From claims of a viral video showing actor Sushant Singh Rajput dancing with his niece to the release of the sequel to ‘Plandemic’, making false claims and propagating conspiracy theories, here’s a quick round-up of all that misled the public this week.
1. That’s Not Sushant’s Niece in Viral Video; AajTak, TOI Misreport
A viral video showing Sushant Singh Rajput dancing to Madhuri Dixit’s song ‘Chane Ke Khet Mein’ has been doing the rounds on social media with the claim that the woman in the video is his niece.
AajTak's Hindi news executive editor, Anjana Om Kashyap, shared the video with a similar narrative.
It was also reported by news outlets like Times, Now, The Times of India and Aaj Tak.
However, the video is actually from 2017, of Sushant Singh Rajput dancing with choreographer Manpreet Toor and not his niece.
You can read the full story here.
2. Plandemic 2: A Less Viral But Equally Misleading Sequel
‘Plandemic: Indoctornation’ is the 75-minute long sequel to the wildly viral original video titled ‘Plandemic’ that released in May 2020 and sent fact-checkers into a tizzy keeping up with the conspiracy theories spouted by it.
Given that the first video gathered more than 8 million views across YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram within a week of its release, the sequel hasn’t gone as viral.
But it still traces the steps of its predecessor in making false claims and propagating conspiracy theories about – coronavirus, vaccines, Dr Anthony Fauci, Bill Gates, media and fact-checkers and even Google as a search engine.
With Facebook blocking access to the link of the video and Twitter limiting the reach, most of the video’s popularity seems to have been driven by a website called London Reach which livestreamed the premiere of the film on Tuesday, 18 August.
But the video remains available online freely and having viewed it, here’s our breakdown of some of the baseless claims it makes.
3. COVID-19 Is Bad Enough, Fake News Is Making It Worse and Deadlier
In early April, 12 people in a village in Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor district fell seriously ill and had to be hospitalised after they drank juice made of Datura seeds, believing a TikTok video, which claimed it will protect them from COVID-19.
In another incident, a pharmacist died after he drank a chemical preparation, which he thought would cure coronavirus.
That’s how fatal a forwarded WhatsApp message or a post on social media can be!
According to a study published in The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, at least 800 people have died globally and over 5,800 people have been hospitalised due to unproven, unscientific claims of COVID cures and prevention.
Doctors say that these messages create a false sense of security and can be dangerous.
Speaking to The Quint, Dr Sumit Ray, Head of Department, Critical Care Medicine at Holy Family Hospital said that these messages may or may not harm an individual but they can prompt a person to not follow the measures which will actually protect them.
You can read the full story here.
4. Gunjan Saxena Isn’t a Shaurya Chakra Awardee, Nor Did She Claim So
Now, Several news websites and social media users are claiming that Flight Lieutenant Saxena is a Shaurya Chakra awardee which is not true. Gunjan Saxena never won the Shaurya Chakra but after the Kargil war, she received the "Shaurya Veer" award from a civilian organisation in Uttar Pradesh.
We searched on the Gallantry Awards Website by the Ministry of Defence and found no record of Flight Lieutenant Gunjan Saxena having won the award.
Further, in a blog on NDTV, Saxena herself mentioned that she never claimed that she was a Shaurya Chakra Awardee.
“After Kargil, I received the ‘Shaurya Veer’ award from a civilian organisation in Uttar Pradesh. A certain section of the internet news possibly turned Veer into Chakra.”Flight Lieutenant Gunjan Saxena
You can read the full story here.
5. Old Incident of Lord Krishna’s Derogatory Painting Shared as New
A photo of a painting by an Assam-based Muslim artist showing Hindu deity Lord Krishna surrounded by women in bikinis is going viral with a misleading claim that the it is being displayed at the State Art Gallery in Guwahati.
However, we found that this incident of the painting being displayed is from 2015 and the painting is no longer on display.
We came across a report from 2015 by The Indian Express, which spoke about the incident in question.
Speaking to the paper, Guwahati Police DCP Amitabh Sinha had then said, “Yes, we have registered a case on the basis of an FIR lodged by the Hindu Jagaran Mancha on Friday in which the organisation has complained that the artist, one Akram Hussain, had depicted Krishna in an offensive manner.”
The report also said that the painting had been removed and the artist had also apologised.
You can read the full story here.
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