Fact Check: Image from Spain shared as that of Chennai Super Kings and Dhoni fans, viral claim false

New Delhi (Vishvas News): A picture of a massive crowd is going viral on social media with the claim that the people in the picture are fans of cricket great Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who is the captain of IPL cricket team Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Vishvas News fact-checked the viral post and found the claim to be wrong. The picture proved to be of Gran Canaria in Spain. Indian users have been sharing the picture claiming the crowd gathered in support of Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Claim:

Facebook page ‘Garv Se Kaho Hum Hindu Hai‘ posted a picture saying, “People are more crazy about Dhoni than the match.”

Other users have also shared the viral post believing it to be real. The content of the post is written here as it is. View the archived version of the post here.

Investigation:

Vishvas News first used the Google Reverse Image search tool to find out the truth behind the viral picture attributed to Dhoni’s fans. During the search, the image was found to have been shared by users in India. This picture has gone viral from Facebook to Twitter. On continuing the search, we found the original picture on a website called marca.com. Vishvas News used Google translator to translate the caption of the picture. From this we came to know that the viral picture is actually from Gran Canaria. It is an island of Spain.

During the search, this picture was also found on Twitter handle ‘EEE Deports’, which is a Spanish news agency. In its tweet, the picture was said to be of thousands of fans gathered outside the Gran Canaria stadium to welcome the UD Las Palmas team.

https://twitter.com/EFEdeportes/status/1662523769238216704

Vishvas News further contacted Dainik Jagran’s Sports Editor Abhishek Tripathi and shared the viral picture with him. He said this picture has nothing to do with the fans of Mahendra Singh Dhoni or Chennai Super Kings. This is a picture from abroad, he confirmed.

Next we scanned the profile of the user who made the picture of foreign country viral. The Facebook page ‘Garv Se Kaho Hum Hindu Hai’ is operated from Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh and is followed by 4,800 people.