part of a larger image where several other people are visible in the background. Keeping the focus on Gandhi and the old woman, the background was blurred out in the picture used in the advertisement. The photograph was tweeted by Congress in 2015. Snapshots from Rahul Gandhi’s visit to flood affected areas of Tamil Nadu & Puducherry, yesterday (2/4) pic.twitter.com/kA4Qq320D9 — Congress (@INCIndia) December 9, 2015 Social media claims regarding the authenticity of the image are, thus, misleading. The photograph is from an actual interaction during Rahul Gandhi’s visit to flood-affected areas of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry in 2015. The background has been blurred but the man’s hand was not cropped by Congress before publishing the picture as an ad for NYAY. Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	8th April 2019 / 4:03 pm / Last updated: 8th April 2019	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/mystery-of-the-third-hand-in-rahul-gandhis-image-embracing-elderly-woman-in-inc-ad/", "author": "Pooja Chaudhuri" }
2,039	Politics of the cow - what emboldens the lynch mobs? - Alt News Sam Jawed 9th April 2017 / 11:59 pm / Last updated: 27th June 2017 Gaumata, Gau raksha, beef ban… In the 70 years since independence, never has the country been so obsessed with all things bovine than it is today with BJP in power. From banning the sale of beef in some states to cow cess in others, the humble cow has dominated the headlines like never before. In a country where women’s safety is still a challenge, a new bill in Gujarat makes cow slaughter punishable with a life sentence. The priorities are clear. Gau-raksha is the new Hindutva project. With a BJP government in the Center, the cow vigilantes are on a rampage with a brazenness never seen before. These vigilantes are not part of some secret society that operates clandestinely. They are proud members of one of the many Gau Raksha Dals. They have ID cards. They have facebook pages with thousands of likes. They upload videos of their raids. They have business cards with contact numbers where you can ring them to save cows. And most importantly, they have the blessings of the local politicians. There were many incidents of extortion in the name of Gau Raksha. In Punjab, cattle traders had come out against Satish Kumar, President, Gau Raksha Dal, Rajpura, Patiala district, alleging that he had extorted them in the name of cow protection. Ramesh Kumar Narang, a trader from Ludhiana, said that he faced nothing less than “terrorism” at the hands of Satish Kumar and his men. In a breakdown of law and order, gau-rakshaks have turned into extremist groups that roam the highways, extorting, harassing, assaulting and in the process, occasionally even killing cattle transporters. The recent attacks by vigilantes on men legally transporting cattle has prompted many BJP supporters to condemn the incident and ask for strict action. Many ask as to why there is no word from Mr. Modi himself? Little do they realise that how can he speak out when it his cow politics that is bearing fruit. Polarisation strategy Polarisation in the name of cow protection has been central to BJP brand of politics for many years now. Whipping up passions in the name of cow protection was an important part of PM Modi’s election speeches in the run up to the 2014 general elections. He spread an anti-beef hysteria with his speeches on the Pink revolution. The cow card was once again played in the Bihar elections when BJP released a cow protection advertisement attacking Nitish Kumar and others. This advertisement led EC to crack the whip and ban advertisements in newspapers on the fifth and final phase of Bihar polls without prior approval. Blessings from the top Vigilante groups for cow protection are not a recent phenomenon. It is the brazenness with which they are unleashing violence and delivering instance justice that is alarming. State sponsored Gau Raksha Dals flourished under Narendra Modi as the CM of Gujarat. As reported by Hindustan Times, “Between 2011 and 2014, the Gujarat government headed by Modi had disbursed Rs 75 lakhs in cash rewards to 1,394 vigilantes for raiding illegal cattle transporters and filing FIRs against them, the website of the government-run Gauseva and Gauchar Vikas Board (GGVB) states.” As many as 200 cow protection vigilante groups operate in Gujarat itself, many patronised and sheltered by local politicians. Another organisation, Rashtriya Goraksha Sena focuses on illegal cattle trade and has 2,700 members spread across 14 states. The hall of shame Let us look at a few incidents and see how the Gau Rakshaks operate with the blessings of the ruling party. Dadri The accused in the lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq had close connections with local BJP leaders. One of the accused, Vishal is the son a local BJP leader who is reportedly close to Union Minister of State for Culture and Tourism, Mahesh Sharma. Eight of the 11 accused named in the charge sheet are relatives of Sanjay Rana BJP MLA Sangeet Som accused the Uttar Pradesh govt of “appeasing” Muslims by framing innocent Hindus for the crime. He visited the families of those arrested for the lynching. When one of the accused, Ravi Sisodia died of renal failure in police custody his body was wrapped in the national flag by the family members. Union Minister for Culture Mahesh Sharma visited his family. It was clear where the sympathies of BJP lay. Till date many supporters grudge the compensation amount announced for Akhalq’s family by the Samajwadi party government. Jharkhand In the Jharkhand case, where two Muslim Jharkhand cattle herders were hanged, One of the accused was identified as Mithilesh Prasad Sahu, linked to the local Gou Kranti Manch, considered close to a local BJP leader. Gurgaon In yet another shocking incident, the Gurgaon GauRaksha Dal forced two Muslim cattle traders from Mewat region consume cow dung. The incident was filmed and the video went viral. Dharmendra Yadav of Gurgaon GauRaksha Dal proudly admitted that this was the work of his men. A quick glance at his facebook page shows many pictures with BJP leaders including BJP MP Anurag Thakur. Pratapgarh, Rajasthan A mob of around 150 people led by cow protection vigilante group Gau Raksha Samiti and members of Bajrang Dal, thrashed three alleged cow transporters