Fake Al Jazeera tweet, misleading portrayal of NDTV's report on Taliban shared online - Alt News
Pooja Chaudhuri
18th August 2021 / 9:43 pm
Pro-BJP propaganda pages on Facebook have compared two tweets – one by NDTV and the other purportedly made by Al Jazeera. Below is a post by India272+ which said, “तालिबान प्रेमी NDTV.” (Taliban lover NDTV) India272+ was a mobile application launched by Narendra Modi ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. The number ‘272’ represents the mandate required in the Lok Sabha to form the government.
The Hindi text on the graphic suggests NDTV broadcast a reporting stating the Taliban is not as violent as it used to be. The alleged Al Jazeera tweet shows the Taliban is abducting minor girls and killing the ones who aren’t cooperating.
The infographic was also shared by Social Tamasha, @Being_Humor and Modi Bharosa.
[Hindi text: तालिबान अब पहले की तरह खूंखार नहीं है: NDTV; तालिबान लड़कियों को अगवा कर रहे हैं और मार रहे हैं: AlJajeera]
The collage is widespread on Facebook.
A screenshot of just the alleged Al Jazeera tweet was shared by advocate Subhendu.
Al Jazeera
Let us first discuss the alleged Al Jazeera tweet. If one carefully notices, the media outlet’s name is misspelt as ‘Al Jajeera’ on Twitter while the username says @AJENews.
The username is genuine. This is the username of Al Jazeera Breaking News. However, the logo used in the viral collage corresponds to Al Jazeera English. This proves that the tweet is fake.
As far as the claim on the tweet is concerned, a report by Daily Mail said that the Taliban are going door-to-door and forcibly taking away girls, some as young as 12, to be sex slave ‘wives’ for their fighters.
The Taliban has denied the accusation. However, there have been other reports of such abductions.
NDTV
The tweet by NDTV used in the infographic talks about the Taliban’s claim that it is no longer the “dreaded near-medieval terror outfit”. The channel hasn’t itself claimed that the Taliban has gone ‘moderate’. The viral collage makes an erroneous interpretation of NDTV’s story.
Anchor Sreenivasan Jain says that the Taliban has “attempted to suggest” that it is no longer as violent. The show ‘Reality Check’ aired the Taliban’s claims that women will be allowed to hold government positions and continue their education and working jobs. The show was essentially about whether the Taliban’s claims are propaganda or genuine.
.@OnReality_Check | 48 hours since the Taliban has seized power by the barrel of the gun in Afghanistan, it has attempted to suggest it is no longer the dreaded near-medieval terror outfit of old. pic.twitter.com/Bn8AekSROE
— NDTV (@ndtv) August 18, 2021
Jain questions one of the guests on the show, Azmat Khan, The New York Times Magazine contributing writer, about her views on the Taliban’s claim. She opined that while the future cannot be predicted, the Taliban is known to have broken promises in the past. She further says that it may be possible that the Taliban is portraying a ‘moderate’ image due to the massive international focus on the terror group. It may be aiming to gain legitimacy but the second that the close media attention goes away, the group may go back to its old ways.
In sum, a fake Al Jazeera tweet was created for unknown reasons and shared on social media. Similar reports of girls and women being abducted by the Taliban are available yet a morphed tweet was manufactured. This was shared with a screenshot of an NDTV report and a misleading interpretation of the same.
Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News.
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