Fact Check: Fake Screenshot of BBC’s tweet on Dhirendra Shastri being given Z Plus security going viral
The screenshot of BBC’s tweet about Dhirendra Shastri of Bageshwar Dham getting Z+ security by the Centre is fake. It was posted by a Facebook page ‘OK Satire’.
- By Vishvas News
- Updated: January 26, 2023
New Delhi (Vishvas News): Dhirendra Krishna Shastri of Bageshwar Dham has been making a lot of headlines lately. A post about Dhirendra Shastri is going viral on social media in which it is claimed that the Centre has provided him with a Z+ Security cover and 25 commandos will accompany him. The viral post has the logo of BBC News Hindi and also mentions that the United Nations has also praised the Modi government for this move.
Vishvas News in its investigation found that the screenshot going viral on social media is fake. Neither BBC has made any such tweet nor has the Central Government made any such announcement yet. This screenshot was posted by a satire page, which is now shared by users.
Claim
Facebook user Mohit Mishra shared the screenshot on January 23. Along with pictures of Dhirendra Shastri and Shyam Manav, the caption of the post reads,
विवादों में फंसे धीरेंद्र शास्त्री के लिए मोदी सरकार ने Z+ सिक्योरिटी ।
25 कमांडोज के साथ रहेंगे धीरेंद्र शास्त्री,
UN ने भी कहा-मोदी सरकार ने किया सही काम , विरोध कने वाले @ShyamManav पर इंटरपोल ने दर्ज किया मुकदमा
(Modi government has given Z+ security for controversial Dhirendra Shastri. Dhirendra Shastri will be with 25 commandos. UN also said – Modi government did the right thing, Interpol filed a case against protester @ShyamManav.)
Investigation
To verify the viral claim, we first searched relevant keywords related to the claim that Dhirendra Shastri has been given Z+ security cover. A news report by Dainik Jagran, published on January 24, stated that Dhirendra Shastri is getting death threats over the phone and the Raipur police have registered a case based on his complaint. The news report also stated that Shyam Manav, who challenged Dhirendra Shastri and belongs to Manav Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti, has also received similar threats. However, no mention of Z+ security being given to Dhirendra Shastri was there in the news report.
As per a news report published in LiveHindustan on January 24, people have been making the demand to provide security to Dhirendra Shastri. Congress leader Amit Srivastava has also requested Union Home Minister Amit Shah to provide Y+ security cover to Dhirendra Shastri.
A news report by Dainik Bhaskar, published on January 25, stated that Dhirendra Shastri returned to Bageshwar Dham on January 24 after receiving death threats and his security has been increased. However, we could not find any mention of Z+ security in the news report.
We also searched the claim of Shyam Manav being booked by Interpol with keywords on Google but did not find any news that could confirm the claim. We could not find any such information on the Interpol website as well.
Vishvas News team also cannot find any such news which can confirm that the UN has appreciated the Modi government for providing Z+ Security cover to Dhirendra Shastri. We could not find any such press release on the United Nations website as well.
We then investigated the viral screenshot of the BBC’s tweet and found some grave mistakes in it. When looked carefully, it was found that the first sentence of the written text is not complete.
After carefully searching the Twitter handle of BBC News Hindi, we found that the logo of the official Twitter handle and the logo of the viral screenshot are different. Also, the colour of the tick mark is orange, while the tick mark in the viral screenshot is blue.
On searching further, we found that the viral screenshot was first shared on the Facebook page ‘OK Satire‘ on January 21.
The profile of the ‘OK Satire‘ page reads, “Parody Tweets That Seems Real”. We also found several other screenshots with the BBC logo. In these screenshots, only the matter and date are different but the number of likes and retweets remain the same.
For further confirmation, we contacted Mukesh Sharma, Digital Head, BBC Hindi, and sent him the viral screenshot. Mukesh Sharma called the viral screenshot ‘fake‘.
We scanned the profile of Facebook user ‘Mohit Mishra‘ who shared the fake screenshot and found that he is a resident of Ahmedabad. He has 14,700 friends and is driven by an ideology.
Conclusion: The screenshot of BBC’s tweet about Dhirendra Shastri of Bageshwar Dham getting Z+ security by the Centre is fake. It was posted by a Facebook page ‘OK Satire’.