Fact Check: PM Modi did not announce lockdown to combat third COVID wave
A video claiming that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced a countrywide lockdown in view of the third wave, is viral on social media.
By Tejal Sinha Published on 2 July 2021 3:49 PM IST
Hyderabad: A video claiming that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced a countrywide lockdown in view of the third wave, is viral on social media.
(Click here for an archive)
Fact Check
The claim is False.
When we clicked on the video and saw the video carefully, we found it had news related to Delta, Beta, and Gamma variants. In the thumbnail, it was mentioned that the prime minister has announced a complete lockdown in the country. However, we did not find any such announcement in the video.
NewsMeter then performed a Google Reverse Image Search. However, we did not find any such video or any such breaking plate about the lockdown. Through the Google Reverse Image Search, we did find many pictures of the prime minister.
A similar picture led us to a report by The News titled: "Countries supporting terrorists need to be held guilty: PM Modi at BRICS summit."
http://www.thenewsnow.co.in/
We then noticed that the thumbnail had the mention of News 24. However, when we played the video, the name of the channel was masked by a square box inscribed with Breaking News.
The news presenter in the viral video was Nishanth Chaturvedi. He is senior executive editor at Tv9 Bharatvarsh. However, the logo of News24 was used in the thumbnail of the viral video.
After watching the full video, we came to know that this video has been made by combining different news videos of TV 9 Bharatvarsh. Using all these shots, a forged video was cut with the News24 logo.
Several lines were also added separately. We also noticed the ad strip being presented in the bottom of the video related to the news update.
The ad strip had nowhere mentioned the name of the news channel. In fact, the name of the news channel was concealed.
During the investigation, we found news on the YouTube channel of TV9 Bharatvarsh on June 29, 2021. The video had the same clips.
We then found a report by Jagran on July 1, 2021, which stated that the pace of the second wave of corona epidemic in the country has now slowed down. Now less than 50 thousand cases of corona are being reported in the country every day and less than 1000 deaths are taking place. Lockdown has been relaxed in most of the states. There are still many states where restrictions are still in place. Let us know which states of the country have decided to relax lockdown.
We lastly tried to search for any reports to prove the viral claim. However, we could not find anything.
It is therefore evident that the prime minister had not announced any lockdown in view of the third wave. The viral video has been edited.
