False claim of Sachin Pilot blackening poster of PM Narendra Modi shared on social media

ये वही सचिन पायलेट हे जो राजस्थान मे मुखियमत्री बनने का हे इसने मोदी जी के पोस्टर पर उनके चेहरे पर काला कर रहा है इसको इतना फलाओ कि कल तक हर न्युज चेनल पर आ जाए (This is the same Sachin Pilot who is going to be the Chief Minister of Rajasthan. He has blackened Modi ji’s poster. Spread this so much that every news channel covers it by tomorrow- translation). A photograph showing a young man dressed in a white kurta pyjama blackening the face of PM Narendra Modi on a poster has gone viral on social media with the aforementioned message.

The above post is from the Facebook page Namo Narendra Modi ji. The page has over 200,000 followers. Numerous individual users have shared this message and the photographs on both Facebook and Twitter.

NOT SACHIN PILOT

The person seen blackening the poster is not Rajasthan Congress leader Sachin Pilot, and the photograph is unrelated to the recent assembly elections. Loksatta, a popular Marathi daily had carried this photograph along with a report on October 11, 2018. Satyajeet Tambe, the president of the Maharashtra Youth Congress had blackened a poster of PM Modi during protests over rising fuel prices. The protest had taken place in Mumbai and was organised by the Maharashtra Youth Congress.

Alt News has observed that of late, misinformation is not restricted to the run-up to elections but continues after conclusion of polling and declaration of verdict. This was observed earlier with respect to the Karnataka election. However, this time, misinformation post elections has been disseminated with greater frequency and intensity than before.