No, Giorgia Meloni Did Not Share Post Supporting Lakshadweep Over Maldives

This post is fake. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni did not post anything related to the India-Maldives row.

Fact-check: A fake post is going viral on social media to claim that Italian PM Giorgia Meloni came out in support of Lakshadweep over Maldives.

(Photo: The Quint)

A post purportedly shared by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni showing her support to Indian islands instead of the Maldives is going viral on the internet.

It reads, "Cancelled my trip to Maldives. Will prefer Lakshdweep or Andaman instead. #ExploreIndianIslands."

An archive can be seen here.

(Source: X/Screenshot)

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

So, what's the truth?: This viral image is altered and not real.

• Meloni did not post anything about the islands since the controversial row between India and the Maldives began.

How did we find out the truth?: We checked Meloni's official X (formerly Twitter) account and did not find any such post.

• The date stamp on the viral image mentions 7 January 2024. We found posts from that day on Meloni's account but none of them were about the islands.

• One of the post was about the Italian flag and the other one was about Christmas.

• Next, we checked a social media analytics website, Social Blade, which showed us that Meloni did not delete any of her posts from 5 January to 18 January 2024.

Meloni did not delete any posts on X.

(Source: Social Blade/Screenshot)

• We checked the archived versions of her page and did not find the viral post.

• Neither did we find any reports about Meloni showing her support to the Indian islands.

Conclusion: A fake post is going viral on social media to claim that Italian PM Giorgia Meloni came out in support of Lakshadweep over Maldives.

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