and stripped one of them naked in BJP-ruled Rajasthan’s Pratapgarh district last year. By the time the incident was first reported in the papers, the police had managed to arrest all the seven victims and only one suspected assaulter. When more arrests were made, nearly 400 people, led by Gau Raksha Dal national president Sadhvi Kamal Didi, blocked National Highway for nearly eight hours on Monday, demanding release of five of their men. The district police gave in to their demands and transfer the station house officer (SHO) who had arrested five of the ‘vigilantes’. The same Kamal Didi was behind the shutting down of a Jaipur hotel recently for reportedly serving beef. In this case of near lynching, one of the perpetrators, identified himself as a BJP member and boasted of the attack on his Facebook page. Una The flogging of Dalits in Una for skinning a dead cow shocked the nation & led to widespread protests by Dalits in Gujarat. Pramodgiri Goswami, the Gir Somnath district chief of Shiv Sena and head of the local cow vigilante group was found to be a key conspirator of the attack. As per reports, he was also the one who recorded and shared the video of the attack. Telangana BJP MLA Raja Singh came out in defense of cow vigilantes in a video he posted on his Facebook page. “I support the beating of Dalits who slaughter cows to consume its meat. It is apt. I also support those who taught them a lesson”. BJP MLA Raja Singh supporting the beating of Dalits in Una BJP MLA Raja Singh supports the brutal thrashing of Dalits in Una in Gujarat while they were skinning a dead cow. He calls the victims of Una "galeez" (filthy) and appreciates the Gau Rakshaks for beating them up. He also states indirectly that the violent methods adopted by Gau Rakshaks should continue. Now do we call him fringe? He's a MLA! A person who is supposed to make laws is blatantly egging on people to use violent methods. Posted by Pratik Sinha on Sunday, July 31, 2016 It was the Una incident and the Dalit protests that finally prompted Mr. Modi to make a statement on cow vigilantism. He attempted to distance his party from the incidents of vigilantism, saying “Some people have been running a business the name of gau raksha. I feel so angry. “I have seen that some people who indulge in antisocial activities through the night put on robes of gau rakshaks by day”. It seemed that he nailed it when he said, “they don the robes of gau rakshaks to protect themselves from being punished for misdeeds” but in the absence of any action against his party men, these remained mere words. VHP Gujarat unit found Mr. Modi’s insulting to gau rakshaks. Others right wing organisations warned that “he will have to pay for it in the next Lok Sabha polls”. Not surprisingly, Modi’s statement was soon forgotten and the gau rakshaks carried on with their business. Alwar Once again, the case of murder of Pehlu Khan was marked by statements from BJP leaders that showed their hesitation to hold the vigilantes responsible. Even as the video of the attack went viral, BJP’s Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi denied the occurrence of any such incident. “Let this House not send a message that it supports cow slaughter”, he said in Parliament. Even though gau rakshaks showed complete disregard for the law and attacked the men who were transporting milch cows legally, GC Kataria, Rajasthan’s State Home Minister made a shocking statement that both parties have to be blamed. The gau raksha dals are examples of fringe groups that have become emboldened after BJP came to power. Several gau raksha bodies have become active in the recent years with cells at district, state and national levels. Manned largely by volunteers, they have a network of informers connected by WhatsApp groups. These gau raksha dals are united by the Sangh parivar ideology of preservation of Hindu culture. WhatsApp forwards constantly remind them of “Hindus under threat” and their duty towards protecting their culture. Not surprisingly, many volunteers of these gau raksha outfits are members of BJP and the leaders are often close to the local BJP leaders. Members of gau raksha dals boast of their achievements and flaunt pictures and videos of their atrocities on their social media pages with impunity. They have nothing to be scared of. Time and again, BJP leaders have spoken in their favour. Time and again, the first to get booked are the victims, that is if they survive.. Nobody's cheerleader, I tweet at @samjawed65 Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	9th April 2017 / 11:59 pm / Last updated: 27th June 2017	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/name-holy-cow-blessings-bjp/", "author": "Sam Jawed" }
2,040	NaMo App promotes fake news factory 'The India Eye' - Alt News Jignesh Patel & Pooja Chaudhuri 7th February 2019 / 4:59 pm / Last updated: 7th February 2019 Last month, a detailed investigative report by journalist Samarth Bansal made a discomforting revelation about India’s growing fake news problem and its direct link with the government. That the discovery was made during an election year makes it even more important and deserving of our attention. Bansal showed how misinformation thrives on PM Modi’s personal mobile application, NaMo App, which provides a built-in Twitter-esque network to its millions of users. However, unlike scrutiny of misinformation on other social media platforms, the content on Namo App stays off the radar. Misuse of social media for political one-upmanship isn’t a new phenomenon in this country. But the issue becomes even more problematic when the prime minister’s personal app promotes accounts infamous for sharing misinformation. The ‘My Network’ section of NaMo App houses 15 promoted and verified accounts, found Bansal. Among these is The India Eye. But here’s where the story gets interesting – users don’t enjoy the discretion to not see the content posted by this account (or by any other promoted account). Even if one chooses to unfollow The India Eye, its posts still appear on their ‘My Network’ feed. In the aftermath of the opposition’s Mahagathbandhan rally, this account attempted to portray Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal as more concerned about Pakistan than about India. “Pakistan will suffer if Modi comes into power” – this quote was ascribed to CM Kejriwal while The