Author: Elesha Sharma
Elesha Sharma
Editor in Chief- The Searchlight
New Delhi: Some social media users are circulating a picture of Vinesh Phogat and Sangeeta Phogat smiling and taking a selfie after being detained from the protests against the WFI Brij Bhushan Singh. The wrestlers are protesting since January 2023 in the National Capital demanding the arrest of Wrestling Federation of India President and BJP MP from Kaiserganj Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh on the allegations of sexual harassment of female wrestlers. Today the farmers were joining the protesting wrestlers and to support the Mahila Mahapanchayat which was scheduled on the occasion of New Parliament inauguration. The Delhi Police barricaded the…
New Delhi: Two images are viral on internet again claiming it is a ‘before and after image’ of a child rescued from Nigeria. The claim is circulating since 2020 around the social media websites (web archive) (web archive) (web archive) An online newspaper in Albania “Kultplus” posted an article on June 26 2020 where it mentioned a Danish tourist found this child in Nigeria in 2016 and adopted him. (web archive of the article) Fact Check/Verification We searched both the images on Google Reverse Image Search and found out that the woman in the pictures is ANJA RINGGREN LOVEN from…
New Delhi: Some social media users and media outlets shared videos and articles claiming that slogans of “Pakistan Zindabad” were raised after the Samajwadi Party candidate Irshad Ahmed won municipal polls in Fatehpur, Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh. The video with the said claim was shared by Barabanki News on Twitter (web archive)among many other users and influencers. The claim was also made by IndiaTV in this article and by ABP Ganga via YouTube. (web archive) (web archive) Fact Check/Verification The video went viral on 13th May 2023, and on the same day the Barabanki Police posted a tweet giving out…
(Trigger warning: Disturbing visuals of animal cruelty) New Delhi: A video is circulating on social media websites Twitter and Facebook claiming that minorities in Karnataka are celebrating Congress victory in Assembly elections by slaughtering a cow on a Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) flag. Since Congress won the Karnataka state assembly elections with majority securing 135 seats, there have been many instances of fake news and misinformation around the social media with respect to minorities, especially the Muslims. Many of these claims originate from RW affiliated influencers, sportspersons, politicians and RW leaning journalists and sometimes from Member(s) of Parliament. Sandeep Singapuri…
New Delhi: A video is viral on social media site Twitter where a group of women can be seen attacking a man with a claim that these are Hindu women and they are thrashing a Muslim man for his “obnoxious” behaviour. The video with the said claim was shared by many users, some with more than 10K followers. This user @satviksoul is followed by PM Shri Narendra Modi on Twitter. (web archive) (web archive) (web archive) NOTE: The same video was viral with the same claim in January 2023. Fact Check/Verification We used the inVid tool to get the keyframes…
New Delhi: Mannem Nageswara Rao, the former Interim Director of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) posted a tweet claiming that there is a Christian Cross atop the Jaipur Column of the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Web archive of the tweet here. Fact check/Verification 1911, the British decided to shift the Imperial capital from Calcutta and after examining various sites across the country, Delhi was finalised as the new capital for many reasons (it was easily accessible and closer to the summer capital Simla; it was associated with both Hindu (Mahabharat) and In Muslim (Mughals) pride; and on other geographical, political and historical…
The video went viral after a Twitter user @BJYAM11 with 74.7K followers shared it via a tweet on May 8, 2023 which now has been deleted after the social media outrage for editing something special into vulgarity. You can find the web archive of the tweet here. It is clear in the video that the man is asking for “Eidi” from his family members (his mother and paternal aunt). The word “Eidi” is beeped in the video and in the captions the word “eidi” is substituted with asterisks (*). Asterisks are substituted in captions for offensive or inappropriate words. Eidi…
New Delhi: The senior advisor of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India made a claim that “Teesta Setalvad is great granddaughter of Chimanlal Harilal Setalvad who was member of the infamous ‘Hunter Commission’ on Jallianwala Bagh Massacre. Commission gave clean chit to General Dyer who ordered the firing on civilians. Chimanlal Harilal Setalvad, member of Hunter Commission which exonerated Gen Dyer of any crimes at Jallianwala Bagh.” You can find the web archive of the post here. Similar claim was made by: -RSS affiliated magazine ‘Organizer Weekly’ via a tweet. The web archive of the post here. -Twitter…
New Delhi: An image is viral on social media website Twitter, with children standing behind barbed wires and Hitler standing on the other side of the fencing, and comparing it with a picture of PM Modi with his recent interaction with children standing behind barbed wires. The picture was shared by the Indian actor Prakash Raj (web archive), Twitter Blue subscriber Jaspinder Kaur Udhoke (web archive), Youth Congress former general secretary and Indian National Congress member Sudheer Sidhique (web archive) amongst many other users with followers ranging from 3K to 90K. Web archive Web archive Fact Check/Verification We first divided…
New Delhi: A picture of two people is in circulation since many years now and it is being claimed that they are the real faces of Laila-Majnu from the 7th century. The image with the said claim is viral on every social media platform (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) including the General Knowledge pages on these sites. The claim also appears on many media outlet’s articles. Journalist anchor Akhilesh Anand also shared this claim via a tweet from his personal official account. A Twitter Blue subscriber “@/exsecular” with 137.1K followers also shared the image claiming it portrays Laila-Majnu among many other users.…