FACT CHECK: News report with communal overtone is fake
A newspaper clipping is going viral on social media. Users are claiming that Maulana Jafar Sheikh has said that Muslims should never trust Buddhists.
By Newsmeter Network Published on 17 July 2021 5:56 AM GMT
HYDERABAD: A newspaper clipping is going viral on social media. Users are claiming that Maulana Jafar Sheikh has said that Muslims should never trust Buddhists. Calling them traitors, users said Maulana has claimed that they commit theft and robberies at their workplaces.
FACT CHECK:
The news clipping is fake.
The nameplate of the viral clipping is partially visible. It closely resembles the name of the Hindi news organization `Navbharat Times'. However, the word "The" is not a part of the official name of the paper and the viral clipping does not resemble the style or masthead Navbharat Times. This clearly reflects that the viral clipping is not real.
NewsMeter then searched online for tools that generate newspaper clippings and found a tool called 'Fodey.com'. This website generates newspaper clippings where users can enter the name of the newspaper, date, headline, and story. It helps in creating a newspaper clipping. NewsMeter generated their own clipping too and noticed the similarities in the page color, font style, and size and dateline, etc.
The only catch here is that the website only changes the first two columns in the template. The text in the third column that is partially visible is always the same. This clearly shows that the viral clipping was a product of this website.
Evidently, the viral clipping is fake. It is a result of an online newspaper clipping generator tool.