India Eye termed him “anti-national”. The post appeared in Hindi and its text read – “इस देश द्रोही को देश से अधिक पाकिस्तान की चिंता है महागठबंधन की रैली में कहता है मोदी दोबारा आ गया तो पाकिस्तान बर्बाद हो जायेगा\|” The India Eye’s claims were based on a doctored video that has been debunked by Alt News in the past. During his speech, the chief minister actually said, “It sends shivers down my spine to think that if these two come back to power in 2019, if Modi and Amit Shah are re-elected in 2019, then friends this country won’t survive. They will ruin this country.” The part where CM Kejriwal says “this country”, was changed to “Pakistan“. The above example is one among a plethora of misleading posts circulated by The India Eye. The India Eye isn’t merely a propaganda account on NaMo App. Its activities are widespread in the online world, including a Twitter account, a Facebook page, and websites. In September last year, Alt News had chronicled its trysts with misinformation on social media. During the course of our investigation, we found connections between a Gujarat-based company Silver Touch Technologies and The India Eye. Alt News followed the social media activities of a Twitter handle @HemanNamo, which promoted The India Eye during its initial days, and discovered that the individual managing the handle was associated with The India Eye website. @HemanNamo or Himanshu Jain is the director of Silver Touch Technologies, and theindiaeye.in was registered under his name and phone number. Furthermore, we also found that his company’s servers were used to host theindiaeye.com. However, right after our conversation with Himanshu Jain, questioning him about the apparent connection, the IP addresses of theindiaeye.com were changed. When we reached out to the managing director of Silver Touch, Vipul Thakkar, he said that his company isn’t associated with The India Eye. Silver Touch Technologies is an IT firm that was established in Ahmedabad in 1992 and one of its work is providing IT solutions for e-governance. As part of this business wing, the company has developed various projects for the BJP government. MD Vipul Thakkar had tweeted about some of these projects. But the focus of this article is one specific project – the NaMo App – which was also developed by Silver Touch. “The mobile app developed by Silver Touch, offers the latest news and updates about the PM. It gives access to PM’s ‘Mann Ki Baat’ state addresses, his biography and blogs. The app will also update people of PM’s Governance initiatives, achievements and development related Infographics. The Android app will allow users to contribute and earn badges through to-do tasks,” the company described the app in a blog post. The connection is apparent. In fact, the association of Himanshu Jain and his company Silver Touch with The India Eye was also disclosed by NDTV in 2017. The news channel had also found that 53% of the company’s work came from government contracts worth approximately Rs 62.5 crores. Furthermore, Himanshu Jain, from his Twitter account @HemanNamo, was a part of trending pro-BJP hashtags. He is also followed by prime minister Narendra Modi on Twitter. Digging out similar information now would be a futile attempt. Most of the details laid out by Alt News have been taken down by both Himanshu Jain and Silver Touch. In fact, Jain has also changed his Twitter handle from @HemanNamo to @NamoNews2019. But our earlier investigation includes all the necessary links of association that can be accessed here. On January 21, the account posted images of mahagatbandhan rally in Kolkata, claiming that everyone present at the rally took an oath to save the country but nobody said, “Bharat mata ki jay”. BJP president Amit Shah also made a similar claim while addressing a rally in Malda, West Bengal. Alt News found that the claim was untrue. Patidar agitation leader Hardik Patel while ending his speech at the rally had raised slogans of ‘Jai Hind’ and ‘Bharat mata ki jai’. A cartoon posted by The India Eye attributed a statement to Rahul Gandhi which said, “मुसलमानो को अहिंसा का ज्ञान मुसलमानो से मिला (Muslims got the philosophy of non-violence from Muslims/Islam-translated)”. The statement ascribed to the Congress president was based on clipped video. Rahul Gandhi, in his speech at Dubai said, that non-violence was inspired by every great religion of the world, including ancient Indian religions, Christianity and Judaism. He did not single out Islam as suggested in the cartoon. Another post by The India Eye said, “Congress bans the release of The Accidental Prime Minister in Madhya Pradesh”. The claim was based on reports by several media outlets which later turned out to be false. The official Twitter handle of the department of public relations of the Madhya Pradesh government clarified that there was no decision to ban the film. The news of Ban on the movie ‘The Accidental Prime Minister’ by Madhya Pradesh Government is wrong and misleading. pic.twitter.com/FvYYXjhjRz — Jansampark MP (@JansamparkMP) December 28, 2018 “दुबई स्टेडियम में राहुल गाँधी को सुनने ३ लाख लोग आये (Three lakh people came to listen to Rahul Gandhi at the Dubai stadium-translated)”, read a quote attributed to Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi. The post claimed that Chaturvedi’s statement is false. Gaurav Pradhan also made an identical claim. However, we found that Chaturvedi never made such a statement. She quoted-tweeted Pradhan’s tweet and rubbished the claim. नमस्कार फ़ेक न्यूज़ की दुकान, अपने छोटी सोच और दिमाग़ का परिचय मेरे नाम से जोड़कर देश को प्रस्तुत करने का काम ना करें! Hello fake news factory! At least, for your own self respect try not to use your peanut size brain to make up stories about me or quotes attributed to me. https://t.co/nHXoG5rsAl — Priyanka Chaturvedi (@priyankac19) January 14, 2019 The evidence at hand shows that prime minister Narendra Modi’s personal mobile application NaMo App was created by a company that has connections to Facebook page The India Eye. Despite the page’s established track record of promoting misinformation, the content from the same outlet is included among the 15 promoted accounts in NaMo App. Moreover, every user sees its posts by default even after unfollowing the outlet. That the NaMo App has such scant regard for the veracity of the information shared on its ‘My Network’ section to millions of users shows how the country’s ruling party has a massive fake news problem. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	7th February 2019 / 4:59 pm / Last updated: 7th February 2019	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/namo-app-promotes-fake-news-factory-the-india-eye/", "author": "Jignesh Patel & Pooja Chaudhuri" }
