Obama ‘Ashamed of Shaking Hands With PM Modi’ Tweet is Not Real

The viral screenshot contained a morphed tweet falsely attributed to President Obama.

The screenshot containing a morphed tweet of President Obama was widely shared on Facebook and Twitter.

(Photo: The Quint)

A morphed screenshot of a tweet posted by former US President Barack Obama has gone viral, claiming that he is “ashamed of shaking hands with Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.

CLAIM

The viral screenshot shows a photograph of President Obama and PM Modi shaking hands and a caption saying, “Today I am shamefull for a hand shake with this man... #Narendra Modi [sic]”.

The screenshot was widely shared on Facebook and Twitter.

The link to the search results can be found here.

An archive of the post can be found here.

An archive of the post can be found here.

An archive of the post can be found here.

An archive of the post can be found here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We went through President Obama’s Twitter feed and didn’t see the viral tweet on it. We also noticed some errors in the tweet that raised a red flag.

1. LANGUAGE OF TWEET

The language of the tweet was the first clue that it might have been an edited tweet. The one-line tweet had both grammatical and spelling errors. The words “shameful” and handshake were spelt incorrectly as “shamefull” and “hand shake”. The sentence structure was also not right.

An archive of the post can be found here.

2. WRONG SHARE BUTTON

We then analysed the viral tweet with a real tweet on Obama’s feed. While comparing the viral tweet with the website version of Twitter, we noticed that the “share” button was different. It could not have been a screenshot of the Tweetdeck view either, as the “share” button does not show up in the Tweetdeck view.

Comparison of viral tweet and real tweets on desktop and Tweetdeck view.

In the Tweetdeck view, the gap between interactions was less as compared to the viral tweet.

3. ALIGNMENT OF TEXT AND IMAGES

While comparing the viral tweet with a real tweet in different views, we noticed that the alignment of the text, image and the interaction was not as it is supposed to be.

Here’s a detailed comparison of the tweets in four views – website, Tweetdeck, mobile and Twitter application.

Comparison of viral tweet and Twitter website.

When an image is shared on Twitter, it is aligned with the text of the tweet. However, in the viral tweet, the image was not aligned with the text. Similarly, the alignment of the interactions was also not correct when compared with a real tweet.

Comparison of viral tweet and Tweetdeck view.

Comparison of viral tweet and mobile application.

Comparison of viral tweet and mobile view.

Evidently, the viral image of President Obama’s tweet is morphed and was shared to create a false narrative.

(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9643651818, or e-mail it to us at [e-mail] and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)