Tweet on PM Modi by an Impostor Account of Neeraj Chopra Goes Viral

The tweet mentioned that Neeraj Chopra urged people to not give credit to PM Narendra Modi for the win.

Social media users fell for a tweet on Prime Minister Narendra Modi that was shared by an imposter account of Neeraj Chopra.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

As Neeraj Chopra won the Gold medal in the Javelin throw event on 7 August at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, a viral tweet apparently shared by him mentioned that he urged people to not give credit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the win.

However, the tweet had been shared by Chopra's imposter account '@i_m_nirajchopra' and that his official Twitter handle is '@Neeraj_chopra1.'

CLAIM

The viral tweet reads: 'ये गोल्ड मेडल मेरी और मेरे कोच की वर्षों मेहनत का नतीजा है। मोदी जी को इसका क्रेडिट देने की कोशिश ना करें'

(Translated: This gold medal is the result of years of hard work by me and my coach. Don't try to give credit to Modi ji.)

You can view the archived version here.

(Source: Facebook/ Screenshot)

The screenshot of the tweet saw its widespread presence on Facebook and the archived posts can be viewed here, here, and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

While the Twitter account of the user who shared the viral tweet doesn't exist anymore, however, we came across archives of the profile that carried the viral tweet. The archives can be viewed here and here.

The archive of the Twitter profile is available on archive.is.

(Source: Website/ Screenshot)

The official verified Twitter handle of Olympic gold medallist Neeraj Chopra is @Neeraj_chopra1.

Official handle of Neeraj Chopra.

(Source: Twitter/ Screenshot)

SEVERAL RED FLAGS SHOW VIRAL TWEET IS FROM IMPOSTER ACCOUNT

On comparing the official Twitter handle of Neeraj Chopra with the one that shared the viral tweet, we found several red flags, thereby suggested that the latter is an imposter account.

• Firstly, the imposter account is not a verified handle while the official one is.

• Secondly, '@i_m_nirajchopra' spells Neeraj Chopra's name incorrectly.

• Third, as per the official handle, Chopra joined Twitter in June 2017 whereas the imposter account joined Twitter in June 2021.

• Fourth, the official handle has over four lakh followers while the imposter one, as per the archive, had nearly 2,000 followers.

Left: Imposter account. Right: Official account.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Evidently, social media users fell for a tweet on Prime Minister Narendra Modi that was shared by an imposter account of Neeraj Chopra.

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