With the fake news menace on the rise with a single click having the ability to make them viral, a tweet yet again left people confused. Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi on Tuesday posted a photograph of herself with a small boy, tweeting that the child walked up to her claiming to be a fan who has watched her debates.
Within a few hours, a Twitter handle called Amar K. (@Iamnot_Immortal) wrote that this child was his nephew and he had sent him to ask Chaturvedi some questions. He further wrote that Chaturvedi failed to answer the questions. His tweet received 4,000 retweets.
OMG!He is my nephew. I send him to ask some questions to you, which you failed to answer.Don’t know you will use his image to build your fake fan base. Shame. https://t.co/nZJDG16thu
— Chowkidar Amar (@Iamnot_Immortal) January 14, 2019
Quote-tweeting the claim, Director Vivek Agnihotri asked Chaturvedi if it is true.
Hey @priyankac19 Is this true? pic.twitter.com/Mihw2Lw0dF
— Vivek Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) January 16, 2019
Further, Amar K tweeted that his nephew did not even know what INC is and what it was an educational institution. He said that Chaturvedi used the boy’s image for influencing new voters.
https://twitter.com/Indiaaakash/status/1085104561038245888?
Fake news
Three days after Amar K’s viral tweet, there was a tweet from another man, Raghvendra R Shukla, claiming that the news is false and that the boy is part of his family.
Talking to Alt News, Shukla said that a trustee at Siddhivinayak, who is also a part of the Congress, is acquainted with him and had informed him of Chaturvedi’s visit, because of which he arranged to come and see her. The child is actually Shukla’s nephew, and Shukla is also a part of the Congress.
यह अमर लखनऊ का मोदी फोल्लोर है।जूठा है ना अंश मामा है ना काका।अंश हमारे परिवार का है।और अंश प्रियंका जी का फैन है। @priyankac19 @priyankabc1 pic.twitter.com/6n7s85YXA8
— Raghvendra R Shukla (@Raghvendra_inc) January 16, 2019
The child came to Siddhivinayak with his family and it was his uncle, Vikas Shukla, who introduced him to Chaturvedi. The boy comes from a family of INC karyakartas and had grown up watching political debates. The boy’s father, JP Tiwari, also denied that Amar K is a member of their family.
“The child came and said that he is a fan of me and he watches my debates so wanted a picture with me. That was all that happened and my own family is a witness to it. From what I hear, the person who called himself the boy’s nephew is not even a relative, let alone a family member,” Chaturvedi said when contacted.
Among the people who made the tweet viral were Paresh Rawal, Rishi Bagree, Bhaiyyaji, Maithun and Vikas Pandey. In an earlier incident too, Chaturvedi and her daughter had received death and rape threats following a fake quote being attributed to her.
The Logical Indian take
As citizens of the country, we have a certain responsibility. While trolls and parody accounts have taken the responsibility upon themselves to share as much false information as possible, it is our responsibility to differentiate between what is true and what isn’t, while making others aware about the issue too
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: Are Hindus Getting Attacked In Pakistan? No, It’s A Fake Claim
