Fact Check: Did Hindustan Times report that `PM Modi is missing'?
A front page of the Hindustan Times is going viral on social media.
By Tejal Sinha Published on 30 Jun 2021 7:03 AM GMT
Hyderabad: A front page of the Hindustan Times is going viral on social media.
It includes a classified advertisement of PM Modi being "missing". The text of the clipping reads: "MISSING The PM of India, also known as son of Ganga. Also known as Pradhan Sewak. Description- Chest 56-inch White long grey beard. Is known to be seen in the company of big businessmen. Loves peacocks (sic)."
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Fact Check
The screenshot of the front page with the classified advertisement of the Prime minister being 'Missing' is a hoax.
Since the viral newspaper clipping claims to be of Hindustan Times, NewsMeter tried to search for the epaper. With the help of the other headlines in the screenshot, we found that the screenshot of page 1 is from May 07, 2021.
https://epaper.hindustantimes.
(Image of the Original Hindustan Times page 1 on May 07, 2021)
The viral image of page 1 neither had the social media handles of Hindustan Times, price, number of pages on the top left nor the date and place of the publication. We did not see any advertisement related to PM Modi anywhere in the original e-paper. It was replaced by a report titled "COURT A PUBLIC SPACE, COVERAGE PART OF FREEDOM OF SPEECH, SAYS SC".
We then compared the missing advertisement in the viral screenshot of page 1 and the original article on page 1 of the original screenshot.
It was therefore evident that the viral screenshot of the Hindustan Times Page 1 is edited. No such advertisement was published in the Hindustan Times.
