The entire country is abuzz with election fever. Several phases of voting have already taken place, and the final phase of voting is on June 1. The election results will be announced on June 4. Meanwhile, from the streets to social media, there are attempts to influence voters’ opinions through fake information. Misinformation and deceptive information are not only harmful to society but also dangerous for democracy, especially when such information surfaces during elections.
Today, we discuss two fake news stories that went viral during the elections.
First, we discuss a viral video on social media in which Rahul Gandhi is allegedly seen predicting the re-election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. People sharing this post claim that Rahul Gandhi has conceded defeat before the election results.
Fact-checkers investigated this claim and found the video to be edited. Listening to the full speech available on the official YouTube channel of Congress reveals that Rahul Gandhi predicted the defeat of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, not his victory. This video has been edited and circulated with false claims.
In this context, another video is viral on social media, purportedly showing PM Modi saying that people in Telangana will vote for AIMIM. This viral post claims that PM Modi, in his speech, appealed to the public to vote for AIMIM.
This claim was found to be false upon investigation. The complete video of this speech was uploaded on PM Modi’s YouTube channel on May 10. Listening to the full video reveals that he asked people to vote for BJP, not AIMIM, which was edited to say AIMIM.