Fake, satirical tweet on Neeraj Chopra's podium position viral in Rahul Gandhi's name - Alt News
Kinjal
13th August 2021 / 4:45 pm
Indian sportspersons performed splendidly in the recently concluded Tokyo Olympics, bringing home a total of seven medals. On August 7, athlete Neeraj Chopra made history by winning a gold medal in javelin throw. Following this, a screenshot of an alleged tweet attributed to Rahul Gandhi began circulating widely. The tweet reads, “Is it right to stand at number two even after coming first? Please answer, Modi ji”. The tweet contains a photo of Neeraj Chopra with two players who clinched second and third positions from the Czech Republic. Chopra is standing in the middle on the podium. Users are sharing the image while mocking the Congress leader.
Twitter user ‘Narendra Modi Fan’ has tweeted the screenshot. The post amassed 258 retweets at the time of writing. (Archive link)
Via @RahulGandhi जवाब दो मोदी जी 😭😂🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/6tKK5HOG9m
— Narendra Modi fan (@narendramodi177) August 8, 2021
A cursory look at replies to the tweet shows that people believe Rahul Gandhi genuinely posted the tweet in question.
A Twitter user named Sonia Chaudhury also shared the screenshot.
फस्ट आकर भी दूसरे नम्बर पे खड़े होना क्या सही है ?
जवाब दो मोदी जी..
नहीं तो सत्ता छोड़ दो… pic.twitter.com/mvPDTZpzPH
— Soniya Chaudhary (@advocatesoniya) August 9, 2021
The image is viral on Facebook.
The tweet in the alleged screenshot is dated August 5. Neeraj Chopra won the gold medal in javelin throw two days later, on August 7. This itself establishes that the tweet is fake.
On August 5, Rahul Gandhi had posted three tweets, including one that was posted at 4:51 PM. This has the same timestamp as the one in the viral screenshot. This tweet reads, “Great going, Ravi Dahiya! Congratulations on wrestling your way to the Silver.”
The text and the image in the viral tweet are not aligned. If one compares this tweet with a genuine tweet by Rahul Gandhi, one would notice that the tweet text and image perfectly align.
A morphed tweet created for satire to mock Rahul Gandhi was believed to be true.
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.
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