Barack Obama, Former US President, Did Not Snub PM Narendra Modi on Twitter Over Farmers' Protest; Fact-Check Debunks Fake News Spread Through Morphed Image

A morphed image is going viral on social media platforms, including Twitter and Facebook showing former US President Barack Obama criticising Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the farmers' protest against the recently enacted farm laws26. Those sharing the tweet claimed that Modi's policies towards farmers have been disapproved by the former head of the world's leading democracy. However, a fact-check has debunked the attempt to spread fake news. 'Canada Will Always Stand up For Right of Peaceful Protests', Says Justin Trudeau.

Claim: The morphed image shared on social media showed a Twitter post from Obama with an image of him shaking hands with PM Modi. Caption along with the morphed image read: "Today I am shamefull for a hand shake with this man...#NarendraModi (sic)." The viral image was shared several times with the #FarmersProtest2020.

See Tweet Below

Fact Check: Upon scrutinising the tweets of Obama, it was found that no post was made by him on the social media handle. No media outlet had covered such statements from him. Further, the caption used by the fake news mongers showed a misspelling (shamefull), and the overall sentence was gramatically unsound. Such a language would not be used by a former President.

To conclude, it is safe to say that the news is absolutely fake. Neither Obama nor any mainstream US politician has so far reacted to the farmer protests in India. Among world leaders, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has only issued a statement so far, saying that his country would always support the "right to peaceful protests".

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 17, 2020 09:30 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).