Fact-Check: This Photo of PM Modi With Rihanna is Altered

PM Narendra Modi and Rihanna never shared a stage, the viral image is digitally altered.

A viral photo featuring PM Narendra Modi and singer and artist, Rihanna sharing a stage is being shared on the internet. 

(Source: Twitter/Altered By The Quint)

A photo featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi and singer Rihanna has gone viral on social media, claiming that the two shared a stage at an event.

An archive of the post can be found here. 

(Source: Twitter/Screenshot) 

(Archives of similar claims can be found here, here, here and here.)

What is the truth?: The viral image has been edited to show Rihanna and PM Modi sharing a stage.

• Rihanna's photograph is from when she received the honour of Humanitarian Of The Year by the Harvard Foundation in 2017.

• PM Modi's photograph is from the Traders Convention held at the Talkatora Stadium in New Delhi in 2019.

How did we find out?: First, we cropped the picture and ran a reverse Google image search only on Rihanna.

• It led us to multiple news reports of the artist's felicitation as the Humanitarian Of The Year at Harvard University in the USA's Massachusetts in 2017.

• Next, we looked up "Rihanna Harvard" on the Getty Images website.

• We found out that the picture was taken by photographer Paul Marotta in 2017 at Harvard University's felicitation for Rihanna.

This picture was taken in 2017 when Rihanna was felicitated by the Harvard University as the Humanitarian Of The Year. 

(Source: Twitter/Getty Images/Altered by The Quint)

What about PM Modi's photo?: We then ran a reverse Google image search on PM Modi's side of the picture.

• We came across some news articles and photo stories that pointed to the Traders Convention at Talkatora Stadium in New Delhi in 2019.

• To find the source, we used keywords such as "PM Modi Traders Convention" on YouTube.

• It took us to a live stream of the Traders Convention at New Delhi's Talkatora Stadium, held on 19 April 2019 on the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) YouTube channel.

• PM Modi's outfit in the viral image and his outfit at the convention match and can be seen at the 17:11 timestamp in the livestream.

The red circles indicate the similarities in both the pictures. The original photo on the right features PM Narendra Modi and former Union Minister,Vijay Goel at the Traders Convention in 2019.

(Source: Twitter/YouTube/Altered by The Quint)

Conclusion: The viral image of PM Modi sharing the stage with singer Rihanna is altered. There is no evidence to support the claim that Rihanna and PM Modi have ever shared a stage at a public event.

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