{"id":19886,"date":"2018-09-20T20:34:05","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T15:04:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/?p=19886"},"modified":"2018-09-20T20:34:05","modified_gmt":"2018-09-20T15:04:05","slug":"social-media-foxed-by-tweet-from-unofficial-hal-account-countering-defence-minister-on-rafale-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/social-media-foxed-by-tweet-from-unofficial-hal-account-countering-defence-minister-on-rafale-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Social media foxed by tweet from unofficial HAL account countering Defence Minister on Rafale deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A tweet by an account <em>@HAL_India<\/em>\u00a0has been shared widely on social media. This tweet responds to Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/economictimes.indiatimes.com\/news\/defence\/poor-health-of-hal-led-to-collapse-of-rafale-deal-under-upa-nirmala-sitharaman\/articleshow\/65799175.cms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recent statement<\/a> that the deal for the procurement of 126 Rafale combat aircraft which was sought under the UPA regime fell through because Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) did not have the required capability to produce them.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Those who are saying that HAL is not capable of producing Rafale jets should know what we at HAL have produced<br \/>\n\u2708 MiG-21<br \/>\n\u2708 MiG-27<br \/>\n\u2708 Jaguar<br \/>\n\u2708 Hawk<br \/>\n\u2708 Sukhoi-30<br \/>\n\u2708 Dornier 228<\/p>\n<p>V hv also produced<br \/>\n\ud83d\ude81 Light combat helicopter<br \/>\n\ud83d\ude81 Light utility helicopter<br \/>\n\ud83d\ude81 Chetak<br \/>\n\ud83d\ude81 Dhruv<br \/>\n\ud83d\ude81 Rudra <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/SNlJ5lm92h\">pic.twitter.com\/SNlJ5lm92h<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (Parody) (@HAL_India) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HAL_India\/status\/1042099750101643264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 18, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Posted on September 18, the tweet has been retweeted over 1400 times already. Many social media users have shared it, in the process lauding HAL for &#8216;standing up for itself&#8217; against the assertion of the Defence Minister over the MMRCA deal which has been mired in controversy. It has been shared widely on certain Facebook pages which includes the official page of the Mumbai Youth Congress. It has also been posted by the page <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/1662654570650537\/posts\/2165915753657747\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>FekuExpress<\/em> <\/a>which has over 530,000 followers. Another page which has posted it is<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/1515597552044819\/posts\/2184454925159075\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>\u00a0Drunk Journalist<\/em><\/a> which has a follower base of over 145,000.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-post\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MumbaiYouthCongressOfficial\/posts\/841331302703946\" data-width=\"auto\" data-show-text=\"true\">\n<blockquote class=\"fb-xfbml-parse-ignore\" cite=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MumbaiYouthCongressOfficial\/posts\/841331302703946\"><p>Why Is Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Lying , And Defaming HAL For Being Incapable of Building #Rafale Planes. HAL&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Posted by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MumbaiYouthCongressOfficial\/\">Mumbai Youth Congress<\/a> on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MumbaiYouthCongressOfficial\/posts\/841331302703946\">Thursday, September 20, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p>Several individual users too have shared this tweet with the claim that HAL has &#8216;given a befitting reply to Nirmala Sitharaman&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-19893\" src=\"http:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2018\/09\/collage_HAL-1024x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"696\" height=\"696\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2018\/09\/collage_HAL-1024x1024.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2018\/09\/collage_HAL-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2018\/09\/collage_HAL-300x300.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2018\/09\/collage_HAL-768x768.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2018\/09\/collage_HAL-696x696.jpeg 696w, https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2018\/09\/collage_HAL-1068x1068.jpeg 1068w, https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2018\/09\/collage_HAL-420x420.jpeg 420w, https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2018\/09\/collage_HAL.jpeg 1400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Not the official account of HAL<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>As can be seen from the name of the account, the tweet which has been shared so profusely on social media is not from the official account of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. This is mentioned in the <em>Bio<\/em> section itself which clarifies that this is an unofficial account. Another point worth noting is that in the tweet which has gone viral, the name of the account, as can be seen, is Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. However, the word &#8216;parody&#8217; was added to the name of the account later.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-19891\" src=\"http:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2018\/09\/halss.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"780\" height=\"483\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2018\/09\/halss.jpg 780w, https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2018\/09\/halss-300x186.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2018\/09\/halss-768x476.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2018\/09\/halss-356x220.jpg 356w, https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2018\/09\/halss-696x431.jpg 696w, https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2018\/09\/halss-678x420.jpg 678w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Moreover, HAL has tweeted that the account HAL_India &#8216;impersonates&#8217; the official handle and that a formal complaint has been lodged with Twitter regarding the same. To this tweet, <em>Hal_India<\/em> replied, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HAL_India\/status\/1042665579637686273\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">clarifying<\/a> that it is not the official account of HAL.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">It has come to our notice that Twitter handle <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HAL_India?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@HAL_India<\/a> impersonates our this official handle <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HALHQBLR?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@HALHQBLR<\/a>. A formal complaint has already been lodged with Twitter. All are requested to take a note of this. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DefProdnIndia?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@DefProdnIndia<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/drajaykumar_ias?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@drajaykumar_ias<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DefenceMinIndia?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@DefenceMinIndia<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SpokespersonMoD?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@SpokespersonMoD<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 HAL (@HALHQBLR) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HALHQBLR\/status\/1042634176418050048?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 20, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>There are numerous instances wherein social media users unwittingly fell for unofficial or parody accounts. This tendency has been observed mostly in the context of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/cnn-newsi8-india-tooday-times-how-and-repubiictv-how-parody-accounts-fool-social-media-users\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">spoof accounts of mainstream media organisations<\/a> in general and TV news channels in particular. Social media users are encouraged to check the veracity of the accounts which they may endorse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A tweet by an account @HAL_India\u00a0has been shared widely on social media. This tweet responds to Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman&#8217;s recent statement that the deal for the procurement of 126 Rafale combat aircraft which was sought under the UPA regime fell through because Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) did not have the required capability to produce [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":19896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"an_content_type":[739],"coauthors":[132],"class_list":["post-19886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","fact_checks_claim_type-social-media-claims","an_content_type-fact-check"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2018\/09\/fi_RAFALE.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19886"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19910,"href":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19886\/revisions\/19910"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19886"},{"taxonomy":"an_content_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/an_content_type?post=19886"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=19886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}