From misinformation around the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) IT cell head Amit Malviya dubbing a real video of BJP Azamgarh candidate as "deepfake", here are our top five fact-check stories from this week.
1. No, BJP Is Not the Only Party Contesting for Majority in 2024 Lok Sabha Polls
A post is doing the rounds on social media that only the BJP is contesting for an absolute majority in the general elections. This, in turn, means that BJP has fielded candidates for more than or equal to 273 seats in the Parliament.
The viral post also carried supposed numbers that the parties are contesting on, which can be found below.
Congress is contesting from 230 seats.
Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena faction (Shiv Sena - UBT) is contesting from 19 seats.
Samajwadi Party (SP) is contesting from 37 seats.
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) is contesting from 20 seats.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) is contesting from 23 seats.
However, we found that none of the numbers mentioned in the viral post were accurate. It should be noted that Congress is contesting from more than 273 Lok Sabha constituencies.
Read the full story here.
2. Amit Malviya Calls Real Video of BJP’s Dinesh Lal Yadav’s Byte a ‘Deepfake'
A short video byte of BJP MP and candidate from Azamgarh, Dinesh Lal Yadav 'Nirahua', went viral after it was shared by Congress linked accounts.
The clip showed Yadav expressing his stance on the rising unemployment in the country.
The BJP leader further connected childbirth with unemployment and commented how Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath have stopped unemployment by not having children.
Following this, BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya called the video "fake" and dubbed it as a "deepfake".
Team WebQoof passed the video through AI detection tools but did not find any evidence to prove that it was a deepfake.
Further, we reached out to journalist Santosh Kushwaha, who published the video on his YouTube channel.
He confirmed that the viral video was real and was shot on 13 April in Azamgarh.
Read our fact-check here.
3. Manipulated Video Shared to Claim Rahul Gandhi Resigned From Congress
Social media users shared a video of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi claiming that it showed him resigning from the party ahead of the Lok Sabha Elections.
In the video, Gandhi could be heard saying, "I, Rahul Gandhi, hereby resign from the Congress party. I can no longer pretend to be Hindu for the sake of elections. After the 'Nyay Yatra', I released the 'Nyay Patra' as well, but Modiji is sending corrupt people to jail. This Modi Raj (rule), will send us corrupt people to jail, too, so I am going to my maternal grandfather's house in Italy."
However, we found that the video was manipulated to include audio that is likely generated using Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools.
Read the full story here.
4. Does This Clip Show People Raising Pak Flags in Telangana Under Congress’ Rule?
Media organisation Asianet News shared a video, which showed several people raising green flag on a congested street, as a recent incident from Telangana's Hyderabad.
The video was shared on Facebook with a caption that said, "Video: Pakistani love showed in Hyderabad under Congress rule, people hoisted neighboring country's flags."
Team WebQoof found that video dated back to October 2023, which was before Congress came into power in Telangana. Moreover, people were seen raising Islamic flags and not Pakistani national flags.
Read our fact-check here.
5. Does This Video Show Iranian Drones Being Intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome? No!
However, we found that the video could be traced back to October 2023 and was unrelated to the recent Iran-Israel armed conflict.
Read the full story here.
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