Divya Spandana, social media in-charge of the Indian National Congress (INC) recently tweeted an image with two photos placed side by side. One side has a picture of Adolf Hitler and the other of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
What did Divya share?
The image shows Hitler pulling the ears of a little girl while the other side shows Modi pulling a boy’s ear. The photo is meant to show a similarity between the two leaders. The former MP tweeted the photo with the caption, “what are your thoughts?”
What are your thoughts? pic.twitter.com/b8GcgKL2ih
— Divya Spandana/Ramya (@divyaspandana) April 29, 2019
The post now has over 5000 likes and has been retweeted over 1000 times. This is not the first time that this picture has surfaced online. On July 24, 2018, IPS Officer Sanjiv Bhatt shared the same image with the caption, “Spot the difference.”
Spot the difference. pic.twitter.com/yI1fyIOdos
— Sanjiv Bhatt (IPS) (@sanjivbhatt) July 25, 2018
A Google reverse image search and found out that the photo is digitally altered. In the original photograph, Hitler’s hands are on the little girl’s shoulders and is not pulling her ears. Meanwhile, Modi’s image was clicked by PTI news during his visit to Japan four years ago.
Reportedly, The Express.co.uk published a series of photographs of the Nazi leader in March 2017 titled, ‘Hitler as you have never seen’. When Boom Live contacted Spandana, she accepted the mistake and said she has retweeted the fact-check on the same which is acceptance of the mistake, however, the post continues to be active on Twitter.
Caught sharing photoshopped image before
This is not the first time that Divya Spandana has been accused of sharing information on social media without verifying. On April 17, she had tweeted a photoshopped image of a print advertisement in a newspaper. She posted the picture with the text, “‘The honesty is laughable.”
The honesty is laughable @BJP4Karnataka pic.twitter.com/o4jLRJr7tX
— Divya Spandana/Ramya (@divyaspandana) April 17, 2018
The photo has an image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President Amit Shah and BJP’s Chief Ministerial candidate for Karnataka B.S. Yeddyurappa with a line, ‘For a Corruption State.’ When Boom Live contacted her, Divya said that she shared the image even after knowing that it was fake, and it was meant to be treated as sarcasm.
The Logical Indian Take
During the election season, Indian social media is flooded with propaganda and false information. However, it is very worrisome to see people holding important places of power like Divya share fake news of this degree.
Creating or sharing fake news is never justified. We have a responsibility to verify everything that we post on the internet. To ensure that our national debate is healthy and well-informed, each and every one of us has a responsibility of treating what we read with a pinch of salt, a spoonful of doubt, and a flood of research.
Also Read: Fact Check: From A Fake Picture Of Rahul Gandhi To Comparison Between