2,041	Narendra Modi vs Manmohan Singh on foreign visits: Fact-checking Amit Shah's claim - Alt News Arjun Sidharth 11th October 2019 / 8:56 pm / Last updated: 13th October 2019 Union Home Minister Amit Shah recently spoke at a public function, where he claimed that former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh went on more foreign trips than PM Narendra Modi did, in five years. As is evident from the above video posted on BJP’s YouTube channel, Mr Shah said that when the numbers were compared for the foreign visits of the two Prime Ministers, it emerged that in five years, PM Narendra Modi had travelled abroad less than his predecessor. His exact words, which can be heard from 0:07 minutes, are, “अभी अभी कांग्रेस के एक नेता बोलते थे , कि मोदीजी विदेशो में घुमते हैं , मैंने बोला जांच करा , के मनमोहनजी के 5 साल और मोदीजी के 5 साल ज़्यादा विदेश में कौन गया देखो भाई, तो मालूम पड़ा मोदीजी कम गए हैं और मनमोहन सिंह ज़्यादा गए हैं। तो मेरे मन में सवाल उठा कि दीखता तो ऐसा है कि मोदीजी ज़्यादा गए हैं , ऐसा क्यों हुआ ?” Translation: Just now a Congress leader said that Modiji keeps travelling abroad, so I said lets probe this, in 5 years of Manmohanji’s rule and 5 years of Modiji’s rule, who went abroad more, then we found out that Manmohan Singh had had more foreign trips than Modiji. So I pondered, why is it so that it seems Modiji has travelled abroad far more frequently? Amit Shah then stressed that PM Modi’s international visits garnered much attention owing to his popularity, as opposed to Dr Singh’s supposedly nondescript tours abroad. Congress and BJP have sparred over PM Modi’s foreign visits on several occasions. The most recent instance is the Congress party’s dig at the Prime Minister on World Tourism Day (September 27), tweeting a collage of his photographs clicked before the PM boarded his plane. Amit Shah’s claim is, simply put, false. The numbers do not tally with the Home Minister’s narrative. Information about international visits undertaken by the Prime Minister is readily available on the website of the PMO. Alt News compared three sets of numbers. 1. Total number of international visits 2. Number of countries visited 3. Number of days spent abroad as part of these visits The data states that from 2014, after PM Modi assumed office, till the end of his first term in 2019, the Prime Minister had visited abroad 49 times. PM Modi’s first international visit was to Bhutan in June 2014. His last international visit in his first term was to South Korea in February 2019. On the other hand, former PM Manmohan Singh had 35 foreign trips in his first term (2004-2009), 14 fewer than PM Narendra Modi. This information is available in the PMO archives. Manmohan Singh’s first foreign visit as Prime Minister was to Thailand in July 2004. His final international visit in his first term was to the UK for the G-20 summit, in March-April 2009. If we consider Dr Singh’s second term (2009-2014), the number of visits stood at 38, a marginal increase from the previous term. In the period from 2004 to 2009, former PM Dr Manmohan Singh, in the course of his 35 foreign trips, had visited 28 countries. Dr Singh, in his second term (2009-2014), visited 35 nations, taking his overall tally to 63 countries over two terms and ten years. If multiple visits are counted, this number stands at 96. In contrast, PM Modi has visited 59 countries from 2014 to 2019 in the course of his 49 international trips. Here too, Narendra Modi outscores Dr Manmohan Singh, whether we consider the first or the second term for the latter. From 2004 to 2009, Dr Manmohan Singh spent 147 days abroad during his 35 international visits. The figure stood slightly higher from 2009 to 2014, at 158 days. Here too, PM Modi takes the lead in numbers, having spent 186 days out of India from 2014 to 2019. This information too is available on the website of PMO and PMO Archives.’ The three sets of numbers are presented in a tabular format below. Source: PMO, PMO Archives In conclusion, it may be stated that Home Minister Amit Shah’s claim is false. A perusal of the publicly available information reveals that PM Narendra Modi had more foreign visits in the first term than former PM Dr Manmohan Singh. PM Modi also visited more countries and spent more number of days abroad as compared to the former PM. Earlier in 2017, Amit Shah had stated something similar– PM Modi had visited fewer nations than Dr Singh in his three years (then) as Prime Minister. This statement was fact-checked by The Hindu, which found it to be untrue. Arjun Sidharth is a writer with Alt News. He has previously worked in the television news industry, where he managed news bulletins and breaking news scenarios, apart from scripting numerous prime time television stories. He has also been actively involved with various freelance projects. Sidharth has studied economics, political science, international relations and journalism. He has a keen interest in books, movies, music, sports, politics, foreign policy, history and economics. His hobbies include reading, watching movies and indoor gaming. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	11th October 2019 / 8:56 pm / Last updated: 13th October 2019	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/narendra-modi-vs-manmohan-singh-on-foreign-visits-fact-checking-amit-shahs-claim/", "author": "Arjun Sidharth" }
