A claim is doing the rounds on social media stating that Delhi cabinet ministers Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj have unfollowed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on X (formerly Twitter).
What have users said?: An X premium user 'Abhijit Iyer-Mitra' shared screenshots of a tool that purportedly showed Atishi and Bharadwaj not following Kejriwal on the platform.
(Swipe right to view all claims.)
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Source: X /Screenshot)
What did we find out?: On checking the 'following list' of Atishi and Bharadwaj, we found that they were indeed following Kejriwal on X.
Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Chief Media Coordinator Vikas Yogi denied the viral claims and said that both the ministers are following Kejriwal on the platform.
Is Bharadwaj following Kejriwal?: Using the help of a Google Chrome extension named 'TwExport', we were able to access the list of people that Bharadwaj follow on X.
Towards the end of the list, we found Kejriwal's name which indicated that he was indeed being followed by Bharadwaj.
Bharadwaj clarified on X: He dismissed the viral claim on his official handle and said that he and Kejriwal follow each other on the platform. Along with this, Bharadwaj shared an image showing Kejriwal's name under the former's following list.
Is Atishi following Kejriwal as well?: We used the help of an online tool named 'Phantom Buster' to scrape the names of people that are followed by Atishi on X.
After going through the entire list, we found that Kejriwal's name in Atishi's following list.
AAP's chief media coordinator clarified: Yogi, on his official X handle, said that both ministers follow Kejriwal on the platform. He asked people to "beware of fake news being peddled by the BJP IT Cell Ecosystem."
Yogi's post also carried screenshots that showed Marlena and Bharadwaj following the chief minister.
Did the leaders' following numbers change?: On checking Atishi and Bharadwaj's profile on Social Blade, an analytical tool, we found that they have not unfollowed any user from 20 March to 2 April.
(Swipe right to view all screenshots.)
Atishi has not unfollowed anyone recently.
(Source: Social Blade/Screenshot)
What about the tool showed in viral claim?: Team WebQoof checked the tool to figure out the authenticity of the claim. However, we found that it was not showing the accurate results.
When we asked the tool if WebQoof's X handle follows The Quint's X account, the result came out to be negative.
In reality, both the accounts follow each other on the platform.
Conclusion: It is clear that a false claim about Bharadwaj unfollowing Kejriwal on X is going viral.
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