A screenshot of a tweet purportedly of the verified Twitter username of former US President Barack Obama is being shared to smear Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The tweet carries a photo of Obama and Modi shaking hands and posing for the camera. According to the text that accompanies the image, Obama allegedly tweets that he is ashamed to have shaken Modi’s hand.
The screenshot is shared on social media platforms.
Obama tells people I’m ashamed to shake hands with this man kutta modi https://t.co/l6iTrzxwkA
– Bhupinderpal Singh (@ Bhupind30951258) 1607398742000
TRUTH
The tweet is fake and digitally manufactured. Obama made no such comments about Modi.
VERIFICATION AND METHODOLOGY
According to the screenshot, the tweet was made on December 5. We reviewed the tweets posted by Obama’s verified identifier on December 5 and found no such tweet.
Also, when using the ‘Advanced Search’ setting on Twitter, we use keywords from the previous tweet to check if Obama made such a tweet on any date. The result did not produce any such tweet.
If Obama had made such a comment about Modi, it would have made international news. But when using the simple keyword search, we did not find reliable and credible media reports about it.
VERDICT
Times Fact Check discovered that a fake and digitally fabricated tweet is attributed to Obama for falsely claiming that he is ashamed of Prime Minister Modi.
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