2,042	Narrative of mass casualties due to IAF airstrike kept alive using serial misinformation - Alt News Pooja Chaudhuri 9th March 2019 / 10:15 pm A visible proliferation of disinformation on social media post-Balakot airstrike attempts to portray that 292 terrorists were killed in the Indian Air Force retaliation. The circulation of false images has been relentless, despite the Defence Minister herself saying that there are “no numbers” to give out. Alt News discovered that previously debunked images have resurfaced on social media, including an extensive circulation on WhatsApp, to show devastation across the border. The claims are being espoused with the help of a manufactured WhatsApp chat, which was taken down (archive) by its creator after Alt News’s fact-check report. A Twitter user Shekhar Chahal shared a WhatsApp chat with an alleged Pakistani, who he claimed is a resident of Balakot. The ‘friend’ suggested that the Indian Air Force’s air strike killed 292 terrorists of JeM. Chahal is followed by prime minister Narendra Modi on Twitter. In the chat, Chahal’s ‘friend’ said that his mother is the dean of ‘Balakot Medical University’ and was responsible for examining the dead bodies of the slain terrorists. Alt News, however, discovered that there is no such institution called ‘Balakot Medical University’. In fact, the nearest medical college is situated at a distance of over 40 km from Balakot. Moreover, the chat was replete with erroneous Urdu, hinting at its falseness. For instance, ‘nazdiki’ was spelt was ‘najdiki’; ‘pareshan’ was written as ‘paresan’; ‘Alhamdulillah’ was spelt as ‘Allamuddiah’; ‘tashreef’ was written as ‘tasreef’. After Alt News’s fact-check, Chahal took down his tweet but clearly not before the damage was done. A set of images accompanying the manufactured WhatsApp chat shows dead bodies shrouded in white. All of these photographs pertain to the 2015 heatwave in Pakistan that killed thousands of people. Alt News discovered original images on Getty (1, 2, 3) and TIME via a simple Google reverse-image search. Another image doing rounds of social media shows mass graves. While Alt News was unable to discern its exact source, we found a 2016 article that carried the same photograph. Google reverse-image search also threw up a 2013 New York Times article carrying a similar image. The photograph was sourced to Associated Press, which described it as, “Pakistani men prepare the graves of Saturday’s bombing victims in Quetta, Pakistan, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013.” This photograph seemed to be of the same location as the viral image but taken from a different angle. You can read a detailed report on all the above images here. The collage highlighted above showcases alleged before-after photographs of the site bombed in the Balakot airstrike. This is an attempt to portray that while the building on the ‘before’ image (left) stands tall, the same building in the ‘after’ image (right) now stands pulverised. The identical imagery was also used in a Zee News broadcast. We, however, found that these are old, unrelated images. The site shown by Zee News was not the bombed site, and was, in fact, situated 5 km away from the site that was bombed. Moreover, the satellite image viral on social media and used by Zee News was five years old. Alt New’s detailed fact-check can be accessed here. Circulating the same imagery, again and again, suggests an attempt to create a false perception in people’s minds. After India’s retaliation for the Pulwama terror attack, there has been a visible attempt to portray that the airstrike was able to take on nearly 300 terrorists. BJP President Amit Shah made similar claims despite the Indian Air Force and the government refusing to give a number. Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	9th March 2019 / 10:15 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/narrative-of-mass-casualties-due-to-iaf-airstrike-kept-alive-using-serial-misinformation/", "author": "Pooja Chaudhuri" }
2,043	National Dastak publishes old, misleading video as EVM fraud in UP - Alt News Jignesh Patel 30th May 2019 / 5:26 pm On May 21, 2019, National Dastak, an online news portal, published a video with a title, “EVM बदलने पर SP-BSP कार्यकर्ता ने किया चक्का जाम,जमकर हुई लड़ाई!/ PROTEST AGAINST MODI IN EVM (SP-BSP workers have jammed the roads over a row on the exchange of EVMs -translated)”. At the beginning of the video, a visual of a few men inspecting a school bus and other vehicles carrying hundreds of EVMs can be seen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ro6kac7YKjo Throughout the video, a caption inscribed in the video reads, “यूपी के चंदौली में ईवीएम में धांधली – वीडियो वायरल होने के बाद मचा हंगामा – अफ़ज़ल अंसारी ने किया विरोध प्रदर्शन – कई राज्य में ईवीएम का खेल शुरू! (EVM fraud in UP’s Chandauli – Viral video has caused a ruckus -Afzal Ansari has staged a protest – The game of EVMs has begun in many states -translated)”. The video also explicitly stated that it is from Chandauli, Uttar Pradesh. Alt News had earlier debunked the video in March 2019 when it was circulated with a false narrative that PM Modi, Amit Shah and the Election Commission had hatched a conspiracy to store electronic voting machines in strong rooms, which were then transported in an unnumbered school bus and two Bolero jeeps. It was found that the video was shot in November 2018 when Congress workers accused the BJP of tampering with votes, ahead of the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections. It was also claimed these EVMs reached the polling booth 48 hours after voting had concluded. मप्र के गृहमंत्री के क्षेत्र में मतदान के 48 घंटे बाद बिना नंबर की गाड़ी से ईवीएम स्ट्रांग रूम में जमा कराने का प्रयास हुआ। —भाजपा को जिताने के लिये ईवीएम बदलने की सरकारी साज़िश..? कलेक्टर, एसपी समेत निर्वाचन कार्य में लगे तमाम लोगों पर सख़्त कार्यवाही कर लोकतंत्र की रक्षा हो। pic.twitter.com/lj588NdyA5 — MP Congress (@INCMP) November 30, 2018 However, the Chief Electoral Officer, Madhya Pradesh claimed that these were ‘reserve’ EVMs, stationed at police stations and were meant to be used as replacement for malfunctioning machines during polling. “Such machines were to be stored separately from polled EVMs. Strong room having polled EVMs was neither opened nor was supposed to be opened,” read the quote-tweet by CEO MP. These are EVMs kept as ‘Reserve’ stationed at some Police stations, to be used as replacement for malfunctioning machines during Poll. Such machines were to be stored separately from polled EVMs. Strong room having Polled EVMs was neither opened nor was supposed to be opened. https://t.co/usco7xQpD1 — CEOMPElections (@CEOMPElections) November 30, 2018 According to a report published by NDTV, government officials were not giving a clear answer on the issue. Alt News also found the same video uploaded on YouTube at least five months ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alQzyTEGS3U A controversy did erupt over the allegation raised by the opposition parties of EVMs being unloaded from a truck without any security in Chandauli, Uttar Pradesh. Without any comment, an EVM video from Chandauli, UP. pic.twitter.com/Gmwj638mdo — Ravi Nair (@t_d_h_nair) May 20, 2019 However, the CEO UP allayed the apprehensions over the security of EVMs. He said, “In Chandauli, unused EVMs were unloaded in the store located on the Mandi Parishad premises (where strong rooms also exist) after informing representatives of all political parties. Suddenly, the representatives of a political party raised objection. They demanded that unused EVMs should be kept in the district collectorate. Later, the EVMs were shifted to the collectorate premises with representatives of all political parties present during the shifting.” It may be noted that complaints regarding EVMs had indeed been raised by the opposition parties in Chandauli, MP. However, the video report published by National Dastak has passed off an old video from Madhya Pradesh as pertaining to the protest in Chandauli. Jignesh is a writer and researcher at Alt News. He has a knack for visual investigation with a major interest in fact-checking videos and images. He has completed his Masters in Journalism from Gujarat University. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	30th May 2019 / 5:26 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/national-dastak-publishes-old-misleading-video-as-evm-fraud-in-up/", "author": "Jignesh Patel" }
2,044	National Herald Twitter polls on PNB Scam backfire - Alt News Alt News Desk 17th February 2018 / 1:06 pm Twitter polls are a double edged sword. National Herald is learning it the hard way after two of it’s polls on PNB scam backfired. After the news of USD 1.77 billion Punjab National Bank Scam broke out, National Herald posted two Twitter polls to gauge the opinion of its readers. “Do you think corruption has vastly decreased in India, as Prime Minister Modi claims?” asked the first poll. This was followed after five hours by a second one asking who is to blame for the massive PNB Scam. The polls did not go as per National Herald ’s expectations. As large number of BJP supporters started to vote, suspecting sabotage and distortion of results, the Twitter handle of National Herald started blocking users. Congress owned National Herald @NH_India run a poll, after voting, it blocked me? Why? @INCIndia your democracy is so fragile? @TajinderBagga see below 😁😬😬 pic.twitter.com/1YIzo0ienG — Manoj Goenka 🇮🇳 (@iam_manojgoenka) February 15, 2018 BLOCKED by Congress' mouthpiece @nh_india for exposing their hypocrisy on corruption in just 1 tweet flat. Why does Mr. @OfficeOfRG muzzle free speech & refuse to answer stinging questions? pic.twitter.com/IclSlrs2wZ — Truth by IBTL (@ibtlx) February 15, 2018 After 81% votes blamed UPA for the PNB Scam, National Herald deleted the poll. It had over 11,000 votes when it was deleted on the evening of February 15th. The second poll asking about decrease in corruption under PM Modi was deleted the next day morning. It had over 14,000 votes of which 83% favored BJP. Interestingly earlier polls of National Herald have not seen so much participation. Its polls on the budget received less than 600 votes. There was perhaps a case of large scale organized voting as seen from the fact that the first poll was only retweeted 17 times but received over 14,000 votes. But then all is considered fair in polls on an open platform. This possibility should have been considered before launching the polls. As they say, fools rush in where angels fear to tread… Before venturing into Twitter polls one should be aware of the risks and willing to accept the results, whichever way they turn out. National Herald failed on both counts. Before launching Twitter polls again, National Herald must build a better understanding of its Twitter support base and the dynamics of social media based opinion polls. And if it cannot accept the results irrespective of the way they turn out due to its political leanings, it would be better to stay away from social media polls. Follow @free_thinker Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	17th February 2018 / 1:06 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/national-herald-twitter-polls-pnb-scam-backfire/", "author": "Alt News Desk" }
2,045	'Nationalist' TV channels battle over the Indo-Pak match - Alt News Sam Jawed 5th June 2017 / 11:18 pm / Last updated: 5th June 2017 Mirror Mirror on the wall, who is the most patriotic of them all? “Should India play Pakistan”, is the question that is inevitably asked in the run up to every India Pakistan cricket match. With the recent escalation of the tensions between the two countries due to cross border strikes, terrorist incidents and Kulbhushan Jadhav case, the same question was asked with even more fervour before the India-Pakistan match at the Champions Trophy. Nationalism being the new flavour, the ‘nationalist’ TV channels tried to outdo each other in their attempt to whip up mass hysteria against the match. The battle of the nationalists unfolded in a very predictable manner…. Times Now took up the cause very enthusiastically with the hashtags #BoycottPakMatch and #WhyPlayPak. The self-appointed custodians of the nation asked questions on behalf of the nation, “The nation wants to know: How can the country defend muscular policy, when it bats with Pakistan?” The channel relayed news about “massive outrage” among ex-servicemen, martyrs’ families who want India to boycott the match with Pakistan. Continuing to whip up emotions, Times Now also ran a poll, “Can India play with a ‘terror state’?” The nation, it seems was divided on the issue and despite the best efforts of the channel to mould public opinion about it, 40% were still interested in watching the match. Though the channel didn’t tweet on the scores or the result, it couldn’t keep itself away from the stadium for very long, particularly when Vijay Mallya was spotted there. Republic, the new kid on the block was rather mute about the match. It tweeted statements of Major Gaurav Arya and Major General GD Bakshi, the two army men whose ‘nationalist’ views are considered a must whenever such topics are discussed. The statements were on expected lines that the BCCI should have avoided playing the match and let us call it off. Seeing that its #NationFirstNoCompromise hashtag is not getting much traction, by the end of the day, Republic had abandoned any plans of not tweeting the results. India had won the match, and sulking about it had little value. So, Republic announced India’s victory with a tweet. Zee clearly won the patriotism race, leaving the other two ‘nationalist’ TV channels behind. Most vocal in its protests, the self-appointed custodians of national interest wanted to know what is more important, cricket or national interest? Subhash Chandra’s tweets to announce the boycott of the match by Zee media immediately took the group’s standing up by several notches in the eyes of the nationalists. “Zee News, Zee Hindustan, WION, DNA and all other news channels from Zee Media will not be covering any news about India Pak match”, tweeted Chandra. In his words, it was a way to “tell our Army that the people for whom they risk their life are more interested in supporting them than cheering for cricket match”. Zee also put out videos with an emotional appeal to boycott cricket with Pakistan. Which side are you playing for this Sunday? Indian Army or Cricket Merchants? Decide India!! pic.twitter.com/ZjzX4YDngF — Sudhir Chaudhary (@sudhirchaudhary) June 3, 2017 The featured hashtag, #SabseBadaDroh, was Zee’s way of declaring all those supporting the match as some kinds of “drohis (Traitors)”. “ZeeNews is boycotting #IndvPak match in respect of our soldiers. Are you?” was the question the channel asked its viewers, who by then had surfed on to another channel to watch the match. They brought up a Pak Army video to rally support for the call to boycott but video or not, the match was going ahead. Most of the nationalist supporters cheered the move of Zee Group and joined the call to boycott the match. But as the game got under way, they watched it on other channels, cheering loudly for India. A fine example of this were the two tweets of Babita Phogat. The Zee group anchors were meanwhile brimming with nationalism. They had decided that they were the only ones worthy to be called genuine nationalists as Sudhir Chaudhary tweeted that ZeeNews was “exposing fake nationalists today both in media and politics”. “दुश्मन पाकिस्तान से क्रिकेट क्यों खेले हिंदुस्तान ?” was Rohit Sardana’s impassioned appeal. “Today is not the day! They would be playing with nation’s emotions”, tweeted Rubika Liyaquat in the same tone. Zee News positioned itself on a pedestal as the only one willing to sacrifice TRPs for a nationalist cause. Even though they were boycotting the match, they couldn’t keep away from the excitement for very long. While Sardana kept track of the trending position of their #SabseBadaDroh hashtag, Chaudhury continued to engage with twitter users, from a position of moral high ground. When someone tweeted about blocking Zee, his response was, “It’s sad Indian Army protects people like you who sell their nation for a cricket match. This is #SabseBadaDroh”. Once India won the match, the “sacrifice” of Zee was forgotten and social media burst out in celebration. Chaudhary tweeted to remind everyone, “Cricket team won but India lost!“. The most retweeted response to Chaudhary was one that said, “Cricket team won, India won but Zee lost“. Thus ended the battle of the nationalist channels. Till the next India-Pakistan match….. Nobody's cheerleader, I tweet at @samjawed65 Following Saudi Arabia’s 2-1 win against Argentina in the ongoing FIFA World Cup, speculation about… Trigger Warning: The following story contains graphic imagery. Several users have shared images of the… The brutal murder of Shraddha Walker has been widely covered across news media over the… A 1:34-minute-long CCTV camera clip is being widely circulated on social media in which viewers… The teaser of a movie titled ‘The Kerala Story’ is being widely shared on social…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	5th June 2017 / 11:18 pm / Last updated: 5th June 2017	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/nationalist-tv-channels-battle-indo-pak-match/", "author": "Sam Jawed" }
2,046	Did governmental regulations prevent RSS from hoisting national flag for 52 years? - Alt News Pratik Sinha 17th March 2017 / 10:08 pm / Last updated: 26th January 2020 On January 26th, 2002, RSS hoisted the national flag at its headquarters in Nagpur voluntarily for the first time after India’s first Republic day. Prior to that, the only other occasion when the national flag was seen atop the RSS headquarters was in 2001 when it was forcibly hoisted by three activists of Rashtrapremi Yuwa Dal. When asked why the RSS did not hoist the national flag for 52 years, supporters have a ready explanation. They claim that RSS did not hoist the national flag because private citizens were not allowed to hoist the national flag up until 2002 when a revised Flag Code was announced by the then Union Govt. Most of us who grew up watching the flag hoisting ceremony at our schools and colleges during the Independence Day and Republic day functions, find it hard to believe this absurd claim. Was it the flag code that prevented RSS from hoisting the Indian flag? Let us verify the truth behind this claim which has been advanced by prominent social media users close to the BJP, such as Mahesh Vikram Hegde who is the founder of the fake news website Postcard News, Nupur Sharma who goes by the popular handle @UnSubtleDesi and is an editor with OpIndia, and Anshul Saxena who is followed by prominent BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The issue of who can fly the national flag and when one can fly the national flag came under discussion when industrialist Naveen Jindal filed a writ petition in the Delhi High Court in February 1995 contesting the restraints placed on him by officials regarding flying the national flag at his Raigarh factory. Up until then, other than on special occasions like January 26th, August 15th and October 2nd, private citizens were not allowed to fly the national flag. On January 15th, 2002, the Union Cabinet accepted the report of the Dr P.D. Shenoy Committee that it had constituted to look into the matter, and announced that citizens will be free to fly the national flag on all days of the year from 26 January 2002. The fact that all private citizens were allowed to fly the national flag without any restrictions on at least these special occasions is captured in at least two documents – The then prevalent flag code called ‘Flag Code-India’ and in another letter from the Minister of Home Affairs dated 15-06-1971. We managed to find the flag code prevalent prior to 2002 in a 1982 Protocol Manual on Punjab Govt website. In the 6 part manual, the fourth PDF file has the Flag Code on page 12 of the PDF file. The relevant section of the Flag code applicable in this case is on Page 14, a clipping of which can be seen below. The above piece of text clearly says that the display of National flag shall be unrestricted on Republic Day, National Week, Independence Day and Mahatma Gandhi’s Birthday which essentially means that anyone can fly it. The second letter from Ministry of Home Affairs dated 15-06-1971 also states the same thing. Both these documents confirm that that flag code that was in place prior to 2002 placed no restrictions on private citizens to hoist the national flag on at least three days of the year. Despite being permitted to hoist the national flag on January 26th, August 15th and October 2nd , RSS chose not to do so for 52 years. This is an embarrassing fact for RSS supporters and therefore it is not surprising that they try to justify this by claiming that it was the Flag Code which prevented the RSS from hoisting the national flag, a claim which is not true. Co-Founder Alt News, I can be reached via E-mail at [email protected] and on Facebook at https://fb.com/freethinker. Follow @free_thinker Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	17th March 2017 / 10:08 pm / Last updated: 26th January 2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/nationalists-fraudulently-quote-flag-code-excuse-rss-not-hoisting-national-flag-52-years/", "author": "Pratik Sinha" }
2,047	Navika Kumar wrongly claims P.V. Narasimha Rao was the first non-Gandhi PM of India - Alt News Arjun Sidharth 19th November 2018 / 6:49 pm Was P V Narasimha Rao the first Prime Minister from the Congress party who did not belong to the Gandhi family? Apparently so, according to Navika Kumar, managing editor with Times Now and anchor of the prime time show The Newshour. Kumar was speaking live on November 16, 2018 ahead of her prime time show. Navika Kumar on #ModiChaiwalaDare Posted by TIMES NOW on Friday, November 16, 2018 As can be seen in the above video from around 1:20 to 2:13, Kumar can be heard saying, “The Prime Minister has said once again that they just cant get over the fact that a chaiwala has become a Prime Minister.” She continues, “If Nehru had made such democratic attempts at creating infrastructures in this country, then why have there been hardly any non-Gandhi prime ministers in this country? why has Nehru only nominated his own daughter Indira Gandhi to be his successor? Why was there nobody else who could have stepped into Nehru’s shoes? Why was P V Narasimha Rao who became the first non-Gandhi Congress PM of this country treated the way he was; when he died, his dead body was not even brought inside the Congress office? It must be noted here that while Kumar has ostensibly quoted the Prime Minister, PM Modi in his speech had referred to his humble origins and the chagrin of the Congress party over his election as Prime Minister. He did not make any reference to P V Narasimha Rao or non-Gandhi prime ministers from the Congress party. These are the words of Navika Kumar herself. She begins by quoting PM Modi and then goes on to convey what is presumably her opinion. The context of this monologue by Kumar was the recent statement made by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who had said that it was the establishment of institutional structures by the Congress party led by Nehru that made it possible for a ‘chaiwala’ to become the Prime Minister of the country. Navika Kumar’s statement that P V Narasimha Rao, who became the Prime Minister in 1991, was the first PM of the Congress party who did not belong to the Gandhi family, is false. The list of politicians who have served as Prime Minister of India is available on the website of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). Posted below is a screenshot of the same. Chronologically, Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister from August 15, 1947 to May 27, 1964, the day he died. Nehru was followed by Gulzari Lal Nanda who served as the acting Prime Minister for 13 days, from May 27, 1964 to June 9, 1964. On June 9, 1964, Nanda was replaced by Lal Bahadur Shastri who served as the Prime Minister of India from June 9, 1964 to January 11, 1966. Both Gulzari Lal Nanda and Lal Bahadur Shastri belonged to the Indian National Congress, and neither belonged to the Nehru-Gandhi family. While Nanda served as the acting PM twice (he was sworn in again for 13 days following Shastri’s death in 1966), Shastri was a full-time Prime Minister who served from June 1964 to January 1966. Information about Prime Ministers who have served India is freely and readily available online and only requires the most basic research, if one is unaware of the political history of post-independent India. In its eagerness to project the Prime Minister as a target of the Congress party’s ‘elitism’, Times Now misled viewers with inaccurate and biased information. Arjun Sidharth is a writer with Alt News. He has previously worked in the television news industry, where he managed news bulletins and breaking news scenarios, apart from scripting numerous prime time television stories. He has also been actively involved with various freelance projects. Sidharth has studied economics, political science, international relations and journalism. He has a keen interest in books, movies, music, sports, politics, foreign policy, history and economics. His hobbies include reading, watching movies and indoor gaming. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar… In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin… The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to… Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile… Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…	news-altnews	2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452	19th November 2018 / 6:49 pm	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/navika-kumar-wrongly-claims-p-v-narasimha-rao-was-the-first-non-gandhi-pm-of-india/", "author": "Arjun Sidharth" }